Our Students

There are 213,135 college students

The median age of a college student is 22

1 in 5 (22%) of Scotland’s 18-19 year-olds attended college full-time

Age

Under 16 years 11%
16-24 years 45%
25 years and over 44%

Gender:

Men: 47%

Women: 52%

Other/prefer not to say: 1%

Hours of Learning

Colleges delivered over 69 million hours of learning – remaining stable despite Covid-19

Hours of Learning by Age:

Under 16 5%
16-24 65%
25 and over 30%

96% of all learning hours lead to a recognised qualification – a 1% increase

Mode of Attendance

Full-time 30%

Part-time 70%

Level of Study

Further Education 80%

Full-time 17%
Part-time 63%

Higher Education 20%

Full-time 13%
Part-time 7%

Colleges deliver around a quarter (23%) of all higher education in Scotland

Entrants to higher education in colleges has increased by 7%

70% of higher education entrants in colleges are on HNC or HND programmes

44% of all full-time college activity is in higher education

25% of entrants to higher education courses in colleges are from the 20% most deprived areas of Scotland

41% of full-time firstdegree entrants from the 20% most deprived areas progressed to university after graduating from college

7,665 students with an HNC/D progressed from college to university -
58% entered into year 2 or 3 at university, and
25% of those were from the 20% most deprived backgrounds

Top 10 Subject Areas

Health Care/Medicine/Health and Safety 46,588 (number of students)

Engineering 29,852

Family Care/Personal Development/Personal Care and Appearance 27,151

Business/Management/Office Studies 20,567

Construction and Property (Built Environment) 17,313

Information Technology and Information 16,407

Area Studies/Cultural Studies/Languages/Literature 10,207

Sciences and Mathematics 9,045

Politics/Economics/Law/Social Sciences 8,656

Catering/Food/Leisure Services/Tourism 8,257

Overseas Students

   2016/17  2017/18   2018/19  2019/20 2020/21
 Europe (including EU)  505  503  769  267 305
 International (outwith Europe)  607  616  867  709 1,012
 Rest of UK  914  843  1,376  1,253 1,800

205 nationalities are represented in colleges

Student Funding

Bursary: £94.0m
Discretionary: £9.0m
Childcare: £9.6m
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Members’ Area

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