Offering a level playing field pays dividends

STUDENTS from more deprived postcode areas who enter university under a top-up access scheme perform as well as those from more affluent areas with better grades, research shows.

Glasgow University has been participating in the programme to help more disadvantaged pupils enter study since 1999.

Fifth- and sixth-year pupils identified as potential candidates take a course to assess their ability and prepare them for university study. If they pass, they are granted admission onto courses even if they drop a grade in their final exams.

The programme has had the effect of levelling the playing field for pupils going into higher education, said Neil Croll, who heads the widening participation unit at Glasgow University.

He said: “Students who have completed the programme successfully have performed better and are less likely to withdraw in their first year of university.”

Participants’ grades match those of pupils from schools which traditionally send a high number of students to university.

Top-Up participants are also slightly less likely to drop out despite often experiencing more barriers to continuing their studies, such as a lack of parental support, figures suggest.

About 12.4 per cent of Top-Up pupils withdrew from university in 2010 compared with 13.5 per cent of those from more affluent backgrounds, Mr Croll said.