FM queries watchdog’s figures on colleges

Nicola Sturgeon has openly criticised a report by Scotland’s public spending watchdog which concluded that the nation’s college student population has fallen to its lowest level in a decade.

The First Minister said she did not agree with the methodology used by Audit Scotland, which revealed that the total number of college students last year was the lowest recorded since 2006-07.

However, the watchdog said it stood by the findings and insisted that the report had been checked for accuracy by the Scottish Government before being published.

The row broke out at First Minister’s Questions when Ms Sturgeon was asked for her response to the report, which also revealed that the number of part-time college students has dropped by 18 per cent in the past five years.

She insisted that the watchdog’s figures were not based on all colleges, citing Scottish Funding Council figures showing that the overall student headcount increased by 0.1 per cent in the past year and now stood at 227,258.

Audit Scotland put the total headcount figure at 220,680, prompting Ms Sturgeon to tell MSPS: “We don’t accept, we don’t agree with the methodology.”