Fair Access - Scottish Funding Council

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We are committed to investing in fair access to education for learners from all backgrounds and our actions contribute to delivering the targets and recommendations outlined in A Blueprint for Fairness.

This includes a commitment to recommendation 32, a set of targets to drive forward the delivery of equal access in Scotland (often referred to as the CoWA target/s). One of these targets was that students from the 20% most deprived backgrounds should represent at least 10% of full-time first degree entrants in each of the individual universities.

The Minister wrote to the SFC’s Chief Executive, on 30 July 2025 with a policy change to withdraw this institutional target (but not affecting the sectoral milestone and final targets) and replace it with a commitment from each university to increase the proportion of SIMD 20 entrants or to match the highest proportion it had achieved since 2013-14. This was based on recommendation 4 in the first annual report from Professor John McKendrick as Commissioner for Fair Access.

On 6 February 2026, the Commissioner for Fair Access published his second annual report in which he revised his previous institutional target recommendation. Subsequently, the Minister wrote to SFC’s Chief Executive on 11 March 2026 to amend the July 2025 policy direction to SFC.

The amended recommendation:

Recommendation 4. Monitor the impact of the new institutional commitment, which will be introduced in 2026-27, and which challenges each HEI to improve upon, or at least match, the highest proportion and number of SIMD20 entrants that it achieved (outside the ‘pandemic years’) since 2013-14, and to make continuous annual improvements thereafter. Where it can be demonstrated that it is not possible for an institution to now match what they have previously been able to achieve, it is reasonable that an alternative benchmark is proposed.

The full details are outlined in the March 2026 Ministerial letter.

SFC welcomes the amended policy direction from the Minister. We are continuing to consult with the Scottish Government and the sector on the implementation of this policy change to be introduced from AY 2026-27 onwards. SFC intends to publish a guidance note for the sector in Spring 2026 to outline the approach we will take in relation to implementing the change to the CoWA institutional target.

We use our investments to do this in a number of ways:

Core funds for colleges and universities.

Access programmes to directly assist school pupils in getting into colleges and universities (National School Programme) and a programme to assist adult returners (Scottish Wider Access Programme).

Our National Ambition for Care-experienced Students.

Supporting policy for groups underrepresented or under-achieving in comparison to their peers such as carers, veterans, and estranged students.

Providing support for the sector through Scottish Community of Access and Participation Practitioners (SCAPP) Scottish Framework for Fair Access | SCAPP.

Policy support for equality, mental health and well-being .

Shared and used data

SFC Report on Widening Access

This report presents data relating to the Commission on Widening Access targets, and on Scottish-domiciled entrants to higher and further education in Scotland by socio-economic deprivation, gender, ethnicity, disability, care experience and age.

Current and previous editions are available on our Statistics publication schedule.

Commission on Widening Access (CoWA)

The Scottish Government’s Programme for Government 2014-15 set out the ambition that a child born at that time in one of Scotland’s most deprived communities should, by the time of leaving school, have the same chance of going to university as one born in one of the country’s least deprived areas.

The Commission on Widening Access was established to advise Ministers on how to meet this ambition. Its final report, A Blueprint for Fairness was published in March 2016.

SFC Insights Brief

In the first of our new Insights Briefs, Commission on Widening Access 2030 target takes a closer look at progress towards the Commission on Widening Access 2030 target. The target is that, by then, students from the 20% most deprived areas in Scotland will represent 20% of Scottish entrants to full-time first degree courses at university.

Higher education – renewing the alliance for fair access: annual report 2024

The sixth annual report of the Commissioner for Fair Access concludes that much has already been achieved in delivering fair access to higher education in Scotland, but Professor John H. McKendrick considers how the framework for promoting fair access can be strengthened.

Stakeholders across and beyond the tertiary sector

Commissioner for Fair Access

The Commissioner for Fair Access is responsible for leading a system-wide effort to achieve fair access in Scotland. The current Commissioner is Professor John McKendrick.

Information on the responsibilities and functions of the Commissioner is available on the Scottish Government website. This resource also includes related policies; documents; and speeches and presentations, together with Professor McKendrick’s biography.

The Commissioner’s most recent annual report is Progress as a precursor to a pivot: fair access in Scotland in 2026 and beyond.

Scottish Community of Access and Participation Practitioners (SCAPP)

SCAPP was established in January 2019 and is the only dedicated Scottish sector wide network for Widening Access (WA) and Widening Participation (WP) Practitioners, providing a coordinating role supporting Professional Learning and Development and networking opportunities for WA and WP professionals. SCAPP also supports professionals to achieve targets for access and to professionalise the sector.

SCAPP draws on the in-kind experience and commitment from partners to deliver a wide range of purposeful and relevant events and activities around Articulation, Evaluation and Learning and Development.

SCAPP represents a key recommendation of the Blueprint for Fairness.

For more information please contact
Anna Wallace, tel: 0131 313 6605, email: awallace@sfc.ac.uk.

Scottish Wider Access Programme (SWAP)

The Scottish Wider Access Programme (SWAP) works in partnership with colleges and Higher Education Institutions across Scotland to provide routes into Higher Education for adults with few or no qualifications, or whose qualifications are out of date.

SWAP Access Programmes are one year full-time courses at colleges across Scotland. Successful completion of a SWAP Access Programme can lead to a place on a Higher National or degree course at a college or university.

For details of current SWAP programmes running at different colleges, please see:

EAST of Scotland (SWAP East programmes.)
WEST of Scotland (SWAP West programmes.)

For more information, please contact
Anna Wallace, tel: 0131 313 6605, email: awallace@sfc.ac.uk.

National Schools Programme

The National Schools Programme works closely with experts across universities, colleges, and schools to unify existing, successful projects into a cohesive national approach to the delivery of targets identified in A Blueprint for Fairness: Final Report of the Commission on Widening Access.

For more information, please contact
Steph Kirkham, tel: 0131 313 6652, email: skirkham@sfc.ac.uk