| Measure | Strongly agree | Agree | Disagree | Strongly disagree | Satisfied |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Responses (n) | 10,715 | 12,075 | 845 | 235 | 22,790 |
| Responses (%) | 44.9% | 50.6% | 3.5% | 1.0% | 95.5% |
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Overview
- The Student Satisfaction and Engagement Survey (SSES) for 2025-261 was carried out over an eight-week period between 2 March and 24 April 2026.
- 90,155 full-time and part-time college students were surveyed, with the following response rates2:
- 57,805 full-time students of whom 62.9% responded, an increase of 5.3 percentage points (pp) from the previous year.
- 32,345 part-time students of whom 39.0% responded, an increase of 8.7 pp from the previous year.
Response rates improved across all cohorts, with the largest increases among part-time students. However, response rates remained lower for part-time students than for full-time, and college level response rates varied considerably. Results for colleges with lower response rates should therefore be interpreted with care.
Overall student satisfaction is defined as the percentage of positive responses to the statement: ‘Overall, I am satisfied with my college experience’. Overall satisfaction was very high across full- and part-time students on both Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE) courses, with nine out of 10 students satisfied with their college experience.
Overall student satisfaction levels increased in 2025-26 against the previous year for full-time FE students (+0.3 pp) and part-time HE students (+0.4 pp), remained stable for part-time FE students, and decreased slightly for full-time HE students (-0.1 pp).
Part-time FE students consistently reported the highest levels of satisfaction to both the overall college experience statement as well as the other 12 survey statements, while HE students, particularly part-time HE students, tended to report lower satisfaction in areas related to community, influence, and student voice. Perceptions of teaching, support, and learning resources were broadly positive across the board, while belonging and engagement showed greater variation between student groups.
Most satisfaction rates have increased compared with 2024-25, and where decreases occurred they were small.
The survey results point to a positive overall picture, while reinforcing the importance of continued work with colleges to improve student engagement, strengthen the student voice, and support more consistent survey participation across different learner groups.
Full-time Further Education students
Response rates for full-time FE students remained variable at college level this year, ranging from 16.1% to 100%. At sector level, the response rate was 65.1% (23,870 respondents), an increase of 5.5 pp from 2024-25.
The 2024-25 academic year saw the introduction of Scotland’s Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework (TQEF) and institutional Self-Evaluation and Action Plans (SEAPs), both of which give greater prominence to the student voice. In this context, SFC continued to work with relevant colleges in 2025-26 to support improvement in student engagement with the SSES. Colleges reported actions such as reviewing survey processes, strengthening departmental accountability and staff engagement, and appointing new quality leaders. These activities may have contributed to the increase in the overall response rate this year.
Although we have published the results for all colleges, two of the 24 colleges with full-time FE students had response rates below 40%. Care should therefore be taken when comparing results between colleges. Individual colleges’ response and satisfaction rates for full-time students are shown in Appendix A of the Background and Appendices document.
Table 1 shows the breakdown of responses for the 23,870 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, 2025-26
- Table 2 shows that overall student satisfaction in 2025-26 was the highest seen in recent years, with 95.5% of full-time FE students satisfied with their college experience, an improvement of 0.3 pp on the previous year.