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(a) Higher Education Institutions:

Each year the Scottish Funding Council funds a number of places, expressed as full-time equivalents (FTE), in universities and other higher education institutions (HEIs), these are generally available to UK and other EU residents. HEIs are independent bodies who are free to recruit further students, from outside the EU when they can charge the full cost of providing the course, or, within certain limits, from within the EU when they would still be able to claim fees from the Student Awards Agency for full time students.

The following table shows the number of funded places for undergraduates and taught postgraduates at Scottish HEIs, and the number of students eligible for funding for the last four academic years.

Source: Scottish Funding Council; funded places includes places funded by the Scottish Government.

For all HEIs in Scotland taken as a whole there were therefore in each year more places taken up than funded. Within the overall funding framework institutions have some flexibility in the courses they provide, in response to demand. The total number of any places that remain unfilled at course level is not held centrally.

(b) Colleges

Colleges are not funded for a specific number of student places.  Funding is allocated on the basis of activity delivered – a weighted number of teaching hours (WSUMs).

The total number of WSUMs targeted and delivered is shown in the following table.

Source: Scottish Funding Council; the measurement method changed between 2004-05 and 2005-06; strategic growth target of 20,000 WSUMs from 2006-07 not included.

In all the above years delivery across Scotland exceeded targets. As there is not a fixed number of student places set for colleges it is not possible to say how many places were unfilled.

Source: SAAS. Student numbers have been rounded to the nearest five and monetary amounts to the nearest 1,000.

Student are included in the table if they receive any form of support i.e. tuition fees, (or tuition fee loans if they study outside Scotland) and/or awards and/or maintenance loans. Income bands are based on residual parental or, in the case of students who are married or in a civil partnership, spousal income. This is income after deductions allowed by SAAS have been subtracted.

This table does not include students on the nursing and midwifery bursary scheme. Academic year 2006-07 is the latest for which figures are available.

Higher Education (HE) Discretionary Funds

HE Discretionary Funds are provided to higher and further education institutions and consist of:

the Higher Education Childcare Fund

the Undergraduate Discretionary Fund

the Postgraduate Discretionary Fund

the new Part-time Fund.

Allocation of HE Childcare Fund is based on the number of Scottish domiciled undergraduate students and post-graduate teaching degree students (excluding those on courses in professions allied to medicine). Half of the fund is distributed according to the number of mature students at each institution and the other half according to the number of students receiving Lone Parent’s Grant.

Undergraduate Discretionary Fund allocations are also based on two sets of criteria. Half of the fund is allocated based on full-time equivalent (FTE) number of UK undergraduate students at each institution. The other half is allocated based on the number of Scottish domiciled full-time undergraduate students whose household income is at or below the income threshold at which maximum Young Students’ Bursary is awarded.

Postgraduate Discretionary Fund allocations are based on the FTE number of UK domiciled postgraduate students (both full and part-time time).

For session 2008-09 a new Discretionary Fund is being introduced for part-time students only. Allocations for this fund are based on part-time FTEs at each institution. This is similar to the method used for the Undergraduate Discretionary Fund.

Further Education (FE) Discretionary Funds

FE Discretionary Funds are provided to FE institutions and are allocated as follows:

50% by each college’s share of FESUMs;

30% by each college’s share of FE students from the 20% most deprived areas (head count) taken from the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, and

20% according to each college’s share of FE Students (head count).

FE activity is measured in SUMs (student units of measurement) as used by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). Each FE SUM represents FE study as per SCQF measurements up to and including level 6.

The data used in the allocation of the Discretionary Funds comes from the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, the Higher Education Statistics Agency and the SFC’s Further Education Statistics collection.

Fife Constabulary was unable to supply data for the 2005 publication, except for figures relating to firearms dealers. In all other cases, in order to estimate Scotland totals, the 2005 publication included 2004 data for Fife. This was clearly stated in the publication at the time. Fife Constabulary submitted 2005 data the following year and subsequent publications reflect the new Fife totals, although some of the breakdowns which only appeared in the 2005 publication were not revisited. The information requested for Fife for 2005 is supplied in the following table: