Number of students at Scottish universities and colleges up by 5,000

THE number of students attending university and college has gone up by more than 5,000, figures showed today.

A total of 215,495 students enrolled in Scottish higher education institutions in 2008/09, up from 210,180 the previous year, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

The number of full-time students has increased by more than 7,000 to 156,820 but part-time enrolments were down 3% to 58,675 over the same period.

Education Secretary Michael Russell, said today's figures showed a "positive increase" in the number of students.

"Human capital remains one of Scotland's greatest strengths. Supporting and encouraging a skilled and educated workforce will help a strong economic recovery in the short term and contribute to increasing the growth and sustainability of our economy in the longer term.

"It is why the Scottish Government introduced a range of measures to restore free education in Scotland, to ensure access is based on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay.

"This includes the abolition of the graduate endowment fee to the benefit of 50,000 students and an investment of 38 million to introduce grants for up to 20,000 part-time students."

Today's figures show 8% more full-time first year students enrolled on a further education course in 2008/09 to 64,915, compared with the previous year.

The number of enrolments of students who live in the UK rose slightly from 176,285 to 177,950.

The number of students from all other European Union nations was up from 12,395 to 13,585.

Over the same period, the number of non-EU domiciled students increased by 11% from 21,500 to 23,960.

In 2008/09, 93% of Scottish-domiciled first-year undergraduates studied at Scottish institutions, excluding The Open University, compared with 94% in 2007/08.

Similarly, in 2008/09, 87% of Scottish-domiciled first-year postgraduates studied at Scottish universities and colleges, the same as in 2007/08.