The Telegraph, fed no doubt by a Scottish Tory and then read no doubt by one of the Boris team for inclusion in the next batch of drivel he tries to chuck at the SNP benches, uses drivel itself to suggest problems in participation in Scottish Higher Education.

Across the UK there were 706 435 UCAS applications for 2020/21. 464 335 were accepted so 1 in every 1.52 was accepted.

https://www.ucas.com/file/292736/download?token=xurFczbC

According to the Telegraph which seems to have advance information which I can’t see, 14 200 Scottish students who applied didn’t get in and this number constitutes nearly 3 out of every 10 applicants. Using this information, 1 in every 1.42 Scottish applicants got a place in a Scottish university BUT:

1. 4 200 Scottish students applied to universities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Given that some of these will have been accepted, the UCAS ratio seems likely to be at least similar. https://www.ucas.com/file/213881/download?token=PChWJYq8
2. BUT in Scotland, there is a substantial proportion of higher education that is not included in UCAS’ figures. This is accounted for mostly by full-time higher education provided in further education colleges. These students represent around one third of young full-time undergraduate study in Scotland. This seems likely to push the acceptance ratio in Scotland to a significantly higher, better, level than that for the UK. https://www.ucas.com/file/292721/download?token=f0_lrcH-
3. ‘The problem is that there is rather less sub-degree HE in the non-Scottish parts of the UK than in Scotland but most of what there is appears to be recruited through UCAS; meanwhile in Scotland  there’s a much larger amount of HE provided in FE colleges, pretty much all at sub-degree level, which is not recruited through UCAS at all…. Indeed, it’s the HE provided in colleges which gives Scotland the edge in overall participation rate.’ https://www.ucas.com/sites/default/files/jan-16-deadline-application-rates-report.pdf
4. The bigger picture: