Students win as Edinburgh triples bursary funding

Reporter

Monday 29 October 2012

RECORD numbers of students are benefiting from bursaries provided by Edinburgh University after it tripled its funding for the awards.

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VICTORIA WELDON

More than £2.5 million has been given to undergraduates from low income families this session – an increase of £1.7m on the previous year.

The funding will help more than 1000 students, including new undergraduates from England, Wales and Northern Ireland who are now liable for tuition fees of £9000.

The awards, ranging from £500 to £7000 a year, have been awarded to students who have a family income below £16,000.Professor May Bownes, senior vice-principal of external engagement at the university, said: "We have a long tradition of supporting students of all ages and backgrounds to enter higher education and we remain committed to this continuing."Students with academic ability and potential should be able to gain admission and succeed at university whatever their circumstances. We wish all our bursary recipients every success in their studies."The bursary figures came as it was revealed that increasing numbers of university students in Scotland are achieving a first or a 2:1 degree.Around 70% of students in Scotland leave university with the upper-class degrees, compared with 64% a decade ago and 56% in 1994, the earliest year numbers were recorded.The figures support claims that university degrees are being devalued by the same sort of "grade inflation" which has seen school exam results improve year on year. It has led to calls for the degree classification system to be scrapped.Carl Gilleard, chief executive of the Association of Graduate Recruiters, said employers are being forced to look at other ways of evaluating graduates to separate the "wheat from the chaff" as the system is no longer "fit for purpose".He added: "There is a growing recognition that the degree classification system is a blunt instrument and as a way of differentiating between people, it is becoming less meaningful. You also can't measure one 2:1 against another."Professor Nigel Seaton, principal of Abertay University in Dundee, added: "The degree classification system misses a lot of the richness of what a student does at university."

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Students win as Edinburgh triples bursary funding

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