UNIVERSITIES across Scotland are to lower the grades required to get a place on courses for school pupils living in deprived areas.
The “contextualised admissions” procedure is part of a major overhaul of the country’s higher education sector in a bid to widen access.
Scotland’s 19 higher education institutions are to take on 15 different recommendations made by the Working to Widen Access report by Professor Sally Mapstone, principal and vice-chancellor of the University of St Andrews.
Other proposals include making it easier for students to move from college directly to university courses and guaranteed offers for care-experienced applicants who meet minimum entry requirements.
Ministers have told universities that they must recruit a fifth of all their students from deprived backgrounds by 2030.
Prof Mapstone said: “Scotland is taking a big step forward with contextualised admissions in a concerted bid to widen access at a faster rate.
“Universities will set minimum entry requirements for all courses: we will be very clear to whom this applies, and we will use consistent, user-friendly language to describe the process.
“We want to ensure that all potential applicants from disadvantaged and non-traditional backgrounds understand that they are welcome, supported and belong at the heart of our universities.
“We are confident that making these changes will help more prospective students, and their advisers, to realise that opportunities are there, within touching distance.
“The reforms to admissions, combined with the new action we intend to take with schools and colleges, will tackle the challenge of widening access from many angles. There is a lot to do but it is very encouraging to see momentum build behind this programme of work.”
Greater “clarity and consistency” is also to be used in the terms and language that universities use when it comes to widening access.
Professor Andrea Nolan, convener of Universities Scotland, said: “There is a will and a shared commitment amongst principals to push beyond what we have already been doing to widen access, to work with the latest evidence and respond with new ways of doing things.
“I believe our actions hold the key elements that will make a real difference.
“Student recruitment is typically an area of intense competition between universities. Taking action to join up, agree a shared language and achieve more consistency in our admissions processes shows that we are serious.”
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