Royal Conservatoire of Scotland leads the way in widening access to higher education

Published: 03/02/2017

The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is leading the way in attracting applications and entrants to higher education in the performing arts through its award-winning widening access initiatives, according to figures released earlier today (Friday, 3 February 2017).

The Royal Conservatoire’s number of full-time students from the 40% most deprived areas in Scotland has gone from 26.9% in 2015/16 to 28.5% in 2016/17, an increase of 1.6%. The number of people entering undergraduate programmes at the Conservatoire from the 20% most deprived areas, has gone up by 2.7% to 12.5% from last year’s 9.8%.

Our award winning widening access initiative, Transitions 20/40, has shown that applicants applying to our undergraduate programmes via Transitions 20/40 have a 6.8% higher success rate at audition.

These figures released today by the Royal Conservatoire in response to the figures issued yesterday by the Scottish Funding Council, highlight the Royal Conservatoire’s commitment to and success in widening access to performing arts higher education.

Professor Jeffrey Sharkey, Principal of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, said: “The figures released today clearly demonstrate the success of our fair access initiatives. Our award-winning widening access programme, Transitions 20/40, has gone from strength to strength, transforming the lives of those involved. Now in its fourth year, we have seen the remarkable impact it is having on the lives of so many of our students and it is a credit to the Scottish Funding Council’s continued support and to our teaching staff for their commitment to the students.

“It is our belief that by nurturing the talent of more of Scotland’s young people, their choices and life opportunities will increase. In real terms, this is access to arts and humanities for all, enabling people from all walks of life to reach their extraordinary potential.”

The Royal Conservatoire, ranked sixth in the world for performing arts education, has a number of widening access programmes to support recruitment of exceptional entrants from a wide range of backgrounds. These include:

Transitions 20/40

Transitions 20/40 is an award winning performing arts initiative, which began in 2013. We believe that everyone with talent and potential should have access to training at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland regardless of their background. We understand that for many people who want to pursue a career in the performing arts, finding and funding suitable training can be challenging. The Transitions 20/40 initiative aims to provide funded training for those wishing to study within the performing or production arts. Transitions 20/40 seeks to help people from key Scottish postcodes who would like to study dance, drama, music, production or filmmaking and offers mentoring and funded training. T20/40 is funded by the Scottish Funding Council.

Widening Access to the Creative Industries

Widening Access to the Creative Industries (Production and Performance) is run by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland on behalf of FOCUS West and offers tailored support to S5 and S6 pupils who are interested in progressing in the performing or production arts.

Creative Pathways Assistants in Dance and Drama

The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Glasgow Kelvin College, with the support of Glasgow City Council, offer a one-year, work-based learning experience for S6 pupils at Glasgow’s secondary schools. Young people studying dance or drama at Higher level and who want to continue to study at school, college and the national conservatoire can enter the Creative Pathways. Students study part-time at school and at Glasgow Kelvin College, gaining experience of administration, communication, development of self and of others. The learning is put into practice alongside tutors within the programme for children and young people at the nation’s conservatoire. Successful applicants have the opportunity to gain SQA qualifications from Glasgow Kelvin College as well as credit for an RCS short course called Pre-HE Creative Project.

You can follow Transitions on Facebook.