Scotland's Lost Opportunities

On Wednesday 23 April 2008, NUS Scotland launched its report 'Scotland's Lost Opportunities' outside the Scottish parliament. Students met with MSPs in a mock graduation ceremony. But it was only the wealthiest students who were allowed to graduate, while the others were forced to stand on the sidelines.

The launch was designed to illustrate the findings of the Final Demand survey, which was completed by more than 2000 students.

Worryingly, a third of students say they've considered dropping out because of financial hardship - two thirds of those are from non-traditional backgrounds.

Students are three times more likely to consider dropping out when they regularly hit their credit card or overdraft limits. Non-traditional students are 40% more likely to consider dropping out when they face high course costs.

The report has now been presented to all MSPs and contains a number of key recommendations. NUS Scotland is calling for a National Widening Access Unit to be established to conduct further research into the problems highlighted by this study. We need a more coherent system of measuring drop out rates to find out why students decide to leave the education sector.

MSPs have also been asked to establish a minimum income guarantee of £7000pa for students, through a variety of grants, loans and bursaries, to ensure that students aren't forced to choose between meeting their essential living costs and continuing in education.

A full copy of the report and its recommendations is available here.