Scottish Government

Key Findings:

Qualifiers

• The number of higher education qualifiers from Scottish institutions has continued to rise, in the most recent year by 4% (2,865 qualifiers), to the record high of 77,380 in 2006-07. Almost half of this increase was due to a rise of 2,120 in the number of masters qualifications obtained.
• Scottish colleges saw a decrease in qualifiers of 1%, down to 22,030, mostly due to a decrease in the number of HNCs awarded (down by 1,135, 11%).
• The 20% most deprived areas of Scotland contain about 20% of the Scottish population; 10% of Scots qualifiers from Scottish higher education institutions and 20% from Scottish colleges are from deprived areas within Scotland.
• Since 2005-06 there has been an increase of 1 percentage point in the proportion of first degree qualifiers who obtained first class honours (for both males and females).
• The number of qualifications obtained by international students increased by 17% from 12,725 in 2005-06 to 14,895 in 2006-07. Scots domiciles account for nearly three quarters of qualifiers from Scottish institutions, 73%.

First Destinations

• 58% of qualifiers from full-time higher education courses at Scottish institutions were in permanent or temporary UK employment 6 months after completing their course, a further 31% were engaged in further study or training. 74% of those in permanent UK employment were employed in graduate level occupations.
• Of qualifiers in permanent employment (in the UK or overseas) the proportion employed in Scotland has increased by 2 percentage points since 2005-06 to 81%. 92% of Scots qualifiers in permanent employment were employed within Scotland, an increase of 2 percentage points since last year.
• 38% of those from the most deprived areas of Scotland were in further study or training 6 months after qualifying, compared to 30% of those from other areas.
• 70% of Scots postgraduate and first degree qualifiers from Scottish Higher Education institutions were employed in graduate level occupations within Scotland or engaged in further study or training 6 months after completing their higher education course. This figure is used as a proxy indicator in 'Scotland Performs' ¹. The figure is unchanged compared to the previous year.
• Over half of qualifiers in permanent UK employment at the time of the survey were employed in either health, social and community work (31%) or finance and business services (24%).