Chamber and committees

Research-related funding for Scottish institutions also comes from a number of other sources in the public, private and third sectors. For example, the seven UK Research Councils fund research in higher education institutions (HEIs). Research Council funding is not included in the table. Some Scottish Government Directorates also fund research directly, a small proportion of which ends up in HEIs. Not all of these figures are held centrally and they are therefore also not included in the table.

Source for all tables: Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS)

All student numbers have been rounded to the nearest five. Monetary amounts are rounded to the nearest 1,000.

A full-time/part-time split is not available for postgraduate students.

Although the average support for part-time undergraduate students is around £1,100 in each year, the majority of such students (72-73%) receive £500 in financial support from SAAS. The average however includes the Disabled Student’s Allowance (DSA) payable to some students.

“Support” refers to tuition fees (or tuition fee loans for those studying elsewhere in the UK) and/or awards and/or maintenance loans.

These tables do not include students on the Nursing and Midwifery Bursary Scheme. Academic year 2006-07 is latest for which data from SAAS is available.

Spending plans for the three financial years 2008-9 to 2010-11 are set out in the Scottish Budget Spending Review 2007, table 22.04 published on the internet at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/11/13092240/0.

The figures include the new support for part-time students to be introduced from autumn 2008 at a cost of £12/£13/£13 million for the three years of the plan. Projected spend is not disaggregated for the categories requested.

Source: SAAS.

Notes:

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

Students are included in the table if they receive support including tuition fees, or tuition fee loans if they study outside Scotland, and/or awards and/or means tested 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.

Irrespective of how earnings may rise in the next three years, the number of Scottish students receiving support other than non means tested maintenance loans would be unaffected as under current funding rules all eligible students are entitled to tuition fees (or tuition fee loans if they are studying elsewhere in the UK) which are not means tested. The table below shows the number of Scottish students receiving Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS) support other than non means tested maintenance loans in 2006-07 by parental/spousal income. The table also shows how these data would look if average earnings rose by 3.1% (figure based on growth in average median weekly earnings in the year to April 2007) in each of the subsequent three years.

Source: SAAS.

Notes:

Constant Student Numbers are assumed. Student numbers have been rounded to the nearest five.

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.

This is set out in more detail in Annex A3 of the Scottish Funding Council’s (SFC) circular SFC/17/2008 Main grants to colleges for academic year 2008-09. This can be found at:

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/information/info_circulars/sfc/2008/sfc1708/sfc1708.html.

The SFC has not yet set targets for the following two years.

The SFC does not publish any information on funding per student at higher education institutions (HEIs). The SFC’s teaching funding allocation method distributes funding according to Units of Teaching Resource, reflecting relative costs of delivering different subjects. There is no standard rate of per-student funding.

Indicative information on the number of funded places in HEIs, with per-subject and overall levels of funding can be found in table A2a of the SFC’s Circular SFC/10/2008 (Main grants in support of teaching and research for higher education institutions for academic year 2008-09):

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/information/info_circulars/sfc/2008/sfc1008/sfc1008.html.

While this shows the relative allocations to fund undergraduate and postgraduate provision, this is on a full-time equivalent basis and does not demonstrate how funding is allocated within individual institutions to support the range of full-time and part-time provision.

Additionally, the gross funding figures include the tuition fee element of funding which is not paid by SFC. We are unable to disaggregate this on a per student basis as different students pay different fees depending on their domicile.

The SFC does publish performance indicators for colleges, which note colleges’ total income and a breakdown of this income and total expenditure. It also provides the actual Weighted Student Units of Measure (WSUMs) delivered, but not the number of students. WSUMs reflect the relative costs of delivering different subjects

The most recent performance indicators for colleges can be found at:

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/publications/FinPerfIndicators0405.pdf.

SFC does not publish any information on spend per student at higher education institutions (HEIs). The SFC’s teaching funding allocation method distributes funding according to Units of Teaching Resource, reflecting relative costs of delivering different subjects. There is no standard rate of per-student funding.

Indicative information on the number of funded places in HEIs, with per-subject and overall levels of funding can be found in Table A2a of the SFC’s Circular SFC/10/2008 (Main grants in support of teaching and research for higher education institutions for academic year 2008-09):

http://www.sfc.ac.uk/information/info_circulars/sfc/2008/sfc1008/sfc1008.html.

For both colleges and HEIs teaching funding is also provided on a full time equivalent (FTE) basis and institutions use this to fund both part-time and full-time provision.

In terms of the economic criteria within STAG, the cost-benefit ratio is not the sole indicator of the worth of a scheme. Other factors taken into account include impacts on the environment, safety, integration, accessibility and social inclusion. Also, STAG now enables the wider economic benefits to be taken into consideration.