Access for Rural Communities

Access for Rural Communities  (ARC)

The ARC initiative is a groundbreaking project designed to empower young learners from rural communities and support their journey to higher education.

We are committed to helping rural pupils in S4, S5 and S6 to explore the opportunities in Higher Education and to prepare them for university life with confidence.

What we offer for pupils:

Weekly tutoring sessions: to guide students through key academic concepts, help them revise for their high school exams, and prepare for university-level study.
Information and guidance sessions: to provide insights into university life, the application processes, and student support.
Subject taster sessions: to sample university courses, helping students discover their academic interests and potential career paths.

Students enrolled in the ARC programme will also have the chance to apply for the S4 Summer School, offering a hands-on experience of and further preparation for Higher Education.

We would like to collaborate with teachers to:

Raise awareness of the support available for rural applicants, including contextual admissions, scholarship and fees information, and funded outreach programmes.
Deliver tailored online sessions to help demystify university life and equip teachers with the essential resources to help their pupils thrive and succeed with the UCAS application process.
Build confidence in your students who may not yet see university as a realistic or accessible option to them.
Receive your nomination for pupils to the ARC programme.

Teachers at participating ARC schools are invited to our Teachers Together annual summer conference, where they will have the opportunity to discuss and feed back on the programme, allowing us to tailor it to their students’ needs.

If you are interested in our ARC programme and you are a teacher, please fill out this form to register your interest. We will be in touch with the opportunities we have available to your pupils and will ask you to submit the names and details of the pupils you think would benefit most from this programme.

If you are a pupil and would like to take part in the programme, please have a chat with your head of year about the programme, or send us an email at rural.access@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Details about the 2026 Summer School will be provided shortly.

The summer school is an opportunity to explore subjects offered at the University of St Andrews, to get a taste of student life, and to meet other pupils from across Scotland.

Applications are welcome from S4 pupils who will progress to S5 after the summer break.

In previous years, the University of St Andrews has covered the cost of transport, accommodation and meals over the course of four days and three nights.
The University of St Andrews is interested in understanding the particular barriers pupils applying to and attending university from rural areas may face and understanding the best ways we can support pupils going forward. Colleagues have therefore undertaken research which assessed the effects of rurality on access to Higher Education in Scotland, in particular to the University of St Andrews.

This research:
- gathered evidence to gain a better understanding of the perception of access to Higher Education from these rural communities
- proposed some guiding principles to ensure that young people living in these rural communities have equal opportunities to attend highly competitive courses offered at Scottish institutions and in turn realise a positive destination
- developed an index reflecting the level of access to Higher Education according to the degree of rurality
Please see the following documents for further information:
- Access to Higher Education for Scottish Rural communities: an exploratory analysis
- Facts explained: access to higher education for Scottish rural communities: an exploratory analysis

The information collected in this form will be held and used only in the ways outlined in the University's data collection statement.

Access for Rural Communities

S4 Summer School

S5 Summer School

ARC research