The Scottish Funding Council has today (Wednesday 30 May 2018) published its annual report on widening access. The report provides data for academic year 2016/17 and tracks student entrants, progression and qualifiers in university and college according to metrics of socio-economic disadvantage and protected characteristics. Responding to today’s report and the higher education sector’s work…
News
Scottish universities head to South East Asia for sector mission
Seven Scottish higher education institutions are off to South East Asia to meet with officials in the Malaysian and Indonesian governments to promote the expertise of universities in Scotland in addition to attending the British Council’s Going Global conference. The delegation of 16 will be spending five days in Malaysia before five will travel onto…
Scottish universities better UK average for retention for first time in a generation
Responding to the latest HESA data release on non-continuation of studies, Alastair Sim, Director of Universities Scotland said: The fact that this is the first time in 19 years that the retention rate in Scotland is better than the UK average is significant and a cause for celebration. The sector and individual institutions have dedicated…
Response to Ministerial Statement on Widening Access
In response to the Ministerial Statement on Widening Access in the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday 6 March 2018, Alastair Sim, the Director of Universities Scotland said: Scotland’s 19 higher education institutions, the length and breadth of Scotland, large and specialist, are committed to widening access. Today’s statement from the Minister reiterated a lot of the…
Young Scots give their support to work to widen access
2018 is the Year of Young People and it is also a year which will see a really busy programme of work taken forward by universities to widen access. Late last year we set out 15 actions in Working to Widen Access that we believe will deliver a big step forward in widening access. 2018…
Universities Scotland comments on latest UCAS application figures
Commenting on today’s UCAS application figures for 2018 entry, Universities Scotland spokesperson said: “Today’s figures show that demand for Scottish higher education remains very high. This means that there will be no let-up in the fierce competition for places amongst applicants. “We have seen a fall in applications from those from the most deprived areas of…
Universities Scotland comments on Ministerial Statement on EU students
Responding to the news the Scottish Government will continue to fund EU students up to the 2019-20 student cohort, Professor Andrea Nolan, Convener of Universities Scotland said: “We welcome today’s news that EU students starting in 2019-20 will have the cost of their tuition met by the Scottish Government. We are delighted that the Scottish…
Universities Scotland comments on extension of Tier 4 pilot scheme
Responding to the news that the Home Office intends to expand the Tier 4 visa pilot to a further 23 institutions for students on a Masters’ course, including University of Edinburgh and University of Glasgow, Professor Andrea Nolan, Convener of Universities Scotland said: It’s good to see the Home Office expanding the Tier 4 visa…
Universities Scotland responds to Scottish Government budget for 2018/19
The Finance Secretary, Derek Mackay, has announced a revenue budget for higher education institutions of £1,024.9 million in 2018/19 which is a 1.1 per cent increase in higher education revenue spending, compared to the previous year. This increase to the revenue budget should enable the real terms protection of universities’ Teaching Grant, which was our…
Our response to latest Report from the Commissioner for Fair Access
The Commissioner for Fair Access has published his first annual report this morning (13 December 2017). The Commissioner’s first annual report on access is both challenging, interesting and useful. We’d expect nothing less. Universities will give his set of 23 new recommendations urgent and full consideration. On first sight, there appears to be lots…