Scottish Government

Key Findings:

Institutions:

Enrolments:

• Since 2005-06 student numbers in higher education courses in Scotland increased by 8,790 to reach 293,970 in 2006-07. Of those, postgraduate students numbers rose by 10% (6,680) and represented almost a quarter of all students (24%), first degree students fell slightly by 490 to 133,635 - a decrease for the first time since 1999-00 - almost half (45%) of all students were studying at first degree level. Overall, other HE student numbers rose by 2,595 to 39,945 -due to increased uptake at HEIs (other HE students at colleges fell by 3% to 48,745). ( Table 1).
• The number of students in HEIs rose by 10,290 since 2005-06 to 244,510, an increase of 30% since 1999-00 ( table 1). There were also 14,115 students studying at the Open University in Scotland (up 1% from 2005-06), bringing the total in Scottish institutions to 308,085 in 2006-07 ( table 9). College students decreased by 1,500 since 2005-06 to 49,460 - college students have fallen consistently since 2000-01 when they accounted for 28% of all HE students, in 2006-07 they accounted for 17% and were mostly (99%) at other HE level ( table 1).
• There were 207,585 Scottish students studying at Scottish HEIs in 2006-07 (up 1% since 2005-06 ^†) and; 21,795 English, 5,075 Northern Irish and 675 Welsh students - representing increases in English and Welsh students of 3% and 4% respectively since 2005-06 ^† and a decrease in Northern Irish students of 2% over the same period ( table 13).

Entrants:

• The number of entrants to HE courses showed similar trends to student numbers. Entrants increased by 3% between 2005-06 and 2006-07, and by 10% since 1999-00 ( table 5). Entrants to HE from deprived areas of Scotland were over-represented in colleges, by 2 percentage points, and under-represented at all types of HEIs - unchanged since 2005-06 ^†, this was most noticeable in specialised and ancient universities ( table 11).
• The proportion of entrants to higher research degrees rose 5 percentage points from 8%, of all first year students, in 1999-00 to 13% in 2006-07 - there were corresponding increases of; 1 percentage point for other postgraduate levels and 2 percentage points for first degree level study, entrants to other undergraduate courses fell by 8% since 1999-00. ( Table 5).
• The number of Scottish domiciled HE entrants to Scottish institutions remained relatively static since 2005-06 at 109,700, 75% of all entrants. Those from the rest of the UK have dropped by 1% to 9,765 since 2005-06 (up 7% since 1999-00), whereas entrants from overseas increased by 4,140 to 27,240 in 2006-07, an increase of 18% on the previous year - representing increases of 12% from Europe and 20% from outside Europe ( table 14).