Equality in colleges in Scotland: statistical report 2014

Published: 19/09/2014

ECU's report into the equality challenges facing colleges in Scotland

This is the third national student equality data report for colleges in Scotland. It is provided as a tool to help the sector to identify and understand the main equality challenges for students, and help colleges to direct their efforts to meet and remove these challenges.

The report presents an equality-focused analysis of information on students during the 2012/13 academic year and participation data from 2006/07 to 2012/13. Data and analysis is provided on age, disability, ethnicity and gender, as well as on the interplay of these identities (for example, female black students and male disabled students). The report also considers students’ socioeconomic class, based on the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.

While this report builds upon our previous reports, some aspects have been modified to take into account feedback we received from the ECU college liaison group. It is hoped that this report, alongside information gathered by colleges at a local level, will continue to provide an evidence base to assist colleges to identify and tackle equality challenges. It will also assist the sector to further develop and assess progress against appropriate equality outcomes and embed equality in regional outcome agreements with the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

Downloadable data tables 

National data tables

All data tables presented in this report are also available to download in Excel format. These provide totals for each table, higher and further education (HE and FE) specific breakdowns for regional data and further disaggregate data on ethnicity.

Regional data tables

In addition to national figures, this year we have also produced corresponding data tables for multi-college and merger regions. These aim to support regional benchmarking and assist colleges to identify equality challenges at a regional level, particularly where data systems are in the process of being aligned.

• Aberdeenshire 
• Ayrshire
• Edinburgh and Lothians 
• Fife
• Glasgow
• Highlands and Islands
• Lanarkshire
• Tayside
• West