Higher Education Student Support in Scotland 2011-12

23rd October 2012

?This publication provides information on higher education student support in Scotland for session 2011-12.

Main findings include:

The total amount paid in tuition fees, bursaries and grants or authorised in loans for 2011-12 session stands at £570.3 million. This is a decrease of 0.3 per cent (£1.5 million) on 2010-11 session
The number of students supported has increased by 0.6 per cent from 133,175 in 2010-11 to 133,990 in 2011-12
The average support per student in 2011-12 session was £4,256, a decrease of 0.9 per cent since 2010-11 when the average was £4,294
There were 11,870 EU students in 2011-12 which is 8.9 per cent of the number of students supported by SAAS, and they received £22.4 million in support which is 3.9 per cent of the total support paid or authorised by SAAS
The total amount authorised in loans increased by £20.6 million, from £223.3m in 2010-11 to £243.9m in 2011-12
The total amount paid in non-repayable awards decreased by 19.0 per cent, from £127.7 million in 2010-11 to £103.4 million in 2011-12. The number of students receiving such awards decreased by 19.3 per cent, from 68,960 to 55,685. The decreases mostly impacted on students from middle-income households (between £30,000 and £59,999). These changes have happened because support for travel costs was subsumed within the student loan and Lone Parents' Childcare Grant was paid out by institutions for the first time in 2011-12
At the beginning of September, 135,585 applications had been received so far for 2012-13 support. Final figures on the number of these applications that result in actual support from SAAS will be available at the end of 2012-13 session.