Reports

Annual reports

My first Annual Report Laying the Foundations for Fair Access (December 2017) aimed to offer a comprehensive survey of the access landscape. But I highlighted to two particular issues. The first was funding. Although free tuition is the settled policy of the Scottish Government (and I agree), I felt it was important to discuss all the arguments, for and against. The second was articulation where progress has been slow in allowing Higher National graduates full credit if they transfer to degree courses in universities. The report also covered contextual admissions, the role of colleges and the need to build strong access and participation practitioner communities.

In my second Annual Report Building on Progress Towards Fair Access (January 2019) 13 months later I tackled two controversial issues: first, the focus on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) as the core measure for measuring progress and the case for using other indicators such as free school meals; and, second, the case for expanding funded student places to create the headroom for fairer access without ‘displacing’ other well qualified candidates. The report also included a special focus on school attainment, the Curriculum for Excellence and their implications for fair access to higher education.

My third Annual Report Fair Access to Higher Education: Progress and Challenges (June 2020), published in addition to a regular review of progress towards meeting the Government’s interim targets in 2021 and 2026, focused on two particular topics. The first was fair access to the professions, and in particular medicine, the law and the creative industries such as music and theatre. These professions were chosen because of their contrasting features. The second topic was other forms of disadvantage in addition to socio-economic deprivation, in particular age, gender, ethnicity, disability and care experience. Many of these forms of disadvantage intersect and overlap with wider social deprivation.

My fourth report was a special report on The Impact of COVID-19 on Fair Access to Higher Education (December 2020). It considers the effects of disruptions, and closures, in schools, colleges and universities on outreach and access activities, the student experience, mental health and articulation. It focused also on the implications of ‘digital poverty’ and financial hardship. I called for a special recovery effort to overcome the shocks of Covid-19, which clearly had the potential to set back progress on fair access.

My fourth Annual Report Re-Committing to Fair Access: a Plan for Recovery (June 2021) covered three main topics. First came the usual progress report - and here there was good news to report as 16 per cent of the new entrants to higher education now come from the 20-per-cent most deprived postcodes in Scotland. The next, and most substantial section, of my report looks back at the recommendations of the Commission for Widening Access and attempted to assess which have been implemented, which have yet to be implemented, and which have ceased to be so relevant and perhaps need to be modified. Finally the report looks at the continuing impact of Covid-19 on fair access.

My fifth Annual Report Maintaining the Momentum to Fair Access (May 2022) highlighted continuing progress towards meeting the 2030 target that 20 percent of entrants to full-time first-degree courses should come from the 20 percent most deprived areas in Scotland (SIMD20). However, I recommended that in the light of uncertainty about the impact of school disruption during the Covid-19 pandemic the interim target of 18 percent in 2026 should not be brought forward. The report also considered the case for replacing, or supplementing, SIMD as the measure of progress towards fair access targets with other measures such as Free School Meals (FSMs). I recommended that more attention should be paid to building a flexible and comprehensive system of tertiary education, with Welsh policy as a possible model; and that faster progress needs to be made to granting HN students progressing to first-degree courses full credit for what they have already achieved.

Discussion papers

In addition to Annual Reports I have also published a number of Discussion Documents. These come in two parts. The first part summarises the available data on the topic, which has been compiled with the help of colleagues in Education Analytical Services in the Government’s Advanced Learning and Science Directorate. The second part if a Commentary by me as Commissioner for Fair Access. Links to the six Discussion Documents appear below:

Access to postgraduate study - representation and destinations: discussion paper (21/01/20)

Disabled students at university: discussion paper (05/02/19)

Commissioner for Fair Access discussion paper: retention, outcomes and destinations (23/01/18)

Commissioner for Fair Access discussion paper: league tables (14/11/17)

Contextual higher education admissions: discussion paper (19/06/17)

University and college admissions, offers and acceptances: discussion paper (19/06/17)