Runairea' Chaibineit airson Foghlaim agus lonnsachadh Fad-bheatha Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning

Michael Russell MSP/BPA F(T: OB45 7741741 E: scottish.ministers@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Ms Kezia Dugdale MSP The Scottish Parliament EDINBURGH EH991SP

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Ur faidhlelYour ref: AM120921 Ar faidhle/Our ref: 2012/0031582 October 2012

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~har you for your letter of 21 September to Alasdair Allan following the debate on support ~or students studying the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice. I understand completely the case being put forward by DPLP students and I am happy to explain again our policy on postgraduate support. However I do not agree that we need to hold a summit to discuss this matter. Support for law and other postgraduate subjects has evolved over a number of years. Prior to changes that we introduced two years ago, the system only supported around 1800 postgraduate students with both living and fee costs. In order to try to broaden this out we removed the living cost element and used the money to support more students with their fees. This raised the number that we could help to around 2,700. With further improvements, the Postgraduate Student's Allowances Scheme, administered by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, will, this year support around 5000 students with their fees which is nearly double the amount from the previous year. We estimate that the number of law students benefitting from our postgraduate support arrangements will increase to around 700 from the previous figure of 300. The budgetary restrictions that we are facing mean that we have to prioritise our resources and our main priority is to get as many students as possible through a first degree at undergraduate level. While I understand that law students would like more support, the resources are simply not available to provide this at the present time.

Taigh Naomh Anndrais, Rathad Regent, Dun Eideann EH1 30G St Andrew's House, Regent Road, Edinburgh EH1 30G www.scotland.gov.uk

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Where access more generally is concerned, the Scottish Funding Council has provided additional strategic funding to promote access to the high demand professions. This funding is given to a group of institutions, through the "REACH Project" to help improve access to professions, including Law, by targeting those schools with low progression to higher education. This national project supports and prepares secondary school pupils from S4-S6 wishing to pursue professional degrees.

Michael Russell

Taigh Naomh Anndrais. Rathad Regent, Dun Eideann EHl 30G St Andrew's House, Regent Road. Edinburgh EHl 30G www.scotland.gov.uk

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