This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
Overview of further and higher education
17/07/2003
Standard Tables on Higher Education and Further Education in Scotland: 2001-02 are released today to provide a comprehensive overview of further and higher education in Scotland.
This updates the previous Standard Tables published in September 2002. Most of the data they contain is already in the public domain, the exception being the Age Participation Index for 2001/02 which is published for the first time.
The main points of the National Statistics publication are:
- In 2001/02 the Age Participation Index (API) for Scotland was 51.5 per cent. The API is used to measure the proportion of young Scots who entered higher education anywhere in the UK for the first time in a given year. The API for 2001-02 remained unchanged from its 2000-01 level. The figure for females was 57.4 per cent, while for males it was 45.8 per cent.
- In 2001-02 there were 272,627 higher education students in Scotland, an increase of 4 per cent on the previous year. This number is 15 per cent higher than the corresponding number of higher education students in 1996-97.
- In 2001-02, 76 per cent of higher education students studied at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), while the remaining 24 per cent studied at Further Education Colleges (FECs). Only 0.1 per cent of enrolments on vocational further education courses were at HEIs in the same year.
- There were 208,538 students attending credit-bearing courses in HEIs in Scotland in 2001-02, a rise of 10 per cent on the previous year. Between 1996-97 and 2001-02 there was a rise of 21 per cent. In 2001-02 all but 234 of these students were studying for a higher education qualification.
- There were a total of 514,877 student enrolments recorded on courses in Scotland's 46 FECs for 2001-02. This is an increase of 8 per cent on the figure for 2000-01 and 35 per cent from 1996-97. Of this total 453,933 enrolments were by students on vocational courses. This represents an increase of 9 per cent on the figure for 2000/01 and 28 per cent from 1996-97.
- In 1996-97, 53 per cent of students in HEIs were female. By 2001-02 this figure had risen to 56 per cent. Over the same period the share of all enrolments at FECs attributable to female students rose from 53 per cent to 57 per cent. The actual number of students at HEIs and enrolments at FECs rose over the period for both genders. However at both HEIs and FECs the rate of growth for females was significantly higher.
These statistics are collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) from Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and by the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC) from Further Education Colleges (FECs). For years prior to 1998-99, the (former) Scottish Office Education and Industry Department (SOEID) collected data directly from FECs.
These tables contain information on students from both FECs and HEIs on all levels of courses, including higher education, further education, non-vocational and non-credit bearing.
This release gives data for a number of years to allow trends to be identified more easily. In doing this, some data has been re-classified, and so may no longer agree with previously published data. Where this is the case, these tables should be assumed to supersede any previous publications. There is a break in both the HE and FE data in 1994-95, due to a major revision of the surveys underpinning both sets of estimates. Comparison of data spanning 1994-95 should be considered indicative.
The Scottish Age Participation Index (API) has been included in this publication. I
n the past this series was regularly published in the Scottish Executive National Statistics Publication Students in Higher Education in Scotland. Now that the timetable for that publication has been moved forward, finalised API data will henceforth be published as part of this publication.
National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs. They are produced free from any political interference.