University of Glasgow increases commitment to widening participation

Additional places for up to 800 students from low-income backgrounds will be created at the University of Glasgow over the next four years. The announcement, made today with the financial backing of the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), will strengthen the University's existing commitment to assisting students who might otherwise miss out on access to higher education. From the academic year 2013/2014 until 2016/2017, an extra 200 places will be available for school leavers and adults, the highest number of opportunities created by this round of SFC investment at any Scottish university. The places will be available to students from the 40% most deprived areas in Scotland, which are also known as MD40 areas. Currently, 24.1% of the University of Glasgow's Scottish-domiciled undergraduate students come from MD40 backgrounds, the highest rate of participation of any of Scotland's ancient universities. Anton Muscatelli, the University's Principal and Vice-Chancellor, said: "We have a long-standing commitment to the principle of widening access to higher education. Today's announcement, which is part of our Outcome Agreement negotiations with the Scottish Funding Council, will make a major contribution to increasing the scale and ambition of our efforts.