| Strongly Agree | Agree | Disagree | Strongly Disagree | Satisfied |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8,870 | 11,097 | 817 | 192 | 19,967 |
| 42.3% | 52.9% | 3.9% | 0.9% | 95.2% |
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Executive Summary
- The student satisfaction survey for 2024-251 was carried out over an eight-week period between 3 March and 25 April 2025. Student satisfaction rates are defined as the percentage of respondents to the statement ‘Overall I am satisfied with my college experience’.
Nine of 10 full-time students were satisfied with their college experience - 95.2% and 93.0% of full-time Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) students respectively.
Satisfaction rates for FE were 1.5 percentage points (pp) higher for part-time students than full-time, whilst satisfaction rates for HE students were higher amongst full-time students (+0.7 pp) than part-time.
Student satisfaction levels increased in 2024-25 against the previous year for both part-time students (FE +0.8 pp and HE +3.1 pp) and full-time students (FE +0.8 pp and HE +4.8 pp).
94,026 full-time and part-time college students were surveyed, with the following response rates2:
- 55,819 full-time students of whom 56.4% responded, a decrease of 0.7 pp from previous year.
- 38,207 part-time students of whom 30.3 % responded, an increase of 3.6 pp from previous year.
Full-time Further Education students
Overall, 70.9% of all full-time FE student enrolments starting in the academic year 2024-25 were surveyed during this period from 24 colleges. The other 29.1% of FE full-time students will have completed their studies or withdrawn prior to the survey period.
Response rates remain variable at a college level ranging from 39.0% to 100%. At a sector level, the response rate was 59.6% (20,976 students responded), a increase of 2.4 pp from 2023-24. Please note that, whilst they are included in sector totals, figures for UHI Orkney are suppressed this year as unforeseen circumstances meant that the response rate was exceptionally low for 2024-25 only.
Table 1 shows the overall satisfaction for the 19,967 full-time FE students at Scotland’s colleges responding to the statement: ‘Overall, I am satisfied with my college experience’.
Table 1: Full-time FE students’ satisfaction with their overall college experience 2024-25
Although we have published the results for all colleges, 2 of the 24 colleges with full-time FE students had response rates below 40%. Care should therefore be taken when comparing the results of colleges. Response rates and satisfaction rates for full-time students at individual colleges are shown in Appendix A. The 2024-25 academic year saw the introduction of Scotland’s Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework, which places an emphasis on the student voice. A strong expectation is placed on Colleges with regard to student partnership and engagement, which should feed through to higher engagement levels and response rates to this survey in future years. The 2024-25 academic year also saw the introduction of Institutional Self-Evaluation and Action Plans, and via this process SFC will work with the relevant colleges to identify mitigations for their low response rate. Further information on this process can be found here: Self-Evaluation and Action Plan Thematic Report - Scottish Funding Council
Table 2 shows that the overall student satisfaction in 2024-25 was the highest seen in recent years, with 95.2% of full-time FE students satisfied with their college experience, an improvement of 0.8 pp on the previous year.