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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. In 2024-25, successful completion rates increased for full-time and part-time study at both further education (FE) and higher education (HE) levels, with corresponding decreases in both partial completion and non-completion. Full-time HE study had the largest increase in successful completion, up 5.4 percentage points (pp) since 2023-24.

  2. For full-time study at FE and HE level, the early withdrawal rate decreased slightly in 2024-25, whilst the opposite was true for part-time study.

  3. The known results for 40,700 full-time further education (FE) students enrolled on recognised qualifications in 2024-25 are as follows:

  • 70.5% successfully completed their course.

  • 11.2% 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.

  • 18.4% remained on their course after the funding qualifying date but did not complete.

  1. The known results for 23,310 full-time higher education (HE) students enrolled on recognised qualifications in 2024-25 are as follows:

  • 72.4% successfully completed their course.

  • 13.0% 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.

  • 14.6% remained on their course after the funding qualifying date but did not complete.

  1. Male students were 5.7pp more likely to successfully complete their FE programmes than female students, while the situation was reversed for HE programmes with a 3.2pp difference.

  2. 4.1% of full-time FE students and 2.8% of full-time 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. As part of the production of these statistics, extensive data quality checks were carried out on the 2024-25 data as well as earlier years’ data included in the publication, which led to the reclassification of a small number of records per academic year. This means some totals and percentages for earlier academic years may not exactly match what has been published in previous editions of this report. The impact of these changes is minimal and should not have significant impacts on the overall completion or withdrawal rates.

  2. From 2023-24, the funding qualifying date for students on courses lasting more than 20 weeks was moved to earlier in the academic year. The impact of this change is that the proportions of students reported as completing or not from 2023-24 increased, while the proportions reported as either early withdrawals or not decreased. Further details of this change can be found in the 2023-24 publication 1.

  1. In the 2023-24 report, a section was added detailing the reasons for early withdrawal and non-completion. It has since been identified that removing the “Unknown” category from the table, and presenting reasons as a percentage of the total known reasons, will allow for more meaningful interpretation of the data. The number and proportion of enrolments whose withdrawal reasons were unknown remain available, below Table 1. Some previous years’ figures have been revised to remove a small number of enrolments for which withdrawal reasons were provided but the relevant FES 2 outcome code was not applicable.

Outcomes

Figure 1: Outcomes for FE Student Enrolments on Full-Time Recognised Qualifications 2020-21 to 2024-25 at Scotland’s Colleges

Academic Year Complete Success Partial Success Non-completion
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 67.0% 12.4% 20.6%
24-25 70.5% 11.2% 18.4%
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 10.
  1. The key points around the known results for 40,700 full-time FE students enrolled on recognised qualifications in 2024-25 are as follows:

  • Total FE full-time student enrolments have increased by 0.4% (180) from 2023-24.

  • 81.6% of enrolled students on full-time FE programmes successfully or partially completed their course (up from 79.4% in 2023-24).

  • Of these completions, successful completion rates in 2024-25 were 3.4pp higher than in 2023-24 (70.5% vs 67.0% respectively).

  • A further 11.2% completed their course but did not gain the qualification they were aiming for (down 1.2% from 2023-24). Some of these students may gain their award later.

  • Non-completions fell by 2.2pp from 20.6% in 2023-24 to 18.4% in 2024-25.

  • Success rates at large colleges2 ranged from 63.0% to 78.8% in 2024-25, and for small colleges success rates ranged from 65.4% to 85.3%.

  1. Academic years 2022-23 and 2023-24 saw students impacted by strike action/ASOS (Action Short of Strike) which took place across many colleges. This meant that some students could not complete all modules in time and may have returned in the following session to complete outstanding work. Students who were enrolled on multi-year courses may have had to do so alongside their studies for the following academic year.

  2. Several colleges have reported that actions identified in their Self-Evaluation Action Plan (SEAP)3 are having a positive effect on retention and success. Measures include trauma-informed practice, additional staff training and targeted learner support. The impact of these measures is observed in a decreased early withdrawal rate for full-time FE & HE study and a decreased non-completion rate across all modes and levels.

Figure 2: Outcomes for FE Student Enrolments on Part-Time Recognised Qualifications 2020-21 to 2024-25 at Scotland’s Colleges


  1. The total number of FE students on part-time programmes of study who did not withdraw early has decreased by 7.5% (6,265) from 2023-24.

  2. Figure 2 shows that FE students who enrolled on shorter programmes continue to be the most likely to complete their studies, with those on under 10 hours having a 97.9% success rate. Success rates then dropped with increasing hours, to 77.6% for courses lasting 80-160 hours, with the exception of the longest courses (80.7%).

Figure 3: Level of Achievement for Students Completing an FE Course of 160 Hours or More Who Did Not Achieve ‘Full’ Success in 2024-25 at Scotland’s Colleges


  1. There were 10,625 students enrolled on FE programmes in 2024-25 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 18.3% (1,945) of these students achieved at least 75% of the units on their programme and 48.2% (5,125) passed over 50% of the units attempted, a decrease of 1.8pp since 2023-24.

  3. At the other end of the scale 17.9% (1,900) of these students failed to achieve any of the units for which they enrolled.

Figure 4: Outcomes by Subject Groupings on FE Courses Lasting 160 Hours or More at Scotland’s Colleges in 2024-25


  1. Success rates for FE subject areas ranged from 59.3% for Science to 86.6% for Nautical studies (for courses over 160 hours duration). 15 of the 18 subjects listed saw an increased success rate since 2023-24.

Figure 5: Outcomes for HE Student Enrolments on Full-Time Recognised Qualifications 2020-21 to 2024-25 at Scotland’s Colleges

Academic Year Complete Success Partial Success Non-completion
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%
24-25 72.4% 13.0% 14.6%
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 10.
  1. The key points around the known results for 23,310 full-time HE students enrolled on recognised qualifications in 2024-25 are as follows:

  • The total number of HE students on full-time programmes of study who did not withdraw early has decreased by 4.8% (1,165) from 2023-24.

  • 85.4% of enrolled students on full-time HE programmes successfully or partially completed their course (up from 82.9% in 2023-24).

  • Of these completions, successful completion rates were 5.4pp higher in 2024-25 than in 2023-24 (72.4% vs 66.9% respectively).

  • A further 13.0% completed their course but did not achieve the qualification they were aiming for (down 2.9% from 2023-24). Some of these students may gain their award later.

  • Non-completions saw a 2.5pp decrease since 2023-24 (from 17.1% to 14.6%).

  • Full-time HE success rates at each college ranged from 63.2% to 79.3% in 2024-25.

  1. The contextual information explained in paragraphs 11 and 12 is also relevant to study at Higher Education level.

Figure 6: Outcomes for HE Student Enrolments on Part-Time Recognised Qualifications 2020-21 to 2024-25 at Scotland’s Colleges


  1. The total number of HE students on part-time programmes of study who did not withdraw early has decreased by 2.4% (210) from 2023-24.

  2. Figure 6 shows that HE students who enrolled on shorter programmes remained the most likely to complete their studies, with a 91.4% success rate for courses 10 to 40 hours in duration. The overall 1.8pp increase in part-time HE success rates was driven by improvements for longer courses: 160 to 320 hours (+3pp) and 320 hours but not full-time (+3.7pp).

Figure 7: Level of Achievement for Students Completing an HE Course of 160 Hours or More Who Did Not Achieve ‘Full’ Success in 2024-25 at Scotland’s Colleges


  1. There were 3,650 students enrolled on HE programmes in 2024-25 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 19.6% (715) of these students gained at least 75% of the units on their programme, and 44.4% (1,620) passed over 50% of the units attempted.

  3. At the other end of the scale 7.7% (285) of these students failed to achieve any of the units for which they enrolled.

Figure 8: Outcomes by Subject Groupings on HE Courses Lasting 160 Hours or More at Scotland’s Colleges in 2024-25


  1. For HE subject areas, success rates ranged from 60.7% for Social subjects to 84.8% for Land-based Industries (for courses over 160 hours duration). 15 of the 16 subjects listed saw an increased success rate since 2023-24.

Figure 9: Outcomes by Age Group on Recognised Courses Lasting 160 Hours or More at Scotland’s Colleges in 2024-25


  1. Figure 9 shows that students in the younger age groups remained less likely to complete successfully than those in the older age groups. For example, 71.1% of those under 18 completed successfully compared to 80.9% of those aged over 40 (or 85.7% vs 90.1% 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 2024-25


  1. Male students were 5.7pp more likely to successfully complete their FE programmes than female students, while the situation was reversed for HE programmes with female students being 3.2pp more likely to complete successfully than male students.

  2. Non-completion rates were lower for males across both levels of study, being 4.4% lower for FE (10.8% vs 15.2%) and 0.8% lower for HE (12.3% vs 13.1%).

Figure 11: Outcomes by Key Groups on Courses Lasting 160 Hours or More at Scotland’s Colleges in 2024-25


  1. Success rates on 160+ hours courses for students from the 10% and 20% most deprived postcode areas4 were 70.6% and 71.2% respectively, both below the comparator figure of 75.1% for all enrolments over 160 hours (FE and HE sectors combined).

  1. Students from a minority ethnic background underperformed against the ‘all enrolments’ comparator group by 1pp (74.1% vs 75.1% respectively).

  2. The national ambition “to increase the number of care-experienced learners enrolling and successfully completing at college” continues in 2024-25. 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 (64.1%) and highest non-completion rate (19.4%) 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 2020-21 to 2024-25 at Scotland’s Colleges


  1. The early withdrawal rate in 2024-25 was 4.1% for FE students and 2.8% for HE students.

Table 1: Early Withdrawals for Student Groups on Recognised Courses Lasting 160 Hours or More at Scotland’s Colleges in 2024-25

Group Total Enrolments Early Withdrawal (%)
Aged Under 18 38,530 4.8%
Aged 18 to 20 38,165 3.2%
Aged 21 to 24 14,650 3.7%
Aged 25 to 40 21,165 5.0%
41 and over 10,955 4.1%
FE Female 43,850 5.2%
FE Male 47,815 3.8%
HE Female 15,610 3.2%
HE Male 14,290 3.0%
Bottom 10% deprivation 19,695 5.4%
Bottom 20% deprivation 36,780 5.1%
Care experienced 9,130 5.4%
Disability 32,420 4.8%
Minority ethnic 13,720 4.8%
Fees paid by employer 9,695 1.7%
Year of study other than first 16,120 1.4%
All enrolments over 160 hours 123,465 4.1%

  1. Students aged 25 to 40 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 3.8%) and HE students (3.2% vs 3.0%).

  3. Of the key interest groups, students from the 10% most deprived areas and care-experienced students had the highest early withdrawal rates (5.4% for both groups) when compared with the comparator figure of 4.1% 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 2022-23 to 2024-25 at Scotland’s Colleges

Reason For Withdrawal 2022-23 2023-24 2024-25
Academic issues 9.5% 10.6% 12.2%
Another course 1.7% 2.6% 2.6%
Caring responsibilities 3.4% 3.3% 3.6%
Deceased 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
Digital accessibility issues 0.1% 0.0% 0.0%
Disciplinary/Exclusion 1.2% 1.5% 0.9%
Dissatisfied with blended learning 0.3% 0.1% 0.1%
Dissatisfied with course 5.7% 5.5% 3.0%
Employer withdrew support 4.2% 4.4% 3.9%
Estranged/homelessness 0.2% 0.2% 0.3%
Financial issues 2.4% 1.9% 1.7%
Health issues 16.2% 16.1% 16.5%
Multiple reasons 6.3% 8.3% 8.2%
Non-attendance 35.1% 33.4% 35.4%
Take up employment 12.8% 11.3% 10.7%
Travel issues 0.9% 0.8% 0.8%
Only displaying known reasons. In 2024-25, 20.1% of eligible records had no known reason for withdrawal, down from 23.4% in 2023-24.

  1. The most common reason for withdrawal in 2024-25 continues to be ‘non-attendance’ at around 1 in 3 withdrawing students (35.4%).

  2. The second most common reason for withdrawal was ‘health issues’ at 16.5%.

  3. 20.1% of records had no known reason for withdrawal in 2024-25. College providers have indicated that the reason for withdrawal is often difficult to pinpoint in these cases due to the students being uncontactable.

Table 3: Interactions of Reasons for Withdrawal of Enrolments on Recognised Qualifications that Withdrew Early or Did Not Complete at Scotland’s Colleges in 2024-25

Reason for withdrawal Number with reason Most frequent other reason Number with reason and most frequent other reason
Academic issues 2,165 Non-attendance 650
Another course 465 Non-attendance *
Caring responsibilities 630 Health issues 90
Digital accessibility issues * Academic issues, Health issues *
Disciplinary/Exclusion 160 Academic issues *
Dissatisfied with course 530 Academic issues 65
Dissatisfied with blended learning * Dissatisfied with course *
Employer withdrew support 695 Non attendance *
Estranged/homelessness 45 Health issues *
Financial issues 300 Health issues 50
Health issues 2,920 Non-attendance 270
Non-attendance 6,270 Academic issues 650
Take up employment 1,890 Non-attendance 35
Travel issues 150 Non-attendance *
*Number of enrolments less than 23
  1. Where multiple reasons for withdrawal were recorded for a student, the most common combination was ‘academic issues’ and ‘non-attendance’. This is unchanged from 2023-24.

Footnotes

  1. College Student Outcomes 2023-24↩︎

  2. 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.↩︎

  3. Self-Evaluation and Action Plan Thematic Report↩︎

  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.↩︎