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Overview

An infographic highlighting some select statistics from the report

UPDATE: University retention and articulation analysis was added to this publication on 17 December 2024. The full background tables are now available, along with the final two sections of this report.

Introduction

  1. This is the eighth SFC Report on Widening Access, providing updated statistics relating to equality and diversity of the student population across Scotland’s Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and colleges for 2022-23. The background tables provide extensive breakdowns covering entrants, qualifiers, college completion rates, college leaver destinations, university graduate outcomes, and university staffing. The Annex document provides additional context and metadata.

  2. This publication uses three metrics in its university figures: (i) Scottish-domiciled full-time first degree (FTFD) entrants, (ii) Scottish-domiciled undergraduate entrants (SDUE), and (iii) Scottish-domiciled all undergraduate HE entrants. The latter is the broadest definition of undergraduate and includes part-time. This is shown alongside full-time in the COWA tables and data presented here, allowing us to combine with college HE to derive figures for the tertiary sector. Meanwhile SDUE is only shown in the background tables and uses a slightly narrower definition comprised of first degree and other undergraduate sub-degree provision at HN-level only.1 For a breakdown of these levels of study, see the Context Data sheet in the background tables.

  1. For academic year 2022-23 HESA introduced a new data platform and a new model for their student record. HEIs faced notable challenges in making their student returns for 2022-23. Changes to how certain information is now collected in the student record and the transition to using the new Student record have both impacted the publication’s statistics. A full account of data quality for the 2022-23 student collection can be found in HESA’s quality report and the data insights tool. Affected statistics have been highlighted in the text of this publication and in related background tables.

  2. Due to the introduction of HESA Data Futures, HESA was delayed in providing SFC with the necessary datasets to complete university retention and articulation analysis, and there were deeper data quality checks than is normally required. To avoid further delays, this publication was initially released without the retention and articulation data, which were then incorporated into this updated version.

Key Indicators for SIMD

Table 1: Scottish-domiciled full-time first degree entrants at university2 and Scottish-domiciled all undergraduate HE entrants (universities and colleges), by 20% most deprived (SIMD0-20) areas and care experience (CE), 2013-14 to 2022-23

Academic Year Total Entrants Entrants from MD20 % MD20 entrants CE Entrants % CE entrants
2013-14 28,285 3,850 13.7% 145 0.5%
2014-15 28,640 3,965 13.9% 170 0.6%
2015-16 28,770 4,015 14.0% 160 0.6%
2016-17 28,885 3,965 13.8% 170 0.6%
2017-18 29,880 4,650 15.6% 255 0.8%
2018-19 31,065 4,900 15.9% 320 1.0%
2019-20 30,620 4,970 16.4% 370 1.2%
2020-21 33,290 5,515 16.7% 510 1.5%
2021-22 33,885 5,595 16.5% 545 1.6%
2022-23 32,760 5,310 16.3% 585 1.8%
Academic Year Total Entrants Entrants from MD20 % MD20 entrants CE Entrants % CE entrants
2013-14 86,650 14,730 17.2% 265 0.3%
2014-15 84,175 14,440 17.5% 325 0.4%
2015-16 84,600 14,740 17.7% 445 0.5%
2016-17 86,360 14,920 17.7% 525 0.6%
2017-18 86,000 15,995 18.9% 680 0.8%
2018-19 86,205 16,500 19.4% 1,045 1.2%
2019-20 84,610 16,410 19.6% 1,470 1.7%
2020-21 90,595 17,735 19.7% 1,715 1.9%
2021-22 85,840 16,305 19.1% 1,720 2.0%
2022-23 85,515 15,945 18.7% 1,795 2.1%
  1. Table 1 above shows the key indicators for Scottish-domiciled entrants to full-time first degree at university and all undergraduate HE study at Scottish institutions (both universities and colleges).

Figure 1a: The proportion of college HE entrants, all undergraduate HE entrants universities and colleges, and Scottish-domiciled full-time first degree entrants to university from SIMD0-20 areas, 2013-14 to 2022-23


  1. In 2022-23, 16.3% of Scottish-domiciled entrants to full-time first degree courses were from the 20% most deprived areas, down slightly from 16.5% in 2021-22. See Table 1 and Figure 1a above.

  2. The next interim target for the Commission on Widening Access (COWA) is 18% for this metric by 2026.3 Early indicators from UCAS undergraduate admissions data and SFC’s Early Access Return (not published) suggest this proportion from the most deprived areas is likely to increase for 2023-24 entrants.

  1. All except three universities are above the 2021 interim target at institution level: “By 2021, students from the 20% most deprived backgrounds should represent at least 10% of full-time first degree entrants to every individual Scottish university”. See COWA Table 1B in the background tables.

Figure 1b: Scottish-domiciled full-time entrants by level and sector of study from SIMD0-20 areas, 2015-16 to 2022-23


  1. Focusing on full-time entrants only in Figure 1b above, 20.2% of Scottish-domiciled full-time entrants to HE courses in Scotland’s colleges and universities were from the 20% most deprived areas in 2022-23. This is down 0.2pp (percentage points) year-on-year and down 0.9pp since 2020-21. Whilst students from the 20% most deprived areas make up just over 20% of undergraduate full-time HE entrants at tertiary level, there is significant variance in levels of representation by mode of study, institution and sector.

Figure 1c: The proportion of Scottish-domiciled full-time first degree entrants by SIMD quintile, 2013-14 to 2022-23


  1. Looking across other quintiles year-on-year, Scottish-domiciled full-time first degree intake increased at greater levels for the least deprived SIMD quintile groups (60-80% and 80-100% least deprived areas), effectively suppressing the proportion from the more deprived areas. See Figure 1c above.

  2. Following a recommendation from the Commissioner for Fair Access,4 we have now included a breakdown by the four most deprived deciles in SIMD Decile Table 1 & 1A & 1B in the background tables. The spread of full-time first degree entrants across these deciles was very consistent, ranging between 8.0% and 8.3%.

Table 2: Scottish-domiciled full-time first degree university qualifiers and all undergraduate HE qualifiers, from the 20% most deprived areas (SIMD0-20), 2013-14 to 2022-23

Academic Year Total Qualifiers Qualifiers from MD20 % MD20 qualifiers
2013-14 22,515 2,620 11.7%
2014-15 22,145 2,650 12.0%
2015-16 22,970 2,820 12.3%
2016-17 23,475 3,055 13.1%
2017-18 23,640 3,150 13.4%
2018-19 23,570 3,270 13.9%
2019-20 22,565 2,930 13.0%
2020-21 22,475 2,960 13.2%
2021-22 23,775 3,405 14.4%
2022-23 22,265 3,010 13.6%
Please note: Qualifier figures in 2019-20 and 2020-21 were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and are not directly comparable with past academic years. Additionally, the year-on-year decline in university qualifiers in 2022-23 is in part due to a Marking and Assessment Boycott in 2022-23, which prevented some HEIs from submitting qualifications within the reporting period.
Academic Year Total Qualifiers Qualifiers from MD20 % MD20 qualifiers
2013-14 57,935 9,325 16.1%
2014-15 57,060 9,450 16.6%
2015-16 58,240 9,755 16.8%
2016-17 58,925 10,170 17.4%
2017-18 59,605 10,745 18.0%
2018-19 59,765 11,040 18.5%
2019-20 55,038 10,405 19.0%
2020-21 58,475 10,830 18.6%
2021-22 56,495 10,135 18.0%
2022-23 53,385 9,240 17.4%
Please note: Qualifier figures in 2019-20 and 2020-21 were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and are not directly comparable with past academic years. Additionally, the year-on-year decline in university qualifiers in 2022-23 is in part due to a Marking and Assessment Boycott in 2022-23, which prevented some HEIs from submitting qualifications within the reporting period.
  1. In 2022-23, 53,385 students successfully achieved an undergraduate level HE qualification from Scotland’s colleges and universities. Of those achieving qualifications, 17.4% were from the 20% most deprived areas. See Table 2 above.

Care Experienced Students

  1. Looking at Table 1 above, care experienced students represented 2.1% of Scottish-domiciled entrants to undergraduate HE courses at Scotland’s colleges and universities in 2022-23, with 1,795 entrants. This is up from 2.0% in 2021-22 and an increase of 75 students. Both the numbers of care experienced students and the percentage of student intakes have increased every year since 2013-14. According to Scottish Government’s Children’s Social Work Statistics there were an estimated 12,206 children and young people who were looked-after in Scotland in 2023 – 1.2% of the under 18 population.5 6
  1. When interpreting figures relating to care experienced students it is important to note that students self-report their status. Therefore it is possible that not all care experienced students chose to report themselves as such. The reporting of students from care experienced backgrounds has been given more focus in recent years, with increased efforts made to encourage students to declare themselves as being care experienced. Financial support has been made available to care experienced students in Scotland at HE and FE level since 2017-18 and 2018-19 respectively.7

  1. In the university sector, 1.8% of Scottish-domiciled full-time first degree entrants in 2022-23 were care experienced, at 585 entrants. This has increased every year since 2016-17. See Table 1.

  2. In the college sector, 4.0% of enrolments to full-time HE and 10.1% of enrolments to full-time FE courses in 2022-23 were care experienced students – record highs for this publication. See Background Table 5.

  3. Care experienced graduates from full-time first degree university courses in 2021-22 were more likely to be in work or further study 15 months after completing their course than those not declaring themselves as care experienced. For 2021-22, these figures were 98.9% and 95.8% respectively. See Background Table 18.

  4. Of those who successfully qualified from college courses in 2021-22, 92.4% of care experienced leavers from full-time HE courses and 90.8% from full-time FE courses with known destinations were in work or further study 3-6 months after qualifying. For those not declaring themselves as care experienced, these figures were 94.6% and 93.9% respectively. See Background Table 13.

Figure 2: Distribution of Scottish-domiciled full-time first degree university entrants across SIMD quintiles by care experience status, 2022-23


  1. Care experienced entrants are much more likely to be from more deprived areas, as shown in Figure 2 above. In 2022-23, 32.8% of Scottish-domiciled care experienced entrants to full-time first degree university courses were from the 20% most deprived areas, compared to 16.0% of those not declaring themselves as care experienced.

University Retention

Figure 3: The proportion of Scottish-domiciled full-time first degree entrants continuing their studies in year 2, 2013-14 into 2014-15 to 2021-22 into 2022-23


  1. Of the 2021-22 Scottish-domiciled full-time first degree entrants, 88.0% returned to study in year two. This is 3.5pp lower than the previous year and the lowest reported for this publication. This is not entirely unexpected since many ‘no detriment’ marking policies implemented by schools, colleges and universities during the pandemic were discontinued by the 2021-22 academic year, and the 2021-22 session coincided with a particularly buoyant labour market.

  2. Retention rates for SIMD20 students and care experienced students8 saw a comparatively sharper downturn for 2021-22 entrants, as indicated by Figure 3 above. Retention for these groups deceased to 83.1% and 83.6% respectively, down by 5.5pp and 6.4pp year-on-year. This has resulted in the gap widening against overall retention, with retention for SIMD20 and care experienced students now 4.9pp and 4.4pp lower than overall retention. Retention rates for individual providers can be found in COWA Table 2A of the background tables.

Articulation

  1. In 2022-23, 8,790 students enrolled at a university first degree course in Scotland having previously achieved a HNC or HND qualification at college, forming 22.4% of all Scottish domiciled first degree entrants. For those entering university within three years of achieving their college qualification, 2,895 (50.7%) entered via Advance Standing, receiving full credit for their prior learning and entering directly into year two with a HNC or year three with an HND. See Background Table 14a. For an overview of articulation methodology, see the supplement published alongside this report.

  2. SFC took the decision to re-run articulation analysis for 2021-22 after it was discovered that some entrant records had also been reported in previous years. This duplication meant that last year’s publication overreported the underlying articulating population. The total number of entrants articulating via Advance Standing in 2021-22 has been revised down by 17% from 4,705 to 3,895 for this release of the publication. The error was found in the 2021-22 articulation data only; it does not occur in the 2022-23 data or for any earlier academic years.

  3. The number of students articulating with Advanced Standing in 2022-23 has decreased by 1,000 enrolments year-on-year to 2,895, a decrease of 25.7% and the lowest number we have reported for this publication. A downturn is not totally unexpected as numbers qualifying from college with a HNC/D have been declining in recent years.9 This has also resulted in fewer SIMD20 and care experienced students entering university via Advance Standing in 2022-23. See Background Table 14b.

  4. Of the 5,310 Scottish-domiciled full-time first degree entrants from SIMD20 reported against the COWA measure above, 33.5% (1,780) entered via college routes. Proportionally this is the lowest we have reported for this publication, down 5.6pp from 2021-22.

Footnotes

  1. HN-level provision includes the following qualifications: Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE), Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE), Higher National Certificate (HNC) and Higher National Diploma (HND).↩︎

  2. Please note that 2022-23 Scottish-domiciled full-time first degree figures may differ slightly to those published by HESA due to differences in methodology applied in identifying student domicile and mode of study. However the % MD20 entrants figure does not differ to HESA sources when rounded to one decimal place. See the Notes sheet in the background tables for the technical definitions.↩︎

  3. See Annex A for an overview of COWA and its targets.↩︎

  4. Recommendation 3 in Commissioner for Fair Access - Renewing the Alliance for Fair Access: Annual Report 2024↩︎

  5. National Records of Scotland - Mid-Year Population Estimates 2023↩︎

  6. For a full definition of how SFC defines care experienced students, see Annex B.↩︎

  7. Scottish Funding Council - Care experienced bursaries↩︎

  8. Retention rates for care experienced students are calculated for a relatively small population of entrants (545), therefore these retention rates are more susceptible to volatility and should be interpreted with caution.↩︎

  9. Most notably for 2021-22, which saw the number of HNC/D college qualifiers decline by 2,800 on the year before to 15,410. See Figure 4 in SFC’s HE Students and Qualifiers publication.↩︎