Scottish universities remain ‘elitist’

By Chris Marshall. ENDING tuition fees for Scottish students has failed to widen access to the country’s universities, a leading academic has warned.
Professor Sheila Riddell, of Edinburgh University’s School of Education, said free tuition had not “markedly altered” recruitment of those from the poorest backgrounds.
While students elsewhere in the UK pay up to £9,000 a year in fees, Scots have not paid for the cost of tuition since the graduate endowment was abolished in 2008.
Writing in The Scotsman today, Prof Riddell says the proportion of working class students at Scotland’s leading universities has actually fallen slightly in the past decade. Read more...