British Universities Accept Fewer Poor Students

British universities began to accept fewer low-income students. The number of underprivileged students in the most prestigious universities in the UK has fallen, despite measures aimed at increasing.

The Russell Group - twenty-four leading British universities - which includes the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, have taken the necessary measures to organize access to universities Student groups regardlesson their social status, but these measures are not enough.

Last year, 84.5 percent of those enrolled in the University of Glasgow were public school graduates - 2.1 percent less than in 2004-2005. The share of applicants from low social strata of the population amounted to 21.4 percent - the indicator decreased by 1.3 percent.

However, Edinburgh University stands out from the crowd - last year 68.5 percent of admitted students were public school graduates, up 1.8 percent from 2004-2005.Likewise, the share of fresh students from the lower strata of the population was 18.7 percent - a rise of 1.6 percent.

Every sixth (17.2 percent) student from a socially unprotected family began their studies at one of the universities of the Russell group, for comparison - a third of students in the Group (31.2 percent) - theirbetter-off peers.

“Our university implements extensive and highly successful low-income programs to ensure that we recruit the brightest and most ambitious students regardless of their socio-economic background. Scotland has seen an increase in student enrollment from 40 percent of the country's most disadvantaged regions, and it is worth noting that they are now a quarter of all our freshmen - we are the first among Scottish universities. We are working side by side with the Scottish government as part of our agreement - we need to make sure that broadening our recruitment strategy is a priority in our recruitment strategy, ”says a representative of the University of Glasgow .