About

Our vision is to empower school leavers in Scotland  to realise their full potential as students in further and higher education and beyond.

Our mission is to deliver an exciting student transition platform to 16-25 year olds in the period as they leave school, leading up to and during their first year in further and higher education which is relevant, well designed, evidence-led and student-reviewed.

Question    Why does this matter?

Answer      The School to University transition is critically under-supported

The Gap No One Owns

The transition from school to university is one of the most significant life changes a young person faces — new environment, new independence, new academic regimes, new financial pressures, new social expectations — often all at once, and often with no structured support bridging the two worlds.

Schools focus on getting students exam results. Universities can focus on students once they matriculate.

The critical period in between — and starting their first year experience — is largely unowned.

This gap disproportionately affects young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, those with mental health challenges, and first-generation university students who have no family blueprint for what university life actually involves. For the young people My Student Years CIC works with — aged 16–25, some from communities underserved by traditional support structures — this gap is not just inconvenient.

It can be the difference between flourishing and dropping out.

How is this evidenced?

Example 1 — 28% rise in dropout numbers

The number of students who applied for a student loan before dropping out rose by 28%, from 32,491 in 2018–19 to 41,630 in 2022–23 [1][2]. That is over 40,000 young people a year who began a university journey and could not complete it — representing wasted potential, personal distress, and significant financial cost to the individual and to public funding. Importantly, this figure covers only England, Wales and Northern Ireland — Scotland is excluded — meaning the true UK-wide number is even higher [1].

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Example 2 — Mental health is now the leading driver of dropout — and it has nearly tripled

The number of students identified as having a mental health challenge has nearly tripled in six years, from 6% in 2016/17 to 16% in 2022/23, and students are 25% more likely to cite mental health as the primary reason for considering dropping out compared to any other explanation [3]. As of early 2025, the upward trend has continued unabated [4]. Critically, research shows that many students conceal their struggles from family and friends, and living beyond familiar support structures leaves students in need of compassionate people to turn to — especially when large-group teaching environments make it easy to remain invisible [9].

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Example 3 — Disadvantaged young people are significantly less likely to stay the course

Students from the most deprived areas of England have degree completion rates of 84.5%, compared to 90.9% for those from the least deprived areas — a gap of 6.4 percentage points [5]. Wider government data shows the progression gap between disadvantaged pupils and all other pupils reached 19.9 percentage points in 2022/23, the largest gap in the series [6][7]. This is not an attainment gap — it is a support gap. Young people from lower-income backgrounds arrive at university less equipped with informal networks, financial buffers, and the practical life skills that smooth the transition, and they are more likely to leave when things get hard.

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References

[1] Times Higher Education (2024) More than 40,000 students drop out of UK university courses. Available at: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/more-40000-students-drop-out-uk-university-courses (Accessed: 28 May 2026).

[2] Roar News (2023) Poor courses or poor support?: university dropout rates reach new high. Available at: https://roarnews.co.uk/2023/university-dropout-rates-rise/ (Accessed: 28 May 2026).

[3] Sanders, M. (2023) Student mental health in 2023: who is struggling and how the situation is changing. London: The Policy Institute, King's College London and TASO. Available at: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/policy-institute/assets/student-mental-health-in-2023.pdf (Accessed: 28 May 2026).

[4] TASO (2025) Troubling times for student mental health. Available at: https://taso.org.uk/news-blog/troubling-times-for-student-mental-health/ (Accessed: 28 May 2026).

[5] Office for Students (2023) A statistical overview of higher education in England. Available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/publications/annual-review-2023/a-statistical-overview-of-higher-education-in-england/ (Accessed: 28 May 2026).

[6] Department for Education (2024) Widening participation in higher education, academic year 2022/23. Explore Education Statistics. Available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/widening-participation-in-higher-education/2022-23 (Accessed: 28 May 2026).

[7] Department for Education (2026) Widening participation in higher education, academic year 2023/24. Explore Education Statistics. Available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/widening-participation-in-higher-education/2023-24 (Accessed: 28 May 2026).

[8] Student Loans Company (2026) Early-in-year student withdrawal notifications: academic year 2018/19 to 2025/26. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/early-in-year-student-withdrawal-notifications-academic-year-201819-to-202526-up-to-21022026 (Accessed: 28 May 2026).

[9] Worsley, J.D., Harrison, P. and Corcoran, R. (2021) 'Bridging the gap: exploring the unique transition from home, school or college into university', Frontiers in Public Health, 9, article 634285. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8009977/ (Accessed: 28 May 2026).