Non-deprived Scottish students barred from uni places

[Sorefootouch]

The only Scottish students taken by Edinburgh university last year to study law came from deprived neighbourhoods, regardless of grades. Is this a good thing? If my child wants to go to University of Edinburgh and study law do we have to move to a deprived neighbourhood before applying? Is this fair? My child goes to an average Scottish state school and is predicted to get all A’s at higher.

www.scotsman.com/news/politics/students-from-less-deprived-background-have-door-closed-to-university-due-to-snp-funding-approach-3983059

The freedom of information request provided by the university of Edinburgh to an applicants parent was provided as evidence in Parliament yesterday. Is that not enough for you?

face it, this is yet another failing policy of an appalling administration.

Face it, it's failing for you ..... meanwhile millions of others are perfectly content / enthused by what this 'regime' is doing for the ordinary people of Scotland.

Middle class people (even those self-defined as such) have always had options, whilst others haven't.

I'm proud to be citizen in a country where everyone is given an opportunity. (Please don't attempt to tell me your offspring doesn't have an opportunity - they do, it's just not the specific RG opportunity you believe is your right.)

We’ll have to agree to disagree then.

I believe EVERY student has a right to apply to a Higher Education Institute and have their application assessed on the student’s merits. This right is afforded to ALL students in England and Wales applying to all universities in the UK. This right is afforded to Scottish students when applying to universities in rUK. This right is not afforded to Scottish students when applying to Scottish universities.

I'm in a SIMD 1 postcode, so my DC would get this plus flag thing from Edinburgh if they wanted to apply... and I think this admissions policy is totally bonkers, I mean it's so ludicrous I'm not sure why there are so many people on this thread defending it. I hope these stats are a blip due to covid disrupting interviews etc in this particular year as a PP said, if not I am truly worried. So it's not all disgruntled middle class parents angry at their believed offspring being denied entry.

Face it, it's failing for you ..... meanwhile millions of others are perfectly content / enthused by what this 'regime' is doing for the ordinary people of Scotland.

Middle class people (even those self-defined as such) have always had options, whilst others haven't.

I'm proud to be citizen in a country where everyone is given an opportunity. (Please don't attempt to tell me your offspring doesn't have an opportunity - they do, it's just not the specific RG opportunity you believe is your right.)

Well said. I’m sure the OP would rather have the bunch of hypocrites that are in charge of England at the moment, they have totally forgot about the Levelling up Policy. Although part of that was a proposal to have every child taught Latin.!!

Why whenever there is any debate/discussion about a scottish policy there is always someone who goes 'whatabout' England etc.

I would be in favour of ensuring that we have a good number of students in our Universities, fees of which are paid by higher rate tax payers in Scotland, then see the benefit of staying in Scotland and contributing to the economy. Not pushing future tax payers away to England as they can't get into University in Scotland as they don't hold a contextual offer flag.

And they will have no choice to study law at Edinburgh regardless of how deprived they are as rural areas are too mixed to be in the SCDI 1 or 2.

I’d much rather we had considered, well thought through policy in this country, rather than just headline-grabbing ill thought through policies which do not benefit Scots.

But we are not talking about middle class versus deprived students here!!! We are talking about benefits being given to a minority of people who live in deprived areas. The majority of poor students do not live in SCDI 1 or 2 areas. This excludes the majority of poor/deprived students as well as middle class (may they be condemn to the third circle of hell for their presumption) students.

As for saying there are other universities in Scotland; yes there are but this FOI was only done for Edinburgh, we do not know how widely this applies. Is there any point in a deprived Working class student from a SCDI 3 zone fighting against multigenerational unemployment and low family expectations applying to Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Stirling, Robert Gordon’s, Napier, Glasgow Caledonia? Or will there application be discarded at the outset because their address isn’t in the right zone?

as per the Scottish Govt, over half of people on low income do not live in the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland. and let's hope nobody from the islands wanted to go to Edinburgh Uni... i think the Uni/SG could be open to challenge around the Islands Act!

But regardless of whether PP think it is ok for students, be they poor working class or middle class, from non-priority zones being excluded. Surely you can see the unfairness of not letting them know when they are considering applying? So they can apply somewhere where their application will at least be considered instead? So they can decide to apply to Napier?

My idea is to have a lottery for places. Have an initial sift of candidates that takes into account school and postcode factors, IE young people from SIMD 1 might get into the pot with slightly lower grades than kids from Watson's etc. But once you have say 500 candidates that are suitable you just pick them out of a hat, everyone then has the same chance and over 2/3 years the numbers should even out if there are any discrepancies.

I admit I just thought of this and haven't examined it for faulty methodology yet but then who does these days!

I’d be interested to see whether this sort of data adjusts the advice schools give to non-deprived pupils when filling out UCAS applications. Regardless, I think it will be deemed unethical in the future for universities not to publish their detailed admissions data.

There certainly seems a place for a whole host of foi requests...

Anyone thinking of making an foi request, this is a good website to do it from as the results are then public...

www.whatdotheyknow.com

I am planning to do this for the courses and unis that my son might apply to this year. I will happily share the results when I get them.
I am also going to approach the school to ask if they have any data on offer success at Scottish universities, and if they’d be willing to share it.
Young people need to be making informed decisions and not wasting applications!

I thought this was just about law and Edinburgh university? I don’t know a single person whose MC, state school educated kid didn’t get into their first choice university last year. I don’t know anyone who wanted to study law but everyone else I know seemed to have no problem. I thought the thread was focussed on a specific course and a specific degree?

Last year no non-SIMD 1 students got into Edinburgh for philosophy with psychology, English literature, Japanese, Scottish literature, linguistics.

@Sorefootouch you don't need a law degree in England to qualify as a solicitor, only in Scotland.

You can already get some data on applications, offers, offer rates and acceptances at Edinburgh for Scottish, rUK and overseas students. At least this gives you some idea of which courses are super competitive.

www.ed.ac.uk/student-recruitment/admissions-advice/admissions-statistics

To confirm, you're assuming they weren't the best overall candidates despite having no info on their applications?

No. I am assuming the most academically able student would come from a range of backgrounds, not just entirely from one quintile!

Is there information on other Scottish universities and who their places went to, not just for law? I'm thinking for Glasgow and Strathclyde universities?

Would be good to know wouldn’t it? Before our children make university applications....