Commissioner for Fair Access: annual report 2025/26

7 - Conclusion: the immediate priorities for fair access in Scotland

It is anticipated that fair access work in Scotland will sharpen its focus on the next Interim Target approaches. The last (2025-26) and next (2026-27) recruitment rounds to higher education will determine whether the next Interim Target is met, which will be reported in the RoWA published in 2028. However, it is important that a concerted effort to meet the target – although most welcome – should not be at the expense of the actions that will embolden and strengthen fair access in the longer-term. Indeed, if the more challenging and complex issues are not prioritised, then they are unlikely to be progressed. This is the thinking that has shaped my work, and it will continue to underpin my future work. As explained earlier in this report, my priority actions and recommendations are largely work-in-progress. While I intend to progress with them all, I identity three priority recommendations (7.2.1).

I continue to be energised by the work and commitment of the wide range of stakeholders pursuing fair access in Scotland and continue to believe that fair access goals are worth pursuing and fair access targets can be met.

7.1 - My priority actions^[130]

• Priority 1. To follow up on each of my recommendations and to report on progress in my next annual report.
• Priority 2. To produce a third annual report, early in the Summer of 2026, soon after the publication of the next RoWA.
• Priority 3. To produce briefings to report in a timely manner on specific developments in relation to my recommendations
• Priority 4. To engage with school leaders and universities in Scotland to explore whether inefficiencies in SCQF Level 7 can be addressed through system change and/or institutional practice.
• Priority 5. To engage with Universities Scotland and Colleges Scotland to better understand the prospects for increasing the proportion of HN students articulating with so-called ‘Advanced Standing’ into SCQF Level 8 and 9.
• Priority 6. To examine retention rates for SIMD20 entrants, focusing on why these have not improved substantially since the introduction of the CoWA agenda.
• Priority 7. To appraise emergent evidence to better understand how students’ financial situation impacts on fair access.
• Priority 8. To explore possibilities to enhance and promote regional intelligence, and to strengthen cross-institutional collaboration in regions to advance the fair access agenda.
• Priority 9. To review the deployment of contextual admissions and Minimum Entry Requirements across Scottish HEIs to appraise whether the impact on fair access is optimal.
• Priority 10. To engage with professional bodies, Programme leads, and Heads of Department (or equivalent) to promote shared responsibility for the fair access agenda in Scotland.
• ** Priority 11. To explore the prospects for acting on the three supplementary data issues and three provision issues introduced in the Considerations for innovation and evidence section in this report.
• ** Priority 12. To work with SFC to explore the prospects for acting on the ten recommendations outlined in the Considerations for innovation and evidence section in this report to strengthen the RoWA evidence base.

7.2 - My recommendations^[131]

7.2.1 – Priority recommendations

• Recommendation 7. The Scottish Government should take the necessary preparatory steps to embolden the fair access agenda beyond 2026 by transitioning toward individual-level indicators of socio-economic disadvantage, and thereafter to challenge institutions to achieve fair access for prospective students who have experienced such disadvantage.
• Recommendation 17. School leaders in Scotland, the SFC and its National Schools Programme, SCAPP and Universities Scotland should examine if, and if so what, steps should be taken to underpin the fair access agenda within the broad general education phase in Scottish education.
• Recommendation 19. Stakeholders should explore the prospects for introducing a single student identifier to improve tracking and to facilitate more robust evaluation of the impact of fair access activity.

7.2.2 - Secondary Priorities among recommendations

• Recommendation 1. The primary focus for fair access should continue to be improving outcomes for those who experience or have experienced socio-economic disadvantage.
• Recommendation 2. Retain SIMD as the central metric to indicate national progress in achieving fair access, until it is practicable to adopt an individual-level metric.
• Recommendation 3. To strengthen the utility of SIMD to understand fair access, institutions are encouraged to report evidence in deciles up to SIMD40, in addition to quintiles.
• 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.
• Recommendation 5. For universities in Scotland to collectively specify a basket of indicators from which individual HEIs may draw to demonstrate their wider work in promoting fair access.
• Recommendation 6. The Scottish Government should consider strengthening the remit of the Commissioner for Fair Access to assume responsibility for advising on fair access to the whole of tertiary education.
• Recommendation 8. The fair access agenda should be recalibrated to give equal weight to entry, student experience, and outcomes.
• Recommendation 9. The primary focus on fair access should remain on Scottish-domiciled, full-time, first-degree entrants. However, for a rounded perspective on fair access to higher education, it is necessary to also focus on Graduate Apprenticeships, part-time undergraduate study, and postgraduate study.
• Recommendation 10. Wherever practicable, data on fair access should be disaggregated to understand the relative contributions of different pathways (direct entry from school; articulation; and adult wider access).
• Recommendation 11. SFC, in conjunction with participating universities, should ensure that disaggregated data are available for each of the disciplines that comprise the ‘high demand professions’ that are part of the AHDP programme (to enable the national impact of this work to be appraised) and the Transitions programme.
• Recommendation 12. SFC should act on the advice of the previous Commissioner for Fair Access, contained within previous Commissioner for Fair Access reports, to commit to more secure and longer-term funding for SCAPP.
• Recommendation 13. The work of SCAPP should be monitored to ensure that it remains a vehicle to support the development and professionalisation of a widening access and participation practitioner community in Scotland.
• Recommendation 14. The breadth of evaluation activity and the impact of evaluation activity research, which underpins the fair access agenda should be appraised.
• Recommendation 15. For universities in Scotland to collectively agree what intelligence is in the national interest to promote fair access (as opposed to that which is commercially sensitive), and thereafter to ensure that this intelligence is made available to all relevant stakeholders in Scotland.
• Recommendation 16. Should the decision be taken to withdraw funding for an intervention that had been integral to promoting fair access, or if an element of such work is to be radically altered, providers should undertake (and funders should encourage) an impact assessment to ascertain the impact on pupil cohorts who have previously benefited from this provision.
• Recommendation 18. SFC, Universities Scotland and Skills Development Scotland should examine the prospects of introducing an easily accessible user-centred web-based resource that provides a single point of reference to inform prospective students and other stakeholders of the programmes and resources that are available to support access to higher education.
• Recommendation 20. Stakeholders and leaders should reaffirm their commitment to promote fair access and commit to take those actions necessary to attain the next interim target for 2026.