IT’S the data the Scottish Government needs to work out how much it’ll cost to put SQA row students through college and university.

But it hasn’t yet been delivered – because Ucas, the UK-wide agency that compiles entry data, has done the sums for England before Scotland.

That’s despite the fact that Scotland’s exam results day came before England’s A-Levels were declared.

The difference is so marked that deputy first minister John Swinney had announced the SQA U-turn for Higher grades before the England’s algorithm problem had even emerged.

An education source told the Sunday National: “This is what happens when you’re in a union like this – they prioritise the biggest number of people first.”

Addressing the Scottish Parliament on August 11, Swinney apologised for the moderation system that saw estimated results downgraded for around 75,000 young people.

That development had emerged seven days earlier on August 4, sparking unprecedented protests from pupils and parents and calls for a complete review of the system.

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A-Level grades were then delivered on August 13, with English Education Secretary Gavin Williamson holding out against a U-turn over the 40% downgrading there until August 17.

Ucas has now delivered an initial analysis of those marks and confirmed that 15,000 young people who had been rejected by their original firm choice university now make the grade. Nine out of 10 of these students have their sights set on a prestigious “higher tariff” institution. These include sites like Birmingham, Cardiff and Edinburgh universities. It’s also known that 7% of this group are from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Clare Marchant, chief executive of Ucas, said the analysis had been “rapidly produced” to “provide the education sector with insight into the overall picture and to enable support to be directed quickly to the students who need it the most”.

But although it indicated it would set out Scotland’s stats on Friday, it failed to do so.

The Scottish Government has pledged that the exam row will not cost any learners here the chance to enter on to the course they want, including in tightly-controlled subjects like medicine.

Higher Education Minister Richard Lochhead has committed to “fully funding” all additional places that must be created to cater for this need.

But a Holyrood source told this newspaper it still doesn’t have the data needed to say how much this will cost or how many of the upgraded students come from worse-off households. That’s despite efforts by ministers to increase access to higher and further education to those from disadvantaged communities.

And it’s despite the imminent return of some centres, with term beginning as early as tomorrow in some colleges.

While it’s understood that this will not prevent any young people taking up a place, course providers are waiting to find out what they can expect as they also try to restart lectures in a time of coronavirus.

It’s understood that the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), which pays out the cash needed to cover course costs, will tell institutions how it expects to manage the process early next week, pending sign-off by ministers. An education source said “bits are starting to fall into place” after a “slow start”.

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Alastair Sim, director of umbrella body Universities Scotland, said: “We still don’t have a sense, at a Scotland-level, of what sort of additional numbers into university we are looking at because of the grades reversal and that’s because there are a lot of moving parts, based on school-leavers’ individual decisions, and we’re in a completely unprecedented and sudden situation, where this data need was not anticipated. We’re working closely with various agencies to try and quantify the scale of this, which will be crucial to determining the cost of the commitment and to working through the detail.

“We’re working closely with government to put learners first and we expect more operational details from government early next week to empower universities to make admissions decisions informed by an understanding of how far government can expand in the controlled subjects like medicine, teaching and other health subjects.

“Realistically, the additional funding resulting from this policy change will be allocated to institutions in-year.

"It doesn’t affect students at all that the university funding won’t be in place for the start of term but universities need as much certainty as they can get from government, early next week, on the mechanics of how this will work.”

He went on: “It’s challenging to manage an unplanned expansion whilst at the same time ensuring a safe start to the academic year with physical distancing and a whole host of Covid-safe measures in place to protect students, staff and wider communities.

“The real challenge comes with the need to ensure availability of clinical and other placements, which are largely determined by the NHS and local authorities, as well as one-on-one time with lecturers and support staff.

"The blended start to the academic year will help with this and universities are putting learners first in their decision-making so additional students will be accommodated as far as it is possible, and safe, to do so and without compromising the student experience.”

Ucas did not respond to a request for comment.

Lochhead stated: “We have committed to fully funding the additional places, and are working closely with the SFC and the further and higher education sectors to finalise the details. We will make provision for enough places in universities and colleges in 2020-21 to ensure that no-one is crowded out of a place they would otherwise have been awarded.”