Question reference: S6W-25172
- Date lodged: 2 February 2024
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Current status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 4 March 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answers to questions S4W-29691, S5W-22664 and S6W-01165 by Angela Constance on 2 March 2016, by John Swinney on 1 May 2019 and by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 28 July 2021 respectively, whether it will provide the figures for each year since 2020-21.
Answer
Table 1 provides information on average gross revenue expenditure in Scotland per child attending pre-school, and primary and secondary pupil alongside allocations (accounting for teaching and tuition fees funding) per college and university place.
Table 1: Average expenditure per place for each education level in cash terms | ||||
Education level | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
Pre-School | £9,366 | £10,435 | - | - |
Primary School | £6,130 | £6,550 | - | - |
Secondary School | £7,906 | £8,174 | - | - |
College | £4,878 | £4,952 | £5,054 | £5,506 |
University | £7,316 | £7,433 | £7,558 | £7,613 |
Table 2 provides the same information in 2023-24 prices. Real terms conversions are based on HM Treasury’s GDP Deflator series, December 2023.
Table 2: Average expenditure per place for each education level in real terms (2023-24 prices) | ||||
Education level | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 |
Pre-School | £10,526 | £11,824 | - | - |
Primary School | £6,890 | £7,423 | - | - |
Secondary School | £8,885 | £9,263 | - | - |
College | £5,482 | £5,612 | £5,362 | £5,506 |
University | £8,222 | £8,423 | £8,019 | £7,613 |
Methodology
The methodologies used to determine the average expenditure per place for each education level are provided in more detail below.
Pre-school: average gross revenue expenditure per child in pre-primary education is arrived at by taking the total gross revenue expenditure on pre-primary education, adjusted for inter-authority transfers, as reported by local authorities to the local financial return. These figures are then divided by the number of pupils in funded early learning and childcare as per the statistics reported in the early learning and childcare (ELC) census. The figures for per child expenditure on pre-primary education are likely to be overestimates due to the fact that September (when the figures for the ELC census are collected) is a point in the academic year when ELC registrations are at their lowest. This is because children starting funded ELC (usually when they turn three) start at the beginning of the term which starts after their birthday – so, in the Autumn term only some of the children who will become eligible for funded ELC during that academic year have already taken up their funded place. However, this issue applies every year, meaning that the above time-series comparison is reasonable.
Primary and Secondary school: average gross revenue expenditure per pupil in primary and secondary education respectively is arrived at by taking the total gross revenue expenditure adjusted for inter-authority transfers, reported by local authorities on primary and secondary education to the local financial return, divided by the number of pupils in primary and secondary education as per the statistics reported in the pupil census.
Colleges: The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) have supplied detail of the average cost of a College place (expenditure per full-time equivalent (FTE)). This is calculated by taking funding provided to Colleges for core teaching and assumed tuition fee income (see supplementary note 3) and dividing this by the number of student places.
Universities: The cost of an average University place, also provided by the SFC, is estimated by taking the total teaching grant awarded to Universities (excluding teaching grant associated with rUK students studying expensive strategically important subjects, who are not eligible for funding) and assumed tuition fee income associated with those places (see supplementary note 3) and dividing this by the total number of SFC funded places for Scottish and EU domiciled FTEs. Expenditure figures exclude funding for student support, and SFC’s research and strategic funds. Total FTE figures are SFC/SG funded places and do not include fees only and international places.
The methodology used in this PQ is similar to S6W-15187 answered on 7 March 2023 in that the average amounts for universities and colleges include assumed tuition fee elements and exclude certain funding elements related to rUK students studying expensive strategically important subjects for universities. Therefore, the answer is not comparable to PQs S4W-29691, S5W-22664 and S6W-01165.
Supplementary notes
1. “-“ indicates that there is no available data for this year.
2. 2022-23 figures for pre-school and primary and secondary school will be available after the publication of the 2022-23 Scottish local government finance statistics on the 5 th of March 2024.
3. Assumed tuition fees include income from SAAS, SDS, employers and students paying their own tuition fees for SFC funded programmes.
4. For 2020-21 the university allocation includes funded places and funding for childcare that were announced after the publication of the final funding announcement, to ensure consistency with other years.
5. For college and university figures, the funded places/weighted SUMS/credits figures used are taken from the final published main grant letters or outcome agreements, and do not take account of any subsequent adjustments.
All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .