Copyright talkingupscotlandtwo
Professor John Robertson OBA Thanks to Julie and Jacob for alerting us to this: Scottish Labour clearly think that they can make hay with Further Education funding in Scotland as they languish in third place, according to the polls for the 2026 Scottish Election in May. They’ve wheeled out their Westminster MPs to fight the cause in constituencies where even those who voted for them won’t recognise them. The Ayrshire, Carrick and Cumnock MP, Elaine Stewart, famous as a lifetime campaigner against poverty until Sir Keir’s whip ordered her to vote for his child poverty policies. She did. Here she is, above, trying to make a case for the Scottish Government under-resourcing FE. It doesn’t survive a collision with the evidence. First estimated overall spending for 2025/2026 on FE in England is £13.4bn.1 That’s £228.6 per head. There is no precise figure published for England. For Scotland, it’s £1.56bn.2 That’s £284.9 per head, thus 24.6% higher in Scotland. Second, as a consequence of the above funding the pupil-teacher ratio in Scotland at 13.2/1 is far better than that in in England at 18/1.3 Third, FE student numbers in Scotland have been increasing, from 222 860 in 2020/2021 to 274 965 in2022/2023.4 2024/2025 data are not yet available. Fourth, an astonishing 95.2% in Scotland’s FE colleges were satisfied with their college experience.5 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/main-supply-estimates-2025-to-2026 https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-budget-2025-2026/ https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-and-training-statistics-for-the-uk/2024 https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/education-and-training-statistics-for-the-uk/2024 https://www.sfc.ac.uk/publications/student-satisfaction-and-engagement-survey-2024-25
