STUDENTS are being offered free accommodation as universities move to attract more students from deprived areas.

The Aberdeen University offer applies to students who have a postcode officially deemed as among the most deprived 20 per cent in the country.

It promises applicants a free year in halls of residence, which usually costs between £3,861 and £5,733.

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Aberdeen hopes it will lure enough students to allow it to hit Scottish Government targets which demand that universities have 10 per cent of new undergraduates from areas classed as disadvantaged by 2021 in what was a described as a higher education "arms race", The Times reported.

The Herald: Aberdeen University, founded in 1495, is Scotland’s third oldest university and the fifth oldest in the English speaking world

However, experts raised concerns about the "crude" eligibility criteria, based on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), as tens of thousands of people in poverty do not live in the most deprived postcode areas while others, from middle-class families, do.

Lucy Hunter Blackburn, a researcher at the Edinburgh University and former head of higher education at the Scottish Government, said the scheme could disadvantage poorer students from rural areas as they are unlikely to be officially classed as being from a deprived area.

She said: "The idea that you offer targeted, free accommodation to some students is clearly worth looking at; that principle is very easy to defend. But SIMD is such a crude measure to use."

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Universities are under intense pressure to meet targets based on the criteria and have been threatened with fines, expected to be in the form of funding penalties, if they do not succeed.

Edinburgh University has introduced a £3,000 bursary for those from the poorest postcode areas, although unlike Aberdeen, it also takes into account family income levels.

A spokesman for Aberdeen University said the scheme would encourage those who might otherwise struggle to afford to move away from home to enjoy "a fuller university experience" and save up for later years of study.

However, he admitted the government targets were also a factor.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: "We welcome innovative ideas and we are interested to see if they translate into positive results."