The Scottish Government

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8. CONCLUSION

Introduction

8.1 This chapter has two main sections. Firstly, it provides summary headline figures on Scottish students' income, expenditure, debt and savings. It also maps the patterning of these finances across key groups of students in relation to the widening access and participation policy agenda in Scotland. Secondly, it revisits the limitations of the current study and offers some points for consideration in relation to the research design of any future study of Scottish students' finances.

Headline Figures

Student Income

8.2 Full-time students in higher education have a mean income of £5166, compared to £12,057 for part-time students. Further education students had a lower mean income: £4299. For part-timers in higher education, more than 80% of their income is derived from employment while for full-timers less than 40% relates to earnings from employment, with more than 40% coming from student loans and bursaries. Just over 60% of full-time higher education students received income from employment during term-time and around three-quarters had taken out a student loan.

8.3 Income varies by age and especially according to whether a student has dependent children. However, gender made little difference to income, while working class students tended to receive high levels of income (perhaps because students from more affluent families received more in the way of non-cash benefits).

8.4 Compared to their academically qualified peers who chose not to enter higher education, students' income represented around half of that enjoyed by the non-students. Yet both groups experienced considerable levels of hardship, with students being more likely to have to do without essential items.

Student Expenditure

8.5 Full-time students in higher education have a mean expenditure of £6339 (more than 20% higher than their mean income). Around 80% of this sum is spent on housing and essential living costs. Part-time students in higher education have an expenditure of £10,453, mostly spent on living costs. Further education students tend to spend less (£5581) although again this spend was more than 25% above their mean income.

8.6 Expenditure varied strongly between different categories of student. Those students with dependent children tend to have the highest expenditure, while working class students spent more than their middle class peers. Part of the variance is accounted for by patterns of residence, with those who lived with their parents tending to accrue fewer expenses.

8.7 As with income, non-students had higher expenditure than students, in this case just over a fifth higher.

Student Debt

8.8 Full-time higher education students had a mean total debt of £4987, while part-timers owe an average of £4278. Further education students have a mean debt of £1266. While the majority of the debt of full-time higher education students relates to student loans, around a quarter relates to commercial credit. Mature students and those students with dependent children have accumulated the highest debts and those students from working class families owe over 25% more than their middle class peers.

8.9 Levels of debt accumulate over the period of study so that by the fourth year of study, full-time degree-only students owe an average of £7771.

8.10 While most students have to accumulate debt in order to complete their studies, non-students also run up debt. The level of debt of students, however, is much higher - almost 70% higher.

Student Savings

8.11 Full-time higher education students have mean total savings of £1596; part-time students have savings of £4294 and further education students £482. The levels of HE students' savings vary widely. Sub-degree students savings are half that of degree only students who, in turn have savings half that of PTHE students.

8.12 Note that a proportion of any savings sum might relate to money saved from vacation employment which is being used to subsidise term-time expenses, or indeed from money accrued prior to study.

8.13 Non-students have more than double the average level of savings of students.

8.14 Overall, compared to young Scots who are non-students, FTHE students have lower income, expenditure and savings and higher debt.

8.15 We now turn to analysis of differences amongst students. Table 8.1 below summarises the finances of the key student types. The figures are means for all students in the samples.

Table 8.1: Summary of students' finances

Patterns to Student Finances

8.16 The above table provides summary data on the total income, expenditure, debt and savings of the main student types. It is useful, however, to try to pattern these finances. The table below indicates the relative positioning of the finances of students who feature in the widening access agenda. In each category, such as males and females, the highest and lowest values are indicated relative to each other. Likewise mature students are compared to other age groups, those students with dependent children compared with those students without. Students from middle and working class backgrounds are compared too.

Table 8.2: Summary of relative finances of key student groups

Notes: FTHE = FTHE Combined.

Same = within a couple of hundred pounds difference.

Savings figures relate to all students; to compare those students who have savings, see Chapter 4, Table 4.20 and Chapter 5, Table 5.40.

8.17 As the above summary Table 8.2 reveals, for FTHE:

• Male and female students have roughly the same income, expenditure and debt but males higher savings.
• Mature students have the highest income, expenditure and debt, and lowest savings.
• Students with dependent children have higher income, expenditure and debt, and lower savings.
• Working class students have higher income, expenditure and debt, and lower savings.

8.18 For FE, the summary Table 8.2 reveals:

• Male students have higher income and savings; female students higher expenditure and debts.
• Mature students have high but not the highest income and expenditure and also the highest debt and savings.
• Students with dependent children have higher income, expenditure and debt and lower savings.
• Working class students have lower income, expenditure and debt, and higher savings.

8.19 Collapsing these summary findings reveals that in participating in post-compulsory study in Scotland, the financial situation of male and female students is mixed for FE students but fairly similar for HE students. In terms of social class there is a disparity between the financial circumstances of working class students in HE and FE, almost a polarisation. Of salience is the financial situation of mature students and those students with dependent children. Whilst both have at least high income across HE and FE, their expenditure falls short of this income, resulting in the highest debt; they also have the lower savings, except in FE. The potential overlap between these two student groups requires further investigation.

Limitations to the Current Study and Considerations for Future Research Design

8.20 Although there were problems with the execution of the research design, that design did improve upon that of the previous Scottish study. Its scope is wider and its analysis deeper. Although the total sample size of 9181 is below the target of 14,000 students, it is considerably larger than the previous Scottish study of 2004-05 by Callender et al. ⁸⁶ In addition, the current study sought to contrast student finances with those of non-students as well as triangulate the data for student finances. It also complemented the quantitative analysis with analysis drawn from qualitative research.

8.21 There are issues, however, that ought to be considered in the design and scope of any future study of Scottish student finances.

Resources and Incentives

8.22 The sample for the current Scottish study may well have been even larger and representativeness made easier if the potential respondents to the main survey had been better incentivised to participate. Moreover, the current study had competition from other student surveys carried out in Scotland at the same time. In particular, the National Student Satisfaction Survey was concurrent and institutions had a strong incentive to encourage student participation in this survey whilst these institutions had no incentive other than good citizenship to participate in the student finance survey. Moreover, this latter survey was recently re-branded as the National Student Survey, a title that may cause confusion amongst the target population should the student finances survey be re-run in future years.

8.23 Similarly, whilst a comparison of student finances with the finances of non-students is desirable, the intention had been to attach a survey of the latter to a cohort of young Scots already participating in a government-sponsored survey. Not being able to do so and having instead to create new sample of young Scots to be surveyed and then effectively 'cold-calling' this sample without incentives for their participation is likely to have impacted on the response rate for the control survey.

With future projects examining student finances in Scotland:

• There must also be co-ordination amongst government departments to ensure that the scheduling of key student surveys does not clash.
• These projects need to be better resourced in terms of being able to incentivise student participation and institutional support as well as any participation form non-students in a control survey.

Access

8.24 Not being able to directly access students caused problems. One problem was that the research team had to negotiate access to students through host institutions. Not only were such negotiations carried out simultaneously with over 60 institutions, but with multiple individuals within those institutions, for example Principals and Data Protection Officers. These negotiations were time-consuming and resource-intensive.

8.25 Once access had been negotiated, a second problem emerged, which was that communication with students for the screening survey had to occur through host institutions. The project thereby relied upon the goodwill of host institutions' officers to then disseminate the email, the screening survey and follow-up reminder notices. Both of these problems created a third problem, which was that the initial scheduling of the project became compromised and delays inevitable. These delays created scheduling problems not just for the research team, but also for the subcontractor as well as the later dissemination of the main survey. As a consequence, the main survey then clashed with student vacation times - a situation that should be avoided.

• Future surveys need to ensure that the research team has direct access to students in order to overcome these problems.

8.26 Another problem centred on access to students in that not every FE college in Scotland communicates directly and regularly with its students via email. This situation does not exist in HEIs. As a consequence, as this study has revealed, attempting to conduct a web-based survey with FE students is currently not feasible. Thus, whilst examining student finances in FE might be desirable, and FE colleges are willing to participate in the national study, the capacity of some colleges to directly contact their students limits the feasibility of such participation. The nature of enrolment at FE and the myriad of types of education provision also makes it difficult for any study to calculate the size of the target population for the study in FE colleges, with implications for the calculation of response rates and the generation of appropriate sample sizes.

• Any future studies that incorporate the study of FE students' finances should either do so in the context of all colleges having regular direct email communication with their students or have a research design that features a sample of FE college participants rather than aim to encompass all FE college students as participants.

Questionnaire Design

8.27 With regard to the participation of FE students another problem occurred - that in order to adequately accommodate questions and answers appropriate to these students, the length of the questionnaire increased. Consequently, with a myriad of routing options, the time required to complete the questionnaire also increased. It might be speculated that the enhanced time-commitment required of respondents may also have impacted on the completion rate of the questionnaire of the main survey. It is noticeable that FE students are not included in either the England and Wales studies or the European studies.

• Future Scottish studies, if they are to include FE students, might wish to consider a research design that targets these students separately from HE students. It might even be that separate but aligned projects for HE and FE students would be more apposite.

8.28 Whilst the cost of study for students is a policy concern, that cost needs to be assessed against the regular income, expenditure and debt of non-students. Much of what students spend is what can be called 'lifestyle expenditure' and is a choice - entertainment for example - and the sort of expenditure common to other young people. It is only by comparing the finances of students with non-students that the additional costs of study can be determined. The current study attempted to make this calculation. Unfortunately, it was difficult to secure a sample of young Scots who are non-students. The result for the current study was that only a small non-student control group was achieved. Data from this group has some utility, giving an indication of the financial situation of these non-students.

• Future studies might want to consider how a larger sample size might be achieved. This action might require cross-departmental discussions within the Scottish Government.

Future Research

8.29 The limitations of the current study therefore arise from its prescribed ambitions and a review of the scope and nature of the study would seem timely. In the meantime, the current study represents an improvement on the research design of the first study and provides a robust database of Scottish students' income, expenditure and debt, and which is comparable to the previous Scottish report. It also provides an indication of the finances of Scottish students compared to young Scots who are not students.

8.30 One of the strengths of the current study's research design is its innovative introduction of qualitative research with semi-structured interviews. The purpose of this introduction was to enable greater depth of analysis to be undertaken of the finances of students from working class backgrounds and whose greater access to and participation in post-compulsory education is a key policy objective in Scotland.

8.31 The findings of the current study suggest this methodology could and should be extended to any future study's analysis of mature students and those students who have dependent children. Both of these groups, as with students from working class backgrounds, are similarly targeted for widening access but as the current study reveals, have particular financial challenges whilst studying.

• These projects need to be better resourced in terms of being able to incentivise student participation and institutional support as well as any participation form non-students in a control survey.

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