The paper will examine the personality types of final-year pupils in some Scottish rural communities. It will stress (1) how these personality types could influence pupils’ decision to pursue their education at university and (2) what can be learnt from this examination to ensure that young people from these communities have equal opportunities to access HE. In particular, it will highlight how schools in these areas and policy-makers could ease the transition from schools to university through a better understanding of personality types of these young people. 

This examination is motivated by trends characterising Scottish students, policy decisions affecting the HE sector by the Government and recent research on personality types.

In Scotland, (1) young people from Scottish rural areas are less likely to go to university than those from non-rural areas, (2) the drop-out rate of Scottish students is higher than that of non-Scottish students, and (3) there exist severe gender imbalances (greater than 75% of one gender) in some subjects. 

Recent research has shown that there exists a link between personality and subjects studied at university. For instance, realistic-type or investigative-type pupils are more likely to study Science subjects than Arts and Humanities subjects. It is commonly acknowledged that adequate support and information during the study choice process could reduce dropping-out and improve success rates. Indeed, ‘students that carefully explore their options are more likely to end up in a major that suits their interests and potential, which in turn will lead to higher retention’ (Fonteyne et al, 2016).

Finally, the Scottish Government has made the pledge that no subject will have an extreme gender imbalance by 2030.

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