Universities in row over recruitment legislation plans

Student leaders have attacked Scotland's ancient universities for opposing plans for legislation to force them to recruit more students from deprived backgrounds or face fines. It comes after Universities Scotland, which represents university principals, said the Scottish government proposals would not address long-standing problems of inequality, writes Andrew Denholm for The Herald Scotland.

A number of individual institutions also questioned the plans – with St Andrews arguing that statutory force "may lead to bad practice". Now, student presidents from St Andrews, Edinburgh and Aberdeen have penned a joint letter criticising the stance taken by their institutions. "We were disappointed to read of our institutions' hostility to increased government legislation on widening participation," the letter states.

The row follows the publication in September of Education Secretary Michael Russell's paper, “Putting Learners at the Centre”, which first suggested plans for the new legislation. It said universities should be placed under a statutory duty to seek out talented pupils from schools who routinely send few pupils to higher education. It added that universities that did not meet strict targets on widening access would be fined.
Full report on The Herald Scotland site