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Response to Sutton Trust report: Admissions in Context

Universities Scotland has responded to the publication of the Sutton Trust’s report, Admissions in Context.

The report provides new evidence on the use of ‘contextualised’ admissions and offers some insights into the difference that greater use of contextual data might make to the numbers of disadvantaged students at these universities.

Commenting on the report, Universities Scotland Director, Alastair Sim said:

“This is a very welcome report on how we can use the admissions process to support widening access. It chimes very closely with the recommendations from Scotland’s own Commission on access and it reinforces a lot of the evidence that we have been looking at over the last year. We are a couple of weeks away from setting out a range of actions that Scotland’s universities intend to take on widening access but safe to say that our actions will directly address many of the Sutton Trust’s recommendations.

“We’re very pleased to see the Sutton Trust attach so much importance to greater consistency and transparency in the way universities contextualise admissions. The Trust believes this has significant potential to support students and widen access. Scotland’s universities have been focused on this and we intend to take bold new steps on the consistency, transparency and promotion of our contextualised admissions in the next few weeks.”

ENDS

Notes

  • Read the Sutton Trust’s report here.