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Attainment in Higher Education and Destinations of Leavers 2006-07
28/10/2008
Statistics on qualifiers from higher education courses at Scottish higher education institutions (HEIs) and Scottish colleges for 2006-07 are published today by Scotland's Chief Statistician, along with survey information on the first destinations of full-time, EU domiciled qualifiers in the same year.
The publication reports on all higher education qualifications, including those at HNC/HND level and students that upgraded their previous higher education qualification. This updates the publication issued on October 2, 2007. Except where stated, qualifiers from Open University in Scotland are not reported in this publication.
Key Findings:
Qualifiers
- The number of higher education qualifiers from Scottish institutions has continued to rise, in the most recent year by 4 per cent (2,865 qualifiers), to the record high of 77,380 in 2006-07. Almost half of this increase was due to a rise of 2,120 in the number of masters qualifications obtained
- Scottish colleges saw a decrease in qualifiers of 1 per cent, down to 22,030, mostly due to a decrease in the number of HNCs awarded (down by 1,135, 11 per cent)
- The 20 per cent most deprived areas of Scotland contain about 20 per cent of the Scottish population; 10 per cent of Scots qualifiers from Scottish higher education institutions and 20 per cent from Scottish colleges are from deprived areas within Scotland
- Since 2005-06 there has been an increase of 1 percentage point in the proportion of first degree qualifiers who obtained first class honours (for both males and females)
- The number of qualifications obtained by international students increased by 17 per cent from 12,725 in 2005-06 to 14,895 in 2006-07. Scots domiciles account for nearly three quarters of qualifiers from Scottish institutions, 73 per cent
First Destinations
- 58 per cent of qualifiers from full-time higher education courses at Scottish institutions were in permanent or temporary UK employment 6 months after completing their course, a further 31 per cent were engaged in further study or training. 74 per cent of those in permanent UK employment were employed in graduate level occupations
- Of qualifiers in permanent employment (in the UK or overseas) the proportion employed in Scotland has increased by 2 percentage points since 2005-06 to 81 per cent. 92 per cent of Scots qualifiers in permanent employment were employed within Scotland, an increase of 2 percentage points since last year.
- 38 per cent of those from the most deprived areas of Scotland were in further study or training 6 months after qualifying, compared to 30% of those from other areas
- 70 per cent of Scots postgraduate and first degree qualifiers from Scottish Higher Education institutions were employed in graduate level occupations within Scotland or engaged in further study or training 6 months after completing their higher education course. This figure is used as a proxy indicator in 'Scotland Performs'. The figure is unchanged compared to the previous year. Over half of qualifiers in permanent UK employment at the time of the survey were employed in either health, social and community work (31 per cent) or finance and business services (24 per cent)