It’s Friday, not quite ten o’clock on a wet and windy spring morning. The University car park is busy with traffic for a drive-through Covid jag. A younger queue is gathering outside Maggie’s, the Students' Union café, for a different boost to healthy survival. They wait, in a well-spaced line, with shopping bags. Hair and scarves blowing in a strong south-westerly. You can’t … [Read more...] about Covid inspires a can-do response to old problem
students
The case for more Scottish student grants
As this post noted, surprisingly the recent report of the Scottish student finance review did not set out what its proposals would mean at different incomes. Nor did it show how entitlements would change at different incomes under its recommendation.This post aims to fill that gap, providing a few charts which are missing from the review report. It argues that although the … [Read more...] about The case for more Scottish student grants
Widening access: a modest proposal
The University of Edinburgh recently announced that it would, for the first time, be offering some places through clearing which would be reserved for students from Scotland from the most disadvantaged areas.It’s an inventive response to the difficulty the university faces (I’m assuming) in getting more applicants from these parts of Scotland.It made me think about … [Read more...] about Widening access: a modest proposal
Scotland’s disappearing low income students
The Scottish Government has just published its annual student support statistics, covering 2015-16.Some things were predictable: the highest loans are still being taken out by those from the lowest incomes (Table A6), reflecting the limited amount of non-repayable grant (bursary) now available to these students.More unexpected was the further fall in the number of … [Read more...] about Scotland’s disappearing low income students