Hansard

I thank the committee members, the clerks and everyone who gave evidence to the inquiry, because this report matters. Free, universal and equitable access to higher education is not just an aspiration but the cornerstone of a fair, compassionate and confident Scotland. It is about our culture, our wellbeing, our democracy and our shared future.

I am proud that Scotland chose to abolish tuition fees for some students. We rejected the corrosive market logic that sees education—something that should nourish human potential—as a commodity to be bought and sold. However, we must confront a hard truth. For too many people, the right—not the privilege—to a higher education remains a dream unrealised. The Scottish Government aims for 20 per cent of full-time first-degree entrants to be from the 20 per cent most deprived backgrounds. We are, as we have heard, now at 16 per cent, with five years to go. Progress has stalled and, without renewed action and without political courage, we will miss that target.

That figure hides further injustice. Disabled students may now be proportionately represented, but the committee heard that that masks significant persistent barriers, assessment delays, inaccessible learning environments and a review of support that took four years to deliver and is already out of date. That is indefensible. Disabled students deserve to be welcomed, supported and valued, not left in limbo. It is not just disabled students who are left out in the cold. We must do better and do it systematically, not superficially. That means widening access not only through traditional routes, but through flexible pathways that respect people’s lives and communities.

Robert Gordon University has already been spoken about in the debate. It is one of our institutions that is most committed to widening access, in a region where structural barriers are very real, and it has valuable experience to share. RGU, like the University of Aberdeen and North East Scotland College, faces a distinctive challenge. The city and shire have very few SIMD 20 postcodes. Only 8 or 9 per cent of households in the city and 3 or 4 per cent in the shire fall into that category, yet three major tertiary institutions draw from that small pool.

RGU’s SIMD 20 entrant figure of 7.2 per cent reflects demography, not a lack of commitment. RGU has responded not by shrugging and giving up, but by building one of Scotland’s most sustained evidence-based approaches to widening access. Its schools hub model embeds staff in all 28 secondary schools across the city and shire, fortnightly or monthly, building long-term relationships with pupils, teachers and careers advisers. Its access to programme has grown from 70 pupils in 2019 to more than 1,000 this year, offering 11 subject-specific courses and free transport and food to remove the hidden costs that so often quietly lock out too many young people. Its northern lights programme reaches secondary 1 and secondary 2 pupils, providing early imaginative interventions that genuinely widen horizons.

Those are the kinds of interventions that we should celebrate—those that are embedded in communities, grounded in relationships and tailored to need. They work because academic and support staff give their time and share their expertise and enthusiasm, often in the evenings, and I am grateful to them for that. RGU’s experience also reminds us that widening access is about so much more than SIMD; it is about understanding disadvantage in all its forms.

The free school meal pilot shows the value of individual-level data, capturing individual disadvantage far better than any postcode data can. It also shows the data-sharing barriers that hold us back and that we urgently need to address.

The same is true of rurality. SIMD is simply too blunt a tool to capture rural disadvantage. University participation is lower in remote communities. The Greens believe that opportunity should never depend on geography, so we need to look beyond SIMD. As we have already heard, widening access has to be about retention and success. Getting students into education settings is not enough; keeping them and supporting them to flourish is what real fairness looks like.

Currently, 12 per cent of students do not progress to year 2, and the rate is worse for disadvantaged learners. I have spent years working in universities—I refer colleagues to my entry in the register of members’ interests, as I am the rector of the University of Dundee—and I know where there are gaps. Staff are expected to support students with little or no information about who has come through different routes or who faces particular barriers. They are left to guess or to ask students to disclose personal information again and again, which is not dignified, effective or fair. We must act on the committee’s call for a unique learner number, which was recommended a decade ago. RGU is right in saying that it would transform our ability to understand learner journeys, evaluate what works and intervene early.

Widening access also means facing the financial realities that students deal with. Tuition may be free for some, but rent, food, transport, books and equipment are not. Private developers are extracting millions of pounds from students who simply need somewhere safe and affordable to live. When the Government removed student rent controls from the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025, it removed one of the most effective tools that we could have had to tackle the biggest financial barriers that students face. Students deserve protection from predatory landlords just as much as any other tenant. Finally, we must not forget postgraduate study. Access cannot end at undergraduate level if employers increasingly expect applicants to have masters degrees and more. Education should not be for sale at any level.

Widening access is a moral imperative. It is about dignity, justice and the belief that every person deserves the chance to discover their potential. The committee’s report challenges us to do better; institutions such as RGU show us what is possible. Let us honour both by committing to systemic change that puts compassion, equality and human flourishing at the heart of Scotland’s higher education system.