Education, Children and Young People Committee inquiry on widening access to Higher Education
The Hub for SUCCESS has submitted evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee as part of its short inquiry into widening access to higher education.
Our response draws on data, lived experience, and direct engagement with care-experienced learners across Scotland, highlighting both progress and persistent inequalities in access to and success within Higher Education.
Our submission to the Committee underscores that while progress has been made since the Commission on Widening Access’s 2016 Blueprint for Fairness, care-experienced learners continue to face deep-rooted structural barriers. The latest Scottish Government statistics reveal that:
Over one-third (34.4%) of care-experienced young people leave school in S4 or earlier—more than double the rate of all school leavers.
Only 8.6% of care-experienced young people enter higher education directly from school, compared to 40.3% of all school leavers.
Further education remains a crucial and often only viable pathway to university for many care-experienced learners.
The Hub for SUCCESS welcomed recognition in the inquiry that Further Education is central to widening access, and emphasised that the transformative power of education should not end with formal schooling. The Hub called for widening access initiatives like ours to be available nationally, ensuring that all care-experienced people in Scotland can access tailored support regardless of geography.
In our submission, we made three key recommendations:
Establish a Scotland-wide Hub for SUCCESS model – to ensure equitable access to support and guidance for care-experienced learners across all regions.
Provide consistent and adequately resourced support staff within universities and colleges – permanent, dedicated staff are essential to retention and student success.
Integrate the Special Support Loan into the Care-Experienced Students Bursary (CESB) – simplifying the financial system and removing barriers to access for care-experienced learners who may be unable or unwilling to take on debt.
We also highlighted the urgent need for increased investment to sustain widening access work. While the number of care-experienced students has grown—rising by 400% across our partner institutions in the past five years—funding per student has declined by almost 19% in real terms since 2013–14. Without renewed commitment and resources, Scotland risks losing hard-won progress.
