The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has today published its report on Widening Access 2024/25. The report showcases the fantastic news that the first-time degree entrants to university from Scottish domiciled backgrounds has increased, illustrating that universities are making steady progress to the 2030 Commissioner for Widening Access targets.
Commenting on the report, Claire McPherson, Director of Universities Scotland said:
“Universities have continued to widen access to people with care experience and those from the most deprived areas of Scotland. This is good news for those aspiring to go to university and for anyone who supports widening access. It’s also solid confirmation, if any were still needed, that people of all backgrounds and life experiences belong at university.
“Widening access is a very resource intensive activity from start to finish but universities have continued to make steady progress in the face of mounting financial pressure facing every institution. The fact that universities are now within touching distance of the 18% target of entrants from the 20% most deprived areas, working from today’s time-lagged data, is quite incredible and deserves due credit to everyone who works to make this happen.”
NOTES:
- The Scottish Funding Council has published its Report on Widening Access 2024-25 on 6 August.
- The data for 2045/25 show that 17.4% of Scottish-domiciled full-time first degree entrants to university were from the 20% most deprived areas, up 0.7 percentage points (pp) from 16.7% in 2023-24.
- The next interim target for COWA is 18% by 2026 (using data from 2025/26). It is likely to be challenging for universities to hit the 2026 an 2030 targets but institutions continue to make steady progress.
- In the university sector, 2.3% of Scottish-domiciled full-time first degree entrants in 2024-25 were care experienced, at 805 entrants. Both the percentage and number of care experienced entrants have increased every year since 2016-17.