Students from Scotland's most disadvantaged areas are less likely to secure a professional job quickly, according to a new paper from the Commissioner for Fair Access to Universities. It suggests they may suffer "silent discrimination" in the jobs market.
One key point is that they are less likely to continue their studies on a postgraduate course such as a Master's course or a doctorate.
The paper says: "... even the students from more socially deprived backgrounds who do progress to postgraduate study are still significantly less likely to get professional jobs six months after leaving, which suggests that they continue to suffer perhaps silent but nevertheless powerful discrimination.
The commissioner Professor Sir Peter Scott said, "The gap is also explained, partly but again not wholly, by the fact that more socially deprived students are concentrated in universities with lower postgraduate progression rates - although, again, this begs the question of why they are under-represented in more prestigious institutions, notably the ancient universities, where many more students continue on to postgraduate courses."
As a general rule, Scotland's "ancient" universities and the institutions which became universities in the 1960s have fewer students from the most deprived parts of the country (SIMD 20 areas) than former polytechnics.
Only two institutions currently have met their long-term target for admissions from SIMD 20 areas - Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of the West of Scotland.
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