NOTES AND DEFINITIONS

Notes on the Tables

GENERAL

1. These tables contain information on students from both Higher Education Institutes and colleges who are attending Higher Education and Further Education courses in Scotland.
2. In all tables 0, 1, 2 are rounded to 0. All other numbers are rounded up or down to the nearest 5. Numbers may not sum to totals exactly due to rounding.
3. Where shown, percentages have been calculated on un-rounded values.
4. These tables give data for a number of years to allow trends to be identified more easily. In doing this, some data have 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. For example changes were made to the coding system for subjects in 2002-03.
5. Disability type information was not always present for students coded as having a disability.
6. Open University enrolments are only included where stated.
7. EU data includes accession countries which joined in May 2004 in academic year 2004-05 onwards and excludes accession countries which joined in January 2007 (Bulgaria and Romania).
8. Higher Education enrolments at Bell College and University of the Highlands and Islands Millennium Institute (UHIMI) partner colleges covered in these data are included in the HEI totals from 2001-02 onward.
9. In 2005-06 Fife College of Further & Higher Education and Glenrothes College merged to form Adam Smith College.
10. In 2005-06 Glasgow College of Food Technology and Glasgow College of Building and Printing merged to form Glasgow Metropolitan College.
11. In 2005-06 Falkirk College of Further & Higher Education and Clackmannan College of Further Education merged to form Forth Valley College.
12. Supplementary subject figures are included in the main subject groupings. They are also reported separately for clarity. Economics and politics is included in social studies, English is included in languages, geography is included in social studies, environmental science is included in physical sciences and psychology is included in biological sciences.

QUALIFIERS

1. Postgraduate qualifiers include; doctorate, masters, postgraduate bachelors degrees, postgraduate diplomas or certificates, PGCE/ PGDE and professional qualification at postgraduate level.
2. First Degree qualifiers include; first degrees, first degrees with qualified teacher status, enhanced first degrees, first degrees obtained concurrently with a diploma and intercalated first degrees.
3. Sub Degree qualifiers include; Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE), Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE), professional qualification at undergraduate level, foundation courses at HE level, HND, HNC, NVQ/ SVQ levels 5 and 4, diplomas and certificates at undergraduate level and other formal HE qualifications of less than degree standard.
4. Supplementary subject figures are included in the main subject groupings. They are also reported separately for clarity. Economics and politics is included in social studies, English is included in languages, geography is included in social studies, environmental science is included in physical sciences and psychology is included in biological sciences.
5. EU data includes accession countries which joined in May 2004 in the figures for academic year 2004-05 onwards, and excludes accession countries which joined in January 2007 (Bulgaria and Romania).
6. Bell College and the 8 UHIMI partner colleges became HEIs in 2001/02. In 2001/02 there were 1,665 higher education graduates from these two HEIs.
7. Due to the introduction of the Teacher Induction Scheme in 2002, most teaching graduates going into teaching posts in Scotland now fall into the temporary UK employment category, which skews postgraduate figures towards temporary UK employment.
8. 'Believed unemployed' includes; qualifiers from HEIs that are looking for employment, further study or training or are due to start a job in the next month plus graduates from FEC who have no arrangement for further study or employment.
9. 'Other' destinations include; those who are unable to work, looking after the home or family, taking time out in order to travel, or are not otherwise included under an alternative heading.
10. Domicile: country of the student's permanent or home address prior to entry to the course.

Sources

1. These statistics are collected by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) from Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Current guidance notes on the collection of these statistics can be found at http://www.hesa.ac.uk/manuals/home.htm .
2. The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has the responsibility to collect data from FECs (Further Education Colleges). Current guidance notes on the collection of these statistics can be found at http://www.sfc.ac.uk/statistics/stats_fe_info.htm
3. If other sources are used these are referred to in the 'Sources' footnote of the table.

Definitions

Domicile: The location or country of the student's permanent or home address prior to entry to the programme of study.

Other UK domiciles: Include the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man

UK unknown: Represents those domiciled within the UK but whose region of domicile within the UK is unknown

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Further Education: Non school based education below SVQ level 4, SCQF level 7, i.e. below HNC level; non advanced post school education.

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Higher Education: Education at SVQ level 4 or above, SCQF level 7 or above, for example HNC, HND, degree, postgraduate degree.

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Postgraduate qualifiers include; doctorate, masters, postgraduate bachelors degrees, postgraduate diplomas or certificates, PGCE/PGDE and professional qualification at postgraduate level

First Degree qualifiers include; first degrees, first degrees with qualified teacher status, enhanced first degrees, first degrees obtained concurrently with a diploma and intercalated first degrees.

Sub Degree qualifiers include; Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE), Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE), professional qualification at undergraduate level, foundation courses at HE level, HND, HNC, NVQ/SVQ levels 5 and 4, diplomas and certificates at undergraduate level and other formal HE qualifications of less than degree standard.

Higher degrees (research); Include doctorate, masters and postgraduate bachelor's degrees mainly by research.

Higher degrees (taught); Include doctorate, masters and postgraduate bachelor's degrees not mainly by research.

Other postgraduate; Include Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE), Post Graduate Diploma in Education and all other postgraduate qualifications.

Undergraduate; Include all HE qualifications up to degree level (SCQF level 9).

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Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework (SCQF)

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Vocational/Non vocational: A vocational programme is one primarily designed to prepare students for employment or a profession, by increasing their knowledge, skill or proficiency in related subjects. Non vocational is used for identifying leisure classes with no qualification and no vocational aim.

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Enrolments: Refers to the instances of attendance on a course in higher or further education.

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Entrants: Refers to those enrolments in their first year of study.

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Graduates/Qualifiers: Refers to those enrolments who successfully completed a higher education course in Scotland in the years covered.

Students: The term refers to instances of enrolments on courses in higher education or further education, it does not represent a count of individuals; it is consistent with previous issues and is general practice across the UK. Disparity between the number of students and the number of enrolments is due to students enrolled on multiple courses; this is most common among those enrolled in part-time study and those enrolled in courses below degree level.

The extent of the disparity is around 2.7% for those studying at Higher Education Institutions and 7% for higher education students enrolled at colleges (2006-07).

For some groups of students it is not obvious whether they should or should not be included in the count of students, for example exchange students, those studying outside the UK and those starting their course mid way through the academic year. The Scottish Government statistics provided in this publication include all students for whom a teaching input is required in the respective year. The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) has in recent years developed an alternative count, called Standard Registration Population, which is used for HESA and Scottish Funding Council publications. The table below shows the difference between the counts.

† These students are currently included by the Scottish Government count, but excluded by the HESA count

‡ These students are currently excluded by the Scottish Government, but included in the HESA count

National statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff - more information on the standards of national statistics in Scotland can be accessed at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/About