The UK Statistics Authority has designated these statistics as National Statistics, in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. Find out more about the Code of Practice for Official Statistics at the UK Statistics Authority’s website.

Overview

College Performance Indicators (2022-23)

Figure 1: Outcomes for FE Student Enrolments on Full-Time Recognised Qualifications 2013-14 to 2022-23 at Scotland’s Colleges

Academic years 2020-21 to 2021-22 were heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic as described in previous publications and thus are not directly comparable with other academic years.

  1. The key points around the known results for 42,669 full-time further education (FE) students enrolled on recognised qualifications in 2022-23 are as follows:

  • Total FE full-time student enrolments have decreased by 0.5% (224) from 2021-22.

  • 74.7% of enrolled students on full-time FE programmes completed their course (up against 70.7% from 2021-22).

  • Of these completions, Successful Completion rates in 2022-23 were 4.6 percentage point (pp) higher than 2021-22 (63.6% versus 59% respectively) and 1.6pp lower than 2018-19 (pre-pandemic).

  • A further 11.1% completed their course but did not gain the qualification they were aiming for (down 0.6% from 2021-22). Some of those students may gain their award later.

  • Withdrawals saw a 4pp decrease during this time (25.3% versus 29.3%).

  • For large colleges1 success rates ranged from 52.3%-72.8% in 2022-23 and for small colleges success rates ranged from 50% up to 77.4%.

Figure 2: Outcomes for FE Student Enrolments on Part-Time Recognised Qualifications 2018-19 to 2022-23 at Scotland’s Colleges

  1. Figure 2 shows that the total number of FE students on part-time programmes of study has increased in 2022-23 by 2.9% (2795) from 2021-22.

  2. The results show that FE students who enrolled on shorter programmes are more likely to complete their studies, with those on 10 hours or less have a 95.1% success rate, with the success rate dropping with increasing hours (though, there is a 4.6% increase between ‘160 and 320 hours’ and 320 hours up to full-time’).

Figure 3: Level of Achievement for Students Completing an FE Course of 160 Hours or More Who Did Not Achieve ‘Full’ Success in 2022-23 at Scotland’s Colleges

Academic years 2020-21 to 2021-22 were heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic as described in previous publications and thus are not directly comparable with other academic years.

  1. There are 12,067 students enrolled on FE programmes in 2022-23 who completed without “full” success. This is a subset of numbers from Figure 1 (full-time) and Figure 2 (part-time) and excludes students below 160 hours and those who were not funded by SFC that are included in the earlier charts.

  2. It shows that 19.6% (2,363) of these students gained at least 75% of the units on their programme and 49.6% (5,984) passed over 50% of the units attempted.

  3. At the other end of the scale 20.4% (2,456) of these students failed to achieve any of the units for which they enrolled.

Figure 4: Outcomes by Education Scotland Subject Groupings on FE Courses Lasting 160 Hours or More at Scotland’s Colleges in 2022-23

  1. The subject groupings are based on the subject classification for the course aggregated into areas considered similar by Education Scotland (ES). A subject mapping can be found in a separate technical annex.

  2. Success rates for FE subject areas range from 53.5% for Science to 81.7% for Nautical studies courses (for courses over 160 hours duration).

Figure 5: Outcomes for HE Student Enrolments on Full-Time Recognised Qualifications 2013-14 to 2022-23 at Scotland’s Colleges

Academic years 2020-21 to 2021-22 were heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic as described in previous publications and thus are not directly comparable with other academic years.

  1. The key points around the known results for 25,791 full-time Higher Education (HE) students enrolled on recognised qualifications in 2022-23 are as follows:

  • Total HE student enrolments have decreased by 13.0% (3840) from 2021-22.

  • 79.4% of enrolled students on full-time HE programmes completed their course (up against 76.4% from 2021-22).

  • Of these completions, Successful completion rates were 3pp higher in 2022-23 versus 2021-22 (65.5% vs 62.5% respectively) and 4.3pp lower than 2018-19 (pre-pandemic).

  • A further 14% completed their course but did not achieve the qualification they were aiming for (up 0.1% from 2021-22). Some of those students may gain their award later.

  • Student withdrawals saw a 3pp decrease during this time (20.6% versus 23.6%).

  • Full-time HE success rates success rates ranged from 55.5% up to 74.1% in 2022-23.

Figure 6: Outcomes for HE Student Enrolments on Part-Time Recognised Qualifications 2018-19 to 2022-23 at Scotland’s Colleges

Academic years 2020-21 to 2021-22 were heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic as described in previous publications and thus are not directly comparable with other academic years.

  1. Figure 5 shows that the total number of HE students on part-time programmes of study has increased in 2022-23 by 0.6% (74) from 2021-22.

  2. The results show that HE students who enrolled on shorter 10 to 40 hour programmes are more likely to complete their studies (95.7%), but unlike FE students there is no clear trend with increasing hours (with success rates ranging from 72.3% for ‘40 to 80 hours’ and 74.7% for ‘320 to full-time hours’).

Figure 7: Level of Achievement for Students Completing an HE Course of 160 Hours or More Who Did Not Achieve ‘Full’ Success in 2022-23 at Scotland’s Colleges

  1. There are 4,302 students enrolled on HE programmes in 2022-23 who completed without “full” success. This is a subset of numbers from Figure 1 (full-time) and Figure 2 (part-time) and excludes students below 160 hours and those who were not funded by SFC that are included in the earlier charts.

  2. It shows that 20.7% (891) of these students gained at least 75% of the units on their programme and 45.6% (1,962) passed over 50% of the units attempted.

  3. At the other end of the scale 5.9% (254) of these students failed to achieve any of the units for which they enrolled.

Figure 8: Outcomes by Education Scotland Subject Groupings on HE Courses Lasting 160 Hours or More at Scotland’s Colleges in 2022-23

  1. For HE subject areas the success rates range from 49.7.7% for hospitality and tourism to 79.7% for Education and training courses (for courses over 160 hours duration).

Figure 9: Outcomes by Age Group on Recognised Course Lasting 160 Hours or More at Scotland’s Colleges

  1. Figure 9 below shows that students in the younger age groups are less likely to complete successfully than those in the older age groups: for example, 62.4% of those under 18 compared to 74.4% of those aged over 40 complete successfully and similarly, 78.6% and 84.9% completing students when including those with partial success.

  2. Younger students are more likely to enrol on full-time programmes which have a lower pass rate in comparison to part-time programmes and this may partly explain the lower pass rates for younger students.

Figure 10: Outcomes by Level and Sex on Recognised Course Lasting 160 Hours or More at Scotland’s Colleges

  1. Male students are 6.6pp more likely to successfully complete their FE programmes than female students, while the situation is reversed for HE programmes with female students being 2.5pp more likely to complete successfully than male students.

  2. Withdrawal rates are lower for males across both levels of study, being 2.5% lower for HE (17.3% vs 19.8%) and 4.8% in FE (16.7% vs 21.5%).

Figure 11: Outcomes by Key Groups on Courses Lasting 160 Hours or More at Scotland’s Colleges in 2022-23

  1. Success rates on 160 hours plus courses for students from the 10% and 20% most deprived postcode areas2 although similar, 62.5% and 63.6% respectively, fall below the comparator figure of 68.1% for all enrolments over 160 hours (FE and HE combined).

  2. The overall sector figure indicates that those students from an ethnic minority (BAME) background underperform against the “all enrolments” comparator group by -0.7% (67.4% vs 68.1% respectively).

  3. The national ambition ‘to increase the number of care-experienced learners enrolling and successfully completing at college’ continues in 2022-23. We continue to work with the sector to improve the quality of reporting for this key group of students. Factors behind the high reporting rate for this group include self-disclosure as well as formal evidencing via care experience bursary receipts. Figure 11 shows that care-experienced students are less likely to complete successfully (55.4%) and more likely to withdraw (27.6%) when compared to the other reported key interest groups.

Figure 12: Credit Performance Against Activity Targets in Scotland’s Colleges from 2020-21 to 2022-23

Academic years 2020-21 to 2021-22 were heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic as described in previous publications and thus are not directly comparable with other academic years.

  1. Colleges receive funding from SFC to deliver a target number of hours of learning (credits). For 2022-23 we consider the core target to be 1,725,225 credits which includes mainstream courses plus Foundation Apprenticeships (FAs), Young Person’s Guarantee (YPG), and National Transition Training Fund (NTTF). Overall, the sector delivered 98.1% of these places.

  2. The total number of funded FTE places delivered by colleges in 2022-23 is therefore 124,654 which included the places above plus courses not funded by SFC such as overseas students or full cost recovery courses delivered for local businesses.

Figure 13: Percentage of full-time teaching staff with a recognised teaching qualification in Scotland’s Colleges in 2022-23

Academic years 2020-21 to 2021-22 were heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic as described in previous publications and thus are not directly comparable with other academic years.

  1. The above figure measures the percentage of full-time permanent teaching staff with a teaching qualification recognised by the General Teaching Council for Scotland. This information is collected as part of the annual college staffing return.

  2. In 2022-23, out of 3,547 full-time permanent teaching staff, 3,129 held a recognised teaching qualification (88.2%). This shows a 1.4pp increase in the proportion of teaching staff with a recognised qualification over the reported three academic years.

Footnotes

  1. For the purposes of this publication the college categorisation of ‘large’ and ‘small’ is determined by the volume of credits delivered in the academic year. Colleges delivering above 25,000 credits are designated as ‘large’ and those below ‘small’. For individual college categorisation refer to the separate Technical Annex.↩︎

  2. Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020: the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) is the Scottish Government’s official tool for identifying those places in Scotland suffering from deprivation, combining in a single index seven different domains (aspects) of deprivation.↩︎