Scottish Universities Experiencing Third Year Of Decreased Admissions

For businesses looking to Scottish universities for exceptional new talents, the Scottish university graduate is slowly going extinct. For the third straight year, according to admissions survey service UCAS, Scottish universities have admitted fewer students from Scottish and British communities. The reasons for this basic decrease in admissions comes from the increased pressure for academic standards, as well as the ever increasing applications coming from the United Kingdom and Europe. High tuition prices and application fees are also contributing to lower admissions. Scottish and British students alike will apply to a wide range of universities to give themselves options, without consideration to the financial obligations of attendance. In the end, many of these universities lose out to the more prestigious British schools or less expensive vocational programs.

UCAS also gives the increase in student debt loads as a reason why many are eschewing Scottish and British universities in general, with less prestigious Scottish universities hurt the most by this trend. The average debt of 11,000 pounds held by graduates of Scottish universities can mean years of repayments which put a squeeze on household budgets. As well, the decrease in scholarship money to Scottish students due to tightening university students means that the bill for an educated Scottish public rests in the hands of students.

Other statistics paint a mixed picture for the Scottish university scene, especially considering the two previous years of decreasing admissions already documented. Overseas students attending Scottish universities have increased by 19 percent over the last school year, which provides Scottish schools a new source of recruiting. However, the relatively small numbers of foreign students attending Scottish universities mean that admissions professionals have a lot of work ahead of them to make that a viable option.

Scottish students are also having a more difficult time getting into and remaining in universities in England. In 2006, there was a 7 percent decrease in the number of Scots admitted to British universities, a recognition of the strict financial and academic guidelines of such institutions. As well, there was a decrease of 3 percent of the number of Scots attending schools in Scotland. Both of these figures show that there may need to be reform down the road about the university admission and fees process. However, local and national governing bodies are loath to change these policies because of a conflicting interest between educating more people and maintaining the integrity of academic study by not lowering standards.