Scottish Equality Goals Undermined As Top College Favors Children Of The Well-Heeled

Scotland’s stance on higher education should be a poster-child for public policy gone awry. In short, the outcome is the opposite of what the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) says it desires.

Here’s the issue. Scotland provides its residents with free higher education in any of the country’s university. That includes the University of St. Andrews, which is now ranked top in the entire United Kingdom. That means it ranks higher than either Oxford or Cambridge. (Fair disclosure: I graduated from St. Andrews.)

On the face it, that Scottish government policy should fit well with one of the SNP’s other goals: Reducing income inequality. “Fighting inequality isn’t just essential to creating a fairer society but for the long-term prosperity of our economy too,” the SNP website states.

The goals of the SNP are almost certainly sincere. However, that doesn’t mean they are working.

At the centre of the matter is the fact that would-be University students resident in Scotland are likely at an instant disadvantage.

First, the Scottish government pays Scottish Universities less than £2,000 $2,120) a year in fees for Scottish students to attend. That’s far lower than the £9,250 paid by students from elsewhere in the U.K.

That’s probably why a mere 28% of students at St. Andrews are from Scotland. How so? The Scottish government, like any other government, has a limited amount of funds to pay for students and so like it or not there are a limited number of spaces available at that much-reduced price.

Or put another way, it’s probably harder to get into St. Andrews if you are Scottish. Which means it’s harder to get into Britain’s best university if you are Scottish.

It gets worse.

If you don’t go to a fee-paying/private school, then your odds are further vastly reduced. Less than one-in-twenty (3.9%) Scottish school children attend private schools. Yet, 36.9% of St. Andrews students went to fee-paying schools.

Put another way, Scottish private school students have more than nine times the chance of getting into St. Andrews compared to those who attended state schools. Those private schools cost up to £40,000 a year.

Put another way, if you’re living in Scotland and parents are well-heeled enough to get you privately educated then you’re far more likely to get a government subsidy free ride for four years at Scotland’s oldest and finest University, than the hoi polloi.

Given that Scotland’s top employers favor St. Andrews over other universities it is hard to see how the private school/state school dichotomy doesn’t add to income inequaity rather than reduce it.