High Level Summary of Statistics Trend Last update: Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Higher Education Students In Scotland
Since 2006-07 the number of students in Scottish higher education fell by 6,935 (2.5 per cent) to 272,625. 76.7 per cent of these students were Scottish domiciles (209,170). Entrant numbers fell by 3.5 per cent (4,965) in 2007-08 to 137,495. The proportion of entrants from the most deprived areas of Scotland improved slightly, with those from the 20 per cent most deprived areas now under-represented by 4.3 per cent.
The largest fall in the number of students in HE occurred amongst those doing 'Other Higher Education', falling 4,580 (or 8.5 per cent) from 54,160 in 2006-07 to 49,580 in 2007-08. The number of students doing 'First Degrees' (the most common level of study) fell by a much lower amount, dropping by 1,480 (or 1.1 per cent) from 133,740 in 2006-07 to 132,260 in 2007-08. 'Research Postgraduate' was the only level of study to witness an increase in student numbers over the past year, rising by 255 (or 2.7 per cent) from 9,360 students in 2006-07 to 9,615 in 2007-08.
Overseas student numbers remained relatively stable at 35,170. India is now the largest foreign contributor to HE student numbers in Scotland at 3,815, overtaking China at 3,770.
Sources: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) and Scottish Funding Council (SFC).
Age Participation Index (API)
The Scottish Age Participation Index (API) for a given year is defined as the number of young Scots aged under 21 who enter a full-time HE course for the first time in that year taken as a percentage of the population of 17 year olds at 31 December in the same year. In simple terms it is an estimate of the share of 17 year olds in the population who, can be expected to enter HE for the first time before their 21st birthday , if current trends continue.
The Age Participation Index (API) for Scotland was 43.2 per cent for 2007-08. This is a decrease of 2.9 per cent on the previous year (46.1 per cent). The API reached 54.1 per cent in 2000-01 and apart from an increase of 0.9 per cent in 2005-06 has decreased every year to 2007-08.
Participation by females has typically been around 10 per cent higher than for males. In 2007-08 the gender gap was 12.9 per cent, the highest it has been in the period from 1999-00 to 2007-08. The API for males was 36.9 per cent, a drop of 3.6 per cent on the previous year and for females the API was 49.8 per cent a drop of 2.2 per cent.
The participation rate at First Degree level was 25.4 per cent, a decrease of 1.6 per cent on the previous year (27.0 per cent). At Sub-Degree level participation was 17.8 per cent, down by 1.3 per cent on 2006-07 (19.1 per cent).
The majority of the decrease in the API is due to a 2.3 per cent decrease in initial participation at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). This has dropped from 28.8 per cent in 2006-07 to 26.5 per cent in 2007-08. Participation in colleges dropped by 0.6 per cent in the same period (from 15.5 per cent to 14.9 per cent. For HEIs in the rest of the UK participation has remained stable at 1.8 per cent.
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