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Executive Summary

  1. 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’.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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).

  4. 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.

An infographic that highlights key statistics from the publication. It shows statistics on response rates and overall satisfaction for full-time and part-time students by level of qualification (Higher Education and Further Education)

Full-time Further Education students

  1. 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 The other 29.1% of FE full-time students will have completed their studies or withdrawn prior to the survey period.

  2. 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.

  3. 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

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%

  1. 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

  2. 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.

Table 2: Full-time FE students satisfaction trend

Academic year Proportion Satisfied
2018-19 93.0%
2020-21* 88.6%
2021-22 92.7%
2022-23 94.6%
2023-24 94.4%
2024-25 95.2%
*As a result of the COVID pandemic and a national lockdown starting in the March 2020, the SSES did not take place in the academic year 2019-20. In the 2020-21 academic year teaching was severely impacted by COVID-19 restrictions.
  1. The survey includes 13 statements for each student group. Table 3 shows the results to each statement for full-time FE students. Students were most satisfied about staff encouraging them to take responsibility for their learning (97.2%) and least satisfied with their suggestions being taken seriously (87.1%). This information will feed into the work with the sector on student voice mentioned in paragraph 9.

Table 3: Summary of student satisfaction results for full-time FE students at colleges 2024-25

Survey Statement Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Total Statement Response Total Strongly agree and agree Proportion Satisfied
1. Overall, I am satisfied with my college experience. 8,870 11,097 817 192 20,976 19,967 95.2%
2. Staff regularly discuss my progress with me. 7,784 11,038 1,812 253 20,887 18,822 90.1%
3. Staff encourage students to take responsibility for their learning. 10,572 9,799 448 141 20,960 20,371 97.2%
4. I am able to influence learning on my course. 7,022 12,115 1,354 217 20,708 19,137 92.4%
5. I receive useful feedback which informs my future learning. 8,653 10,743 1,237 242 20,875 19,396 92.9%
6. The way I'm taught helps me learn. 7,941 10,996 1,573 338 20,848 18,937 90.8%
7. My time at college has helped me develop knowledge and skills for the workplace. 9,439 10,229 961 244 20,873 19,668 94.2%
8. I believe student suggestions are taken seriously. 6,589 11,417 2,182 487 20,675 18,006 87.1%
9. I believe all students at the college are treated equally and fairly by staff. 8,756 9,867 1,705 533 20,861 18,623 89.3%
10. Any change in my course or teaching has been communicated well. 7,659 10,758 1,899 503 20,819 18,417 88.5%
11. The online learning materials for my course have helped me learn. 7,472 11,160 1,645 487 20,764 18,632 89.7%
12. I feel that I am part of the college community. 7,014 11,330 1,808 527 20,679 18,344 88.7%
13. The college Students' Association influences change for the better. 4,483 9,153 752 260 14,648 13,636 93.1%

Full-time Higher Education students

  1. Overall, 79.5% of all full-time HE student enrolments starting in the 2024-25 academic year were surveyed during the survey period. The other 20.5% of HE full-time students will have completed their studies or withdrawn prior to the survey period.

  2. The Highlands and Islands partner colleges and SRUC report their HE students within the NSS University statistics. As a result, only 16 colleges are included within the SSES HE results.

  3. Sector response rates for full-time HE students are 54.2% (11,164 students) in 2024-24, with rates at a college level ranging from 15.9% to 76.9%. This represents an increase of 1.9 pp from 2024-25.

  4. Table 4 shows the overall satisfaction for the 11,164 full-time HE students at Scotland’s colleges responding to the statement ‘overall, I am satisfied with my college experience’.

Table 4: Full-time HE students’ satisfaction with their overall college experience 2024-25

Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Satisfied
4,396 5,981 642 145 10,377
39.4% 53.6% 5.8% 1.3% 93.0%

  1. Although we have published the results for all colleges, one of the 16 colleges with full-time HE 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.

  2. Table 5 shows that the overall student satisfaction in 2024-25 was the highest seen in recent years, with 93.0% of full-time HE students satisfied with their college experience, an improvement of 4.8 pp on the previous year.

Table 5: Full-time HE student satisfaction trend

Academic year Proportion Satisfied
2018-19 86.8%
2020-21* 80.3%
2021-22 85.7%
2022-23 89.1%
2023-24 88.2%
2024-25 93.0%
*As a result of the COVID pandemic and a national lockdown starting in the March 2020, the SSES did not take place in the academic year 2019-20. In the 2020-21 academic year teaching was severely impacted by COVID-19 restrictions.
  1. Table 6 shows the results to each statement for full-time HE students. Students were most satisfied about staff encouraging them to take responsibility for their learning (96.9%) and least satisfied with their suggestions being taken seriously (81.8%). This information will feed into the work with the sector on student voice mentioned in paragraph 9.

Table 6: Summary of student satisfaction results for full-time HE students at colleges 2024-25

Survey Statement Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Total Statement Response Total Strongly agree and agree Proportion Satisfied
1. Overall, I am satisfied with my college experience. 4,396 5,981 642 145 11,164 10,377 93.0%
2. Staff regularly discuss my progress with me. 3,877 5,616 1,424 218 11,135 9,493 85.3%
3. Staff encourage students to take responsibility for their learning. 6,157 4,690 253 90 11,190 10,847 96.9%
4. I am able to influence learning on my course. 3,413 6,122 1,226 212 10,973 9,535 86.9%
5. I receive useful feedback which informs my future learning. 4,444 5,509 963 205 11,121 9,953 89.5%
6. The way I'm taught helps me learn. 3,795 5,752 1,298 257 11,102 9,547 86.0%
7. My time at college has helped me develop knowledge and skills for the workplace. 4,933 5,274 715 168 11,090 10,207 92.0%
8. I believe student suggestions are taken seriously. 3,250 5,637 1,570 408 10,865 8,887 81.8%
9. I believe all students at the college are treated equally and fairly by staff. 4,943 4,880 941 311 11,075 9,823 88.7%
10. Any change in my course or teaching has been communicated well. 3,926 5,347 1,379 434 11,086 9,273 83.6%
11. The online learning materials for my course have helped me learn. 4,565 5,492 829 222 11,108 10,057 90.5%
12. I feel that I am part of the college community. 3,424 5,647 1,476 375 10,922 9,071 83.1%
13. The college Students' Association influences change for the better. 1,937 3,739 512 186 6,374 5,676 89.0%
  1. The results for the full-time HE students across nearly all statements, including overall satisfaction, were less positive than for the full-time FE students. HE students are encouraged to be more independent in their learning which may explain some of the variances across the two groups. However, there is a need to better understand these differences.

Comparison of full-time and part-time satisfaction rates

  1. Table 7 below allows for the comparison of satisfaction rates for both full-time and part-time FE and HE students at colleges.

Table 7: Student satisfaction comparisons for full-time and part-time FE and HE students 2024-25

Survey Statement FE Full-time FE Part-time HE Full-time HE Part-time
1. Overall, I am satisfied with my college experience. 95.2% 96.7% 93.0% 92.3%
2. Staff regularly discuss my progress with me. 90.1% 92.3% 85.3% 86.2%
3. Staff encourage students to take responsibility for their learning. 97.2% 97.6% 96.9% 97.3%
4. I am able to influence learning on my course. 92.4% 94.4% 86.9% 87.1%
5. I receive useful feedback which informs my future learning. 92.9% 94.4% 89.5% 89.3%
6. The way I'm taught helps me learn. 90.8% 93.9% 86.0% 87.6%
7. My time at college has helped me develop knowledge and skills for the workplace. 94.2% 94.0% 92.0% 89.8%
8. I believe student suggestions are taken seriously. 87.1% 92.1% 81.8% 86.4%
9. I believe all students at the college are treated equally and fairly by staff. 89.3% 94.4% 88.7% 94.6%
10. Any change in my course or teaching has been communicated well. 88.5% 93.0% 83.6% 87.4%
11. The online learning materials for my course have helped me learn. 89.7% 90.3% 90.5% 91.8%
12. I feel that I am part of the college community. 88.7% 88.1% 83.1% 79.8%
13. The college Students' Association influences change for the better. 93.1% 94.4% 89.0% 87.2%

  1. The satisfaction rates for FE and HE part-time students were higher than for full-time students for all survey statements, with the exception of the following statements for which satisfaction rates were higher among full-time HE students: ‘Overall, I am satisfied with my college experience.’, ‘My time at college has helped me develop knowledge and skills for the workplace’ and ‘The college Students’ Association influences change for the better’.

  2. The highest levels of satisfaction for full-time and part-time FE and HE students were given for the statement ‘staff encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning’. This was in line with responses to previous surveys.

  3. When looking at satisfaction rates across level and mode of study, students were generally less satisfied when asked if they felt ‘part of the college community’. However, the proportion of students who did feel part of the community increased for HE full-time and part-time students, as well as FE full-time students, year on year. The previous edition of this report can be found here: College Student Satisfaction and Engagement Survey 2023-24

  4. Response rates for part-time students were lower than for full-time students at both FE and HE levels.

  • FE part-time 30.3% compared to 59.6% for FE full-time.
  • HE part-time 30.6% compared to 54.2% for HE full-time.

  1. Colleges have reported difficulties in obtaining responses from some cohorts of students, and challenges in generating interest in the survey. Reasons cited include survey fatigue (there are other surveys), the timing of the survey not fitting with the timing of students’ studies, difficulties in reaching part-time students studying off-campus and difficulties engaging those who are in employment and on upskilling courses, who feel the survey is not for them. Otherwise, challenges associated with system migrations at some colleges impacted response rates, whilst other colleges reported that staff resource challenges impacted their response rates.

  2. Over nine out of 10 full-time and part-time student respondents were satisfied with their college experience, 94.4% and 96.1% respectively.

Footnotes

  1. College Student Satisfaction and Engagement Survey Guidance 2024-25↩︎

  2. Please note that the proportions of responses presented in this report are not weighted at provider level to take into account of response rates:↩︎