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Higher Education Graduates and Diplomates in Scotland: 2000-01
Annex : Statistical Notes to News Release
1. Data Sources
The figures in these tables contains information on students, from both Higher Education Institutions and Further Education Colleges, who successfully completed a higher education course in Scotland.
Students in Scotland can undertake higher education courses in either Higher Education Institutions or Further Education Institutions.
The information on the numbers and characteristics of graduates and diplomates are collected from these two sectors separately:
- Prior to 1 July 1999, The Scottish Executive (formerly The Scottish Office) collected information from Further Education Institutions in Scotland on those who had achieved a higher education qualification. From 1 July 1999, this information will be collected by the Scottish Further Education Funding Council.
- HESA (the Higher Education Statistics Agency) undertakes the collection of information from all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the UK.
2. Information Collected
2.1 Graduates and Diplomates
The Scottish Executive (formerly The Scottish Office) has collected annual information from Further Education Institutions (FEIs) in Scotland on all full time students only who achieved a higher education qualification.
HESA collects information from the Higher Education Institutions on qualifications obtained in the end of academic session student record. This is collected for both full-time and part-time students. The analysis is based on those students who are recorded as receiving a qualification, but is not restricted to those with a 'date left institution' field completed. The numbers therefore include intercalated degrees awarded. It highlights some problem areas in earlier years, which have been resolved since by HESA, where interim qualifications have been incorrectly recorded in the HESA record by some institutions, and where 'date left institution' information is incomplete.
2.2 Data Quality and Coverage
Due to an improvement in data quality, graduate information for 2000-01 is not fully comparable with previous years. It is likely that the number of final year HE group award qualifications achieved, in relation to higher education students in Further Education Colleges, was overstated in the period before 2000-01, with an equivalent understatement of students continuing to study. At this stage it is not possible to precisely calculate the effect of this change on data for previous years. Higher education graduates from further education colleges account for approximately one quarter of all higher education graduates. Hence, the data quality issue affects only this portion of the overall HE graduate population. Exploratory work on estimating these effects will be carried out in 2003 when more information becomes available. In the meantime comparison between 2000-01 data and that for earlier years should be regarded with caution.
The structure of the higher education sector in Scotland changed as a result of the Further and Higher Education (Scotland) Act 1992. The 8 universities previously funded by the Universities' Funding Council, the SOEID-funded central institutions, the teacher education institutions and the Scottish Agricultural College, funded by Scottish Office Agriculture and Fisheries Department, are now grouped together under the heading 'Higher Education Institutions' (HEIs). The other institutions offering higher education courses in Scotland are the FEIs and the Open University. Throughout this release, the term 'higher education in Scotland' denotes provision by HEIs and FEIs only and excludes figures for the Open University in Scotland.
In 1994-95, HESA assumed responsibility for the collection of information on students at all HEIs in the UK. With this change in administration came an inevitable change in coverage. For example, for the first time continuing education courses and those students engaged in distance learning at the 8 universities previously funded by the Universities' Funding Council were captured in the figures.
Data on students on non-vocational courses and those attending continuing education courses in universities were not previously collected and therefore are not included in the data up to 1993-94. From 1994-95, those on continuing education courses are included but cannot be separately identified in order to extract them.
This release gives data for a number of years to allow trends to be identified more easily. In doing this, some data have been reclassified, so may no longer agree with previously published data. Where this is the case, this bulletin should be assumed to supersede any previous publications. Also, in doing this some anomalies in the data are apparent. These have been resolved or explained as far as possible but some still exist. Some of these may be due to changes in definitions over the time period.
Where a breakdown of data was unavailable certain assumptions have been made. Where a student's sex was unknown, the figures have been apportioned pro-rata to known, where available. Where length of contract of employment is unknown, it has been assumed to be permanent.
Information on students completing teacher training courses were included in the figures from the 1995 bulletin onwards. For years prior to 1995, all figures for the destination of teacher training graduates have been estimated. This means that figures given here are not directly comparable with information contained in bulletins prior to 1995.
HESA data for 1994-95 onwards include graduates and diplomates recorded under writing-up codes, but exclude any qualifications or credits gained that are leading to an undergraduate or postgraduate qualification.
Nursing students were absorbed into the Higher Education Institution sector in 1996-97, and counted in returns for the first time in that year.
3. Definitions
3.1 Level of Study
The three levels of study used are:
Postgraduate - students successfully completing courses where a first degree qualification is an entry requirement. This includes students gaining higher degrees, postgraduate diplomas or equivalent.
First Degree Graduate - students successfully completing courses leading to a first degree or equivalent.
Sub Degree Diplomate - students successfully completing courses classified as higher education but not classified as postgraduate or first degree. These qualifications include the Certificate of Higher Education and Diploma of Higher Education, and Higher National Diplomas and Certificates (HNDs/HNCs); however they exclude Higher National units below group award level.
The term ' graduate' refers to a student who has successfully completed a course at first degree level or above; the term ' diplomate' refers to a student who has successfully completed a course at below first degree level.
3.2 Symbols
The following symbol has been used:
" ** " indicates withheld to avoid disclosure.
4. Enquiry point of contact
Kirsty MacLean
Scottish Executive
Further & Higher Education Statistics
3 rd Floor, Meridian Court
5 Cadogan Street,
Glasgow, G2 6AT.
E-mail - fhestatistics@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
Tel. (0141) 242 0270
Fax. (0141) 242 5579
Web publication document date: 20 December 2002
Further information about HESA can be found on their website www.hesa.ac.uk.
Further information about SFEFC can be found on their website www.sfefc.ac.uk.
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