Scotland's colleges 2017

About the data

The financial data comes from 2015-16 audited college accounts and additional information from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

Please note that the 2014-15 figures have changed from those presented in last year’s report as all colleges have now adopted an adjustment for untaken leave at year end, when previously only some colleges had adopted this. Appendix 1 of the report sets out the methodology for these adjustments. Other approaches could be used, and these would lead to different underlying positions being reached.

Student data comes from the SFC’s Infact database. Please note:

• The college sector reported a combined deficit of £19 million in 2015-16. Exhibit 1 shows that after making a series of adjustments, we calculated an underlying deficit of £8 million, compared to an underlying deficit of £1 million in 2014-15.
• For exhibits 4 and 5, attainment is the number of students successfully completing their course as a percentage of the total number of students, excluding early withdrawals. Retention is the number of students completing their course, either successfully or partially, as a percentage of the total number of students.
• The data in exhibit 5 excludes students who withdrew early from their course.
• We have excluded data for SRUC and the non-incorporated colleges, though data for West Highland and Argyll Colleges is included as part of North Highland College.
• The data does not include Higher Education students studying in the Highlands and Islands region.
• Due to the small numbers recorded, we have excluded students who have not provided gender data or who are recorded as ‘other’.
• The subject and age graphs in Exhibit 2 and all those in Exhibit 5 exclude students for whom no programme data has been recorded. This includes any programme that is not SFC funded.
• The data presented in the exhibits will differ slightly from that in the report due to the different methods used for downloading data from Infact. For the purposes of Tableau we have broken down the data as much as possible.

How to use our graphics

All the graphics are interactive:

• Hovering over the map and graphs will give you more detailed information.
• Exhibit 1 can be filtered by year and adjustment type.
• Exhibit 2 can be filtered by college, subject, gender and age by clicking on the graphs. Current Students chart can either show participation by headcount or by Full Time Equivalent (FTE).
• Exhibit 3 can be filtered by full or part time, gender and age by clicking on the graphs, and by college on the right hand side.
• Exhibit 4 can be filtered by college by selecting or deselecting on the list on the right hand side. To see the national average, select ‘Scotland’.  Further education, higher education or both can be selected, using the filter on the right.
• Exhibit 5 can be filtered by college and student factor (age, gender etc) by using the lists on the right hand side. Please note that the attainment by factor graph does not work as a filter here.
• To clear selections click on any white space in the graph you used as a filter.
• To access the data behind the graphics, click on the graph you're interested in, then click 'Download' at the bottom of the graphics and select the format.