Universities across Scotland have vowed to widen access to people from the most deprived areas of the country at a faster rate.

Action to be taken includes contextualised admissions, making clearer the minimum entry requirements for all courses, making it easier for students to move from college direct to university courses and guaranteed offers for care-experienced applicants who meet minimum entry requirements.

The 15 recommendations of the Working to Widen Access report are to be enacted at Scotland's 19 higher education institutions.

Universities Scotland said it will make a "significant contribution" to a Scottish Government target of deprived backgrounds making up 20% of the student population by 2030.

Professor Sally Mapstone, principal and vice chancellor of the University of St Andrews, led the working group on university admissions.

She said: "Scotland is taking a big step forward with contextualised admissions in a concerted bid to widen access at a faster rate.

"Universities will set minimum entry requirements for all courses: we will be very clear to whom this applies; and we will use consistent, user-friendly language to describe the process."

Greater "clarity and consistency" is also to be used in the terms and language that universities use when it comes to widening access.

Professor Andrea Nolan, convener of Universities Scotland, said: "There is a will and a shared commitment amongst principals to push beyond what we have already been doing to widen access, to work with the latest evidence and respond with new ways of doing things."

Taking action to join up, agree a shared language and achieve more consistency in our admissions processes shows that we are serious about doing things differently.

The Scottish Conservatives welcomed the commitment.

Shadow education secretary Liz Smith said: "It is essential that all applicants, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, know exactly what will be required of them as they make that application."