There is general agreement across the political spectrum and throughout education in Scotland that ways must be found to enable more bright school leavers from poor backgrounds to go to university, especially the ancient universities which have a higher proportion of students from fee-paying schools.
Widening access has been a cornerstone of higher education policy for well over two decades. The latest move in this process is the Scottish Government's plan to place a statutory duty on universities to seek out talented pupils from schools who routinely send few pupils to higher education, with fines for those which do not meet the targets on widening access. It is a shot across the bows of the ancient universities, particularly Edinburgh and St Andrews, which still have a high proportion of students from privileged backgrounds and have struggled to increase the number from deprived corners of Scotland.
Universities Scotland, the body representing the principals, has replied with a challenge to the Education Secretary, Michael Russell, to ensure the school system enables children from more difficult backgrounds realise their full potential so they can meet the admissions criteria for the most demanding universities.
Both have right on their sides. Scottish universities have long recognised they have a moral duty to provide higher education irrespective of students' background.
One of the thorniest problems facing university principals, however, is how to take account of the extra hurdles faced by pupils in schools where very few go on to university without increasing the drop-out rate because they have too far to catch up with their peers.
The Scottish Government is right to demand that further progress is made to widen access not only to provide equality of opportunity but because if Scotland is to maintain its place in the global, knowledge-based economy, it must maximise the educational potential of all its citizens.
Provided the targets for widening university access are realistic, they could accelerate a change that all parties agree is desirable. The anger and disappointment of the student bodies at St Andrews, Edinburgh and Aberdeen at their institutions' hostility to the targets is laudable. It demonstrates an awareness of their own privilege and a keenness to put right a grievous flaw in the university system.
Fines for those which fail to meet the targets, however, risks replacing one damaging approach with another. There is already a worryingly high drop-out rate of students from more deprived areas across all universities. On this evidence, what is required is more support for the summer schools for school pupils and extra tuition for students with less advanced qualifications some ancient universities are already providing.
A government committed to maintaining world-class universities open to all with ability should fund the extension of such positive moves before threatening fines.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article