Chamber and committees

The total number of students from the rest of the UK (rUK) studying at Scottish higher education institutes (HEIs) is shown in the table below. RUK students account for around 12 per cent of the HEI student population in Scotland.

Table 1: Students from the rest of the UK studying at Scottish higher education institutes from 2007-08 to 2012-13

Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency

The most recent figures available from the Scottish Funding Council indicate that students from elsewhere in the UK contributed £38.2 million in tuition fees to Scottish universities in 2012-13. This represented 4.9% of income from tuition fees and education contracts and 1.3% of overall university income.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-22161 on 13 August 2014. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Scottish Government and all its partners have a strong shared commitment to raising attainment for all and closing the attainment gap between children and young people who are most and least advantaged.

The causes of educational inequality are complex and varied. Recent research, such as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report Closing the attainment gap in Scottish education, which was published in May 2014, suggests that there are many contributory factors including deprivation, gender, a child’s home environment, additional support needs and looked after status.

But there are other influential factors which we have limited control over. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that an additional 50,000 Scottish children will be living in relative poverty by 2020 because of UK welfare reform, and when housing costs are taken into account, the figure could be as high as 100,000.

Our Child Poverty Strategy for Scotland expresses our commitment to focus on the need to tackle the long-term drivers of poverty, through early intervention and prevention, partnership and holistic services.

Independence will have a significant and positive impact on education if Scotland has control of the welfare, benefits and taxation systems. With independence – and control over these powers – we have a decisive opportunity to put an end to underachievement in our schools that is caused by poverty.

While we cannot mitigate all of the impacts of welfare reform, we are continuing to do what we can within our existing powers and resources to mitigate the worst impacts where possible. Our current and planned funding will result in an investment of at least £260 million over the period 2013-14 to 2015-16. This will help to limit the most damaging effects of welfare reforms.

Tackling educational inequality is an agreed priority for all education partners, so our collective financial resources should be allocated to support that. The majority of education funding flows through local government. For 2013-14 Scotland’s local authorities’ provisional outturn total net revenue expenditure was £11.716 billion. Of this figure, £4.608 billion (39.3%) was on education.

However, we know that there is more work to do. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that an additional 50,000 Scottish children will be living in relative poverty by 2020 because of UK welfare reform, and when housing costs are taken into account, the figure could be as high as 100,000.

Our Child Poverty Strategy for Scotland expresses our commitment to focus on the need to tackle the long-term drivers of poverty, through early intervention and prevention, partnership and holistic services.

Independence will have a significant and positive impact on education if Scotland has control of the welfare, benefits and taxation systems. With independence – and control over these powers – we have a decisive opportunity to put an end to underachievement in our schools that is caused by poverty.

While we cannot mitigate all of the impacts of welfare reform, we are continuing to do what we can within our existing powers and resources to mitigate the worst impacts where possible. Our current and planned funding will result in an investment of at least £260 million over the period 2013-14 to 2015-16. This will help to limit the most damaging effects of welfare reforms.

The Scottish Government and all its partners have a strong shared commitment to raising attainment for all and closing the attainment gap between children and young people who are most and least advantaged. This commitment to improvement and equity in attainment has a firm foundation in all our key policies and programmes which affect children and young people, the pillars of which are Curriculum for Excellence, Teaching Scotland’s Future, Getting it right for every child, The Early Years Framework and Opportunities for All. More specifically:

The Raising Attainment for All Programme was launched in June 2014 and aims to close the attainment gap between children and young people who are most and least advantaged. 12 local authorities and over 100 schools are part of this programme, which supports consistent improvement in attainment and achievement through the development of a collaborative learning system, the implementation of improvement methodology and by enabling shared learning.

Education Scotland are also encouraging collaboration and continuous
self-improvement through the Schools Improvement Partnership Programme.

The development of Insight will help local authorities and secondary schools to analyse strengths and areas for improvement.

A refreshed Parentzone website will provide more accessible information for parents.

The Scottish Government is also taking forward a number of other activities to focus on the key issues which have an impact on raising attainment and closing the equity gap. These include:

The implementation of Teaching Scotland’s Future to support the teaching workforce;

Establishing a Scottish College for Educational Leadership to support leadership development;

The establishment of literacy and numeracy hubs to facilitate sharing of best practice.

However, we know that there is more work to do. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that an additional 50,000 Scottish children will be living in relative poverty by 2020 because of UK welfare reform, and when housing costs are taken into account, the figure could be as high as 100,000.

Our Child Poverty Strategy for Scotland expresses our commitment to focus on the need to tackle the long-term drivers of poverty, through early intervention and prevention, partnership and holistic services.

Independence will have a significant and positive impact on education if Scotland has control of the welfare, benefits and taxation systems. With independence – and control over these powers – we have a decisive opportunity to put an end to underachievement in our schools that is caused by poverty.

While we cannot mitigate all of the impacts of welfare reform, we are continuing to do what we can within our existing powers and resources to mitigate the worst impacts where possible. Our current and planned funding will result in an investment of at least £260 million over the period 2013-14 to 2015-16. This will help to limit the most damaging effects of welfare reforms.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-22149 on 13 August 2014. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Figures from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) indicate that in 2012-13, the most recent year for which information is available; there were 4,904 students at Scotland’s four ancient universities from the 40% most deprived data zones in Scotland, as ranked in the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation. Of these, 1,962 were from the 20% most deprived data zones.

Under this government we have seen growth in the number of students from deprived data zones to ancient universities since 2006-07.

The Post-16 Education (Scotland) Act 2013 introduced statutory widening access agreements as part of the wider outcome agreement dialogue between the SFC and each higher education institution in Scotland. Progress is monitored by the SFC and reported annually through their Learning for All publication.

The Scottish Government supports a number of activities which provide information on high-attaining children from disadvantaged backgrounds:

The Scottish Government funds Growing Up in Scotland, a study which contains a wealth of longitudinal data which allows us to explore the social and emotional wellbeing of children, resilience characteristics of children from areas of high deprivation and how these link with educational experiences.

As part of its review of Curriculum for Excellence in 2015, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development will give consideration to how the Scottish education system is performing in terms of attainment and achievement, and how we can achieve more equitable outcomes across the social spectrum.

We intend to work with the University of Edinburgh to develop the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime to better understand the educational attainment and outcomes of that cohort of young people.

Education Scotland routinely highlight areas of good practice and success as part of their inspection and practice sharing activities.

Research, good practice and learning is already being shared across Scotland and is having an impact on attainment and closing the equity gap. To build on this, the Scottish Government is taking forward a range of activities to raise attainment and close the equity gap, including the Raising Attainment for All Programme. Education Scotland are augmenting this work with their School Improvement Partnership Programme.

Given the range of information and data currently available, the Scottish Government has no current plans to produce a more specific report on the progress made by
high-attaining children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Our focus is to work closely with partners to bring about practical change and improve outcomes for children and young people.

A new student support package was introduced for academic year 2013-14. Implementation of the revised package received praise from NUS Scotland. The new system included an annual minimum income of £7,250, through a combination of bursaries and loans, for students with a family income of less than £17,000.

Other improvements included a revised minimum student loan amount for all eligible students of £4,500. Expansion in the amount of money available to all students resulted in an increase in overall lending during the first year of operation of the new, simplified support package.