Access plea for college students

COLLEGE leaders have urged the Scottish Government not to let reforms to higher and further education disadvantage those from the poorest backgrounds.

Submitting its response to the Scottish Government’s consultation on post-16 reform, umbrella group Scotland’s Colleges said there was “much to welcome” in the pre-legislative proposals.

But John Spencer, convener of its principals’ convention, said: “The Scottish Government has a strong record of ensuring students do not pay to access higher education in university, and we would be greatly concerned if this was not also the case for students accessing the same level of higher education in college.”

He said access to higher education should remain to be about ability to learn rather than ability to pay.