Leading Article: Ancient Injustice

Sutton Trust research is cited in a leading article on the Scotland’s Commissioner for Fair Access first report for The Times Scotland.

Last year the Sutton Trust published a report noting that pupils from Scotland’s poorest neighbourhoods were significantly less likely to win admission to universities than their counterparts in England. Scottish students from the most affluent areas were four times more likely to go straight from school to university than their poorer counterparts whereas in England wealthy pupils were 2.4 times more likely to attend university.

That is the context within which Sir Peter Scott’s call for universities to do more to attract and admit students from disadvantaged communities should be understood. The government wants 20 per cent of undergraduates to come from the poorest fifth of neighbourhoods by 2030; at present most of Scotland’s ancient universities comes close to meeting that demand. Sir Peter, the government’s commissioner for fair access, is right to think they can do better.

Read our full response to the Commission for Fair Access report here, our research on access in Scotland here and the full article here.