Scottish universities have only a handful of courses left on offer to home-grown applicants through the clearing system, while would-be students from other countries have their pick of hundreds.
Dundee University was offering only seven courses to most Scots and to applicants from the EU. More than 100 courses were open to applicants from the rest of the UK and from non-EU countries, although a similar number were available to Scots from deprived areas.
The university stated: “We are currently offering a small number of Widening Access vacancies to candidates from the 40% most multiply-deprived areas in Scotland. These places have been made available from ring-fenced funds provided by the Scottish Funding Council.”
Abertay University had 36 courses available through clearing. Only 12 of them were open to students from Scotland and the EU. However, applicants from non-EU countries could choose from 31 courses and 32 were open to applicants from the rest of the UK.
It was a similar picture at Stirling University, where only three courses were available for Scots students compared to dozens from those from other parts of the UK. St Andrews University is not taking part in clearing this year.
Tory education spokeswoman Liz Smith said the Scottish Government was taking a “discriminatory approach” to higher education by putting pressure on universities to take more fee-paying students and offering fewer opportunities to Scots.
The Government picks up the bill for teaching Scottish students which is effectively a cap on their numbers while those from the rest of the UK and from non-EU countries pay thousands of pounds a year in tuition fees.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We have made an increased number of places available for Scottish students and are directly funding an additional 2,000 places.
“22,770 Scottish students an increase of 2% compared to this point last year have already been accepted to our universities, and evidence from previous years shows more Scottish students are likely to gain places through clearing.”
Gordon Maloney, president of NUS Scotland, said: “When Scottish student numbers are going up and there are 8,000 additional places coming on stream for widening access and students coming from college, no one can argue Scottish students are losing out to students from south of the border.
“While we’d prefer it if universities were able to go into clearing for all, it does come in the same week that we’ve seen record numbers of Scottish students accepted to Scottish universities.
“We welcome these increases for Scottish students and hope that clearing can provide an increase in places for students from the rest of the UK, too.”