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College Student Outcomes

Overview

An infographic that highlights key statistics from the publication. It shows the proportion of enrolments that successfully completed, completed with partial success, did not complete and withdrew early.

  1. The known results for 40,520 full-time further education (FE) students enrolled on recognised qualifications in 2023-24 are as follows:

  • 67.1% successfully completed their course.

  • 12.4% completed their course but did not gain the qualification they were aiming for. Some of these students may gain their award at a later time.

  • 20.6% withdrew from their course after the funding qualifying date.

  1. The known results for 24,475 full-time higher education (HE) students enrolled on recognised qualifications in 2023-24 are as follows:

  • 66.9% successfully completed their course.

  • 16.0% completed their course but did not gain the qualification they were aiming for. Some of these students may gain their award at a later time.

  • 17.1% withdrew from their course after the funding qualifying date.

  1. Male students were 5.6 percentage points (pp) more likely to successfully complete their FE programmes than female students, while the situation was reversed for HE programmes with a 4.3pp difference.

  2. 4.6% of FE students and 3.0% of HE students withdrew early and were not funded. The reason most commonly cited for withdrawing (either before or after the funding qualifying date) was non-attendance.

Notable Changes in Reporting

  1. In previous publications, early withdrawals (i.e. students withdrawing from their course before the funding qualifying date) were included in the calculation of the College Student Outcomes. Following stakeholder consultation1, for the 2023-24 publication early withdrawals have been excluded from the main section of the report and instead are reported in a separate section. Previous years’ data has also been amended accordingly, and therefore the figures presented in this report will not match previous publications.

  2. In 2023-24, the funding qualifying date for students on courses lasting more than 20 weeks was moved to earlier in the academic year. Up to 2022-23, full-time summer starts would have qualified for funding from 1st November; from 2023-24 onwards they will have qualified for funding in week five. This means that students who withdrew between week five and 1st November would be classified as early withdrawals in previous years, but from 2023-24 are classified as non-completions. The impact of this change is that the numbers of students reported as completing or not in 2023-24 increased, while the numbers reported as either early withdrawals or not decreased. The threshold date change may have influenced decisions by students or college staff, so it’s not possible to know how much of the year-on-year changes in early withdrawal and non-completion statistics resulted from this or were related to other issues. This must be considered when reviewing the trend across academic years. Numbers of students in the population can be reviewed in the College Region Nation PI tools available with the publication.

  3. A section on the reasons for early withdrawal and non-completion has also been added to the report for 2023-24.

  4. We will be keeping College Student Outcomes under review to ensure that they remain fit for purpose and aligned with other processes such as the Outcomes Framework and Assurance Model (OF&AM)2.

Non-Completion

Figure 1: Outcomes for FE Student Enrolments on Full-Time Recognised Qualifications 2019-20 to 2023-24 at Scotland’s Colleges

Academic Year Complete success Partial success Non-completion
19-20 72.2% 14.5% 13.4%
20-21 65.8% 12.6% 21.6%
21-22 65.7% 13.0% 21.3%
22-23 69.8% 12.1% 18.1%
23-24 67.1% 12.4% 20.6%
Academic years 2020-21 and 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. An earlier credit threshold date took effect from 2023-24, which may have increased the numbers of non-completions in comparison to previous years. Further information is provided in paragraph 6.
  1. The key points around the known results for 40,520 full-time FE students enrolled on recognised qualifications in 2023-24 are as follows:

  • Total FE full-time student enrolments have increased by 4.1% (1,612) from 2022-23.

  • 79.4% of enrolled students on full-time FE programmes completed their course (down from 81.9% in 2022-23).

  • Of these completions, successful completion rates in 2023-24 were 2.7pp lower than in 2022-23 (67.1% vs 69.8% respectively).

  • A further 12.4% completed their course but did not gain the qualification they were aiming for (up 0.3% from 2022-23). Some of these students may gain their award later.

  • Non-completions saw a 2.5pp increase since 2022-23 (from 18.1% to 20.6%).

  • For large colleges3 success rates ranged from 56.3% to 77.5% in 2023-24, and for small colleges success rates ranged from 56.8% to 82.8%.

Figure 2: Outcomes for FE Student Enrolments on Part-Time Recognised Qualifications 2019-20 to 2023-24 at Scotland’s Colleges


  1. The total number of FE students on part-time programmes of study has decreased by 11.8% (11,205) from 2022-23.

  2. Figure 2 shows that FE students who enrolled on shorter programmes were more likely to complete their studies, with those on under 10 hours having a 97.0% success rate. Success rates then dropped with increasing hours, to 72.5% for courses lasting 80-160 hours, before increasing again for longer courses.

Figure 3: Level of Achievement for Students Completing an FE Course of 160 Hours or More Who Did Not Achieve ‘Full’ Success in 2023-24 at Scotland’s Colleges


  1. There were 11,582 students enrolled on FE programmes in 2023-24 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. Figure 3 shows that 17.4% (2,014) of these students achieved at least 75% of the units on their programme and 49.7% (5,754) passed over 50% of the units attempted.

  3. At the other end of the scale 18.0% (2,079) 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 2023-24


  1. The subject groupings in Figure 4 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 the separate Technical Annex.

  2. Success rates for FE subject areas ranged from 55.4% for Science to 83.8% for Construction (for courses over 160 hours duration).

Figure 5: Outcomes for HE Student Enrolments on Full-Time Recognised Qualifications 2019-20 to 2023-24 at Scotland’s Colleges

Academic Year Complete success Partial success Non-completion
19-20 77.4% 12.3% 10.3%
20-21 74.5% 11.3% 14.2%
21-22 67.1% 14.9% 18.0%
22-23 69.7% 14.9% 15.5%
23-24 66.9% 16.0% 17.1%
Academic years 2020-21 and 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. An earlier credit threshold date took effect from 2023-24, which may have increased the numbers of non-completions in comparison to previous years. Further information is provided in paragraph 6.
  1. The key points around the known results for 24,475 full-time HE students enrolled on recognised qualifications in 2023-24 are as follows:

  • Total HE student enrolments have increased by 1.0% (240) from 2022-23.

  • 82.9% of enrolled students on full-time HE programmes completed their course (down from 84.5% in 2022-23).

  • Of these completions, successful completion rates were 2.8pp lower in 2023-24 than in 2022-23 (66.9% vs 69.7% respectively).

  • A further 16.0% completed their course but did not achieve the qualification they were aiming for (up 1.1% from 2022-23). Some of these students may gain their award later.

  • Non-completions saw a 1.6pp increase since 2022-23 (from 15.5% to 17.1%).

  • Full-time HE success rates at each college ranged from 58.8% to 74.4% in 2023-24.

Figure 6: Outcomes for HE Student Enrolments on Part-Time Recognised Qualifications 2019-20 to 2023-24 at Scotland’s Colleges


  1. The total number of HE students on part-time programmes of study has decreased by 20.9% (2,345) from 2022-23.

  2. Figure 6 shows that HE students who enrolled on shorter programmes were more likely to complete their studies, with a 91.4% success rate for courses 10 to 40 hours in duration. Success rates declined as hours increased, but then improved slightly for courses lasting 320 hours to full-time.

Figure 7: Level of Achievement for Students Completing an HE Course of 160 Hours or More Who Did Not Achieve ‘Full’ Success in 2023-24 at Scotland’s Colleges


  1. There were 4,317 students enrolled on HE programmes in 2023-24 who completed without ‘full’ success. This is a subset of numbers from Figure 5 (full-time) and Figure 6 (part-time) and excludes students below 160 hours and those who were not funded by SFC that are included in the earlier charts.

  2. Figure 7 shows that 17.4% (751) of these students gained at least 75% of the units on their programme, and 45.0% (1,942) passed over 50% of the units attempted.

  3. At the other end of the scale 7.1% (307) 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 2023-24


  1. For HE subject areas, success rates ranged from 52.7% for Hospitality and Tourism to 80.5% for Land-based Industries (for courses over 160 hours duration).

Figure 9: Outcomes by Age Group on Recognised Courses Lasting 160 Hours or More at Scotland’s Colleges in 2023-24


  1. Figure 9 shows that students in the younger age groups were less likely to complete successfully than those in the older age groups. For example, 66.8% of those under 18 completed successfully compared to 79.1% of those aged over 40 (or 83.5% vs 89.4% 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 Courses Lasting 160 Hours or More at Scotland’s Colleges in 2023-24


  1. Male students were 5.6pp more likely to successfully complete their FE programmes than female students, while the situation was reversed for HE programmes with female students being 4.3pp more likely to complete successfully than male students.

  2. Non-completion rates were lower for males across both levels of study, being 4.3% lower for FE (12.3% vs 16.6%) and 1.0% lower for HE (14.6% vs 15.6%).

Figure 11: Outcomes by Key Groups on Courses Lasting 160 Hours or More at Scotland’s Colleges in 2023-24


  1. Success rates on 160+ hours courses for students from the 10% and 20% most deprived postcode areas4 were similar (67.2% and 68.0% respectively), but fell below the comparator figure of 71.7% for all enrolments over 160 hours (FE and HE sectors combined).

  1. Students from an ethnic minority (BAME) background underperformed against the ‘all enrolments’ comparator group by -0.9% (70.8% vs 71.7% respectively).

  2. The national ambition “to increase the number of care-experienced learners enrolling and successfully completing at college” continues in 2023-24. 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 had the lowest success rate (60.5%) and highest non-completion rate (21.4%) when compared to all other reported key interest groups.

Early Withdrawals

Figure 12: Early Withdrawals of FE and HE Student Enrolments on Full-Time Recognised Qualifications 2019-20 to 2023-24 at Scotland’s Colleges


  1. The early withdrawal rate in 2023-24 was 4.6% for FE students, and 3.0% for HE students.

Table 1: Early Withdrawals for Student Groups on Recognised Courses Lasting 160 Hours or More at Scotland’s Colleges in 2023-24

Group Total Enrolments Early Withdrawal (%)
Aged Under 18 38,094 5.0%
Aged 18 to 20 37,766 3.3%
Aged 21 to 24 14,891 3.9%
Aged 25 to 40 23,829 4.8%
41 and over 11,643 4.2%
FE Female 45,560 5.2%
FE Male 47,746 3.9%
HE Female 16,048 3.7%
HE Male 14,686 2.8%
Bottom 10% deprivation 20,345 5.9%
Bottom 20% deprivation 37,718 5.5%
Care experienced 8,452 5.7%
Disability 29,370 5.1%
Ethnic minority 13,364 4.7%
Fees paid by employer 10,452 1.3%
Year of study other than first 16,538 1.5%
All enrolments over 160 hours 126,223 4.2%

  1. Students aged under 18 were most likely to withdraw early (5.0%) when compared to all other age groups.

  2. The early withdrawal rate for females was higher than males for both FE students (5.2% vs 3.9%) and HE students (3.7% vs 2.8%).

  3. Of the key interest groups, students from the 10% most deprived areas and care-experienced students had the highest early withdrawal rates (5.9% and 5.7% respectively) when compared with the comparator figure of 4.2% for all enrolments over 160 hours.

Reason for Withdrawal

Table 2: Reason for Withdrawal of Enrolments on Recognised Qualifications that Withdrew Early or Did Not Complete 2021-22 to 2023-24 at Scotland’s Colleges

Reason For Withdrawal 2021-22 2022-23 2023-24
Academic issues 8.2% 7.2% 8.1%
Another course1 0.0% 1.3% 2.0%
Caring responsibilities 1.9% 2.6% 2.5%
Deceased 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Digital accessibility issues 0.1% 0.1% 0.0%
Disciplinary/Exclusion 0.5% 0.9% 1.1%
Dissatisfied with blended learning 2.0% 0.2% 0.1%
Dissatisfied with course 4.2% 4.3% 4.2%
Employer withdrew support 2.0% 3.2% 3.4%
Estranged/homelessness 0.2% 0.2% 0.2%
Financial issues 1.7% 1.8% 1.5%
Health issues 11.5% 12.3% 12.3%
Multiple reasons 3.3% 4.8% 6.3%
Non attendence 23.4% 26.6% 25.5%
Take up employment 9.8% 9.7% 8.6%
Travel issues 0.5% 0.7% 0.6%
Unknown 30.8% 24.2% 23.8%
1 The withdrawal reason of 'took up course offer at another institution (college or university)' was introduced in 2022-23

  1. The most common reasons for withdrawal in 2023-24 were ‘non-attendance’ (25.5%) and ‘unknown’ reasons (23.8%). College providers have indicated that the reason for withdrawal is often difficult to pinpoint in these cases due to the students being uncontactable.

  2. The third most common reason for withdrawal was ‘health issues’ at 12.3%, which has remained unchanged since 2022-23.

Table 3: Interactions of Reasons for Withdrawal of Enrolments on Recognised Qualifications that Withdrew Early or Did Not Complete at Scotland’s Colleges in 2023-24

Reason for withdrawal Number with reason Most frequent other reason Number with reason and most frequent other reason
Academic issues 2,037 Non attendance 752
Another course 493 Academic issues *
Caring responsibilities 628 Health issues 104
Digital accessibility issues * Health issues *
Disciplinary/Exclusion 290 Academic issues *
Dissatisfied with course 1,055 Academic issues 59
Dissatisfied with blended learning * Academic issues, Dissatisfied with course *
Employer withdrew support 849 Health issues, Non attendance *
Estranged/homelessness 44 Health issues *
Financial issues 375 Health issues 55
Health issues 3,102 Non attendance 251
Non attendence 6,435 Academic issues 752
Take up employment 2,171 Academic issues 45
Travel issues 156 Health issues *
*Number of enrolments less than 23
  1. Where multiple reasons for withdrawal were recorded for a student, the most common combination was ‘non-attendance’ and ‘academic issues’.

Footnotes

  1. Report on the Consultation on changes to the College Performance Indicators↩︎

  2. Outcomes Framework and Assurance Model↩︎

  3. 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.↩︎

  4. 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.↩︎