400% increase in rejected college applications
January 28, 2010 by Hamish Macdonell · 19 Comments
A damaging and previously hidden effect of the recession has emerged in new figures showing that some Scottish colleges are turning away four times as many applicants as they did a year ago.
Not only are there record numbers of young unemployed in Scotland but those without a job are finding it increasingly difficult to get college places too.
Because there are fewer jobs and fewer apprentice places, more and more young people are trying to get to colleges to secure the qualifications needed to get employment, with the result that there is now serious over demand for those places.
For instance, Carnegie College in Dunfermline, turned away 904 applicants in 2009: up from 120 in 2008 – an increase of 653 per cent.
At Kilmarnock College, the number of failed applicants rose by nearly 500 per cent in the course of the last year while in Oatridge College near Edinburgh – where no applicant had ever been declined before last year – 300 were turned away.
The situation is similar across Scotland, leading to calls from the Liberal Democrats – who compiled the figures – for government action.
Lib Dem finance spokesman Jeremy Purvis said: “Too many people have been hit twice. They can’t get a job and now they can’t get a college place.
“What government can do is give them the opportunity to gain skills and experience that will help them get the most from economic recovery when it comes. Scotland as a whole will benefit from having more people ready and active for the workplace.”
But whether the Scottish Government can actually help in the short term is debateable.
The Scottish Government budget is extremely tight. The budget for the 2010-11 financial year is on the verge of being passed by parliament so there is no way this could be altered so radically to inject the funds necessary funds into further education to provide all the places the colleges need.
And even if the budget was altered and money diverted to Scotland’s colleges, there is a time lag on any such policy shift which would mean that the new places would take two years, and maybe more, to create.
Given that no-one knows what demand for the places is going to be like in two years time and it might have declined back to last year’s level, it would be unwise, as well as difficult, for the Scottish Government to do that.
So what this reveals is a real problem but one without an immediate solution.
The Lib Dems are right. There is a serious problem here. It is one which has been almost hidden in the focus on unemployment figures. Young people are being hit with a double whammy.
But, given all that, it is also difficult to see a solution: at least in the short term. The Lib Dems can appeal to the Scottish Government for help but, deep down, even they know it is not really going to happen.
They do deserve credit for digging into this issue. That, though, is almost certainly all they will get.
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Not sure what this is actually telling us as the ’snapshaot’ figures are just that. Is there a reduction in the number of places on offer? or is it a consequence of more applications?
I did find it odd that one of the colleges said it had never turned anyone away before, I am all for further education and for people bettering themselves, but if a college had never turned anyone away before then two things come to mind. Was it running with empty places before and was its admission policy so light that I have to question the validity of much of what it was offering.
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Oatridge is a highly specalised agricultural college. As such it would be in the enviable position of being able to predict and balance the availability position quite precisely. Thus the reason why they’ll never have had to turn folk away before…
As for other colleges… Well some, particularly in the City Centre of Glasgow, are being squeezed from all sides. And in one case under unwarranted attack; with some grossly underhand (scanadlously so in my opinion) tactics being employed to service a wider (and deeply unhealthy) political agenda.
As much as we need to be worried about (and Holyrood needs to react to) the alleged current shortage of places some fairly serious threats loom ahead… If things are tough for the current crop of potential FE and HE students those of us with children in their early teens should be seriously concerned by what provision waits ahead for them! For unless there is a dramatic change in course we’re sailing towards somewhere its better not to go… It’s no likely tae get onny better! Quite the contrary!
Danger lies ahead in the the form of shark-infested waters inhabited by those who would not spend ‘education money’ on actually teaching people; but on the pursuit of grandiose projects designed primarily to divert public money into the private purse. And of course assure the ego-inflation and knighting of certain individuals!
Beware of deep muddy holes (particularly those dug on top of old mine workings near Cathedral Street) in ’spending on education’ that ‘learn nothing for naebody’. And expect such holes to contain capital projects that make spending on the Edinburgh Trams project to look highly reasonable and the Parliament Building a well executed bargain!
And beware too that the money (figure real-life numbers in excess of £1.2Bn once all the shouting’s done) getting poured into those holes is the money that SHOULD have been spent on supporting those who are at this point in time fighting to defend the proud educational heritage of Scotland…
The money that SHOULD, in fact, be spent on fixing this provision-gap and providing for the foreseeable future of FE/HE provision…
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The biggest concern is churning out kids with alleged Degrees to work in Call Centres or sports Shops!!
This recent thing of making Technical Colleges Universities is nothing more than political gift wrapping.
so that ministers in Westmninster can stand up saying hety look since we came to power we have 30% more people in Higher Education!!!
We need real universities properly funded doing R&D creating new products and goods that we can manufacture in Scotland and create lasting scottish jobs.
The Call Centres are all heading East sooner or later .
We need real degree courses and real jobs .not government statisitics to make our politicians sound efficient
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Are these students who, based on qualifications, would have normally been admitted? This seems to me to leave a number of question unanswered.
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dunno if this true, but……….i heard that micheal russell was standig outside pumpherston college of further education batting away pasty faced goths with a rolled up copy of the S N P manifesto……how heartless is that ?
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There is no prize in this unbiased online newspaper for snide childish comments.
Grow up.
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Is there no?
Mebbe then I’ll sponsor a box o’ creme eggs that can be pressed intae service for just that purpose!
Trust me; I’m a Nat through tae the marra… But they’re no untouchable, flameproof or beyond spinnin the dinghy!
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“We need real universities properly funded doing R&D creating new products and goods that we can manufacture in Scotland and create lasting scottish jobs.
The Call Centres are all heading East sooner or later “-disillusioned
But manufacturing jobs have been heading east for decades.
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Exactly Cynicus , and look at the state we are in now!!!
our european neighbours in Germany , France Sweden,Finland etc still make their OWN cars ,ships trains ,trams,mobile phones etc and compete and beat the Chinese.
we in UK make exactly what???
Last out of the recession with the highest debt ratio, and no goods to sell to pay the bill.
We Jimmy with his Arts degree from Old Glasgow Tech college is not going to help pay off that debt selling trainers in JD Sports!
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Is Hamish here just for a laff?
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Play it again, Don.
For old times’ sake.
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Do we have records from previous recessions ?
The recession apparently came out of the blue and increasing college places and courses takes time. By the time we had increased the supply to meet the demand the recession would probably be over, and the colleges left with unfilled vacancies and courses and surplus staff.
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“For instance, Carnegie College in Dunfermline, turned away 904 applicants in 2009: up from 120 in 2008 – an increase of 800 per cent.”
No it isn’t.
904 is an increase of 784 on last year’s number. 784 is not 800% of 120; it is 653%. So it an annual increase of 653%, not 800%.
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Duly noted and corrected.
Thanks,
Stewart Kirkpatrick
Editor, The Caledonian Mercury
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Carnegie may have turned away many applicants last year but it was also going through a significant downturn and made several staff redundant – a bit bizarre for an area which should be on the increase!
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Are they not another college where the broader agenda is to bully them to death though?
As I suggested in my first post here; there are some seriously dodgy and (in my personal opinion) blatantly dishonest agendas at play within the funding of FE/HE provision.
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So what is the story here?
Is the overall quality of student applicants falling because there are more unemployed youngsters, who would previously not have considered academia, trying to get into the jobs market by catching up on lost schooling and dragging the stats down with them?
Are the numbers of FE college and Uni places available to new students falling?
Or are FE and HE centres of academic excellence becoming more selective due to restrictions on their budgets and available resources?
This article seems to open up more questions than it attempts to answer.
I await the next instalment with interest.
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Hi,
I work in a further educaction college in Glasgow and I know for a fact that Colleges are becoming more selective so that their outcomes can look good as staff are under pressure to record stats- if their attendence/ outcomes are low, the course will simply be ‘pulled’ from the prospectus the following term. Also, at least four main Colleges in Glasgow currently have staff in India actively recruiting potential students to come over to start courses this September and in some cases are being guaranteed a place. At a time when the local population cannot get into College, you have to question the appropriateness of this. International students bring money in the college, many of the applicants from the surrounding areas of Glasgow do not.
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College Worker, you make some good points… Though fail to mention that the foreign recruitment is (as far as I can see at least) being made NECESSARY because ‘SUMS’ (The ‘funding units’ colleges receve in respect of each student) are controlled AND CAPPED by agencies external to the college…
As it happens I too lecture (part time) at one of the those colleges.
For reasons I personally just can’t fathom our SUMS target is being squeezed by these external agencies. Every SUM withdrawn is a teaching place made unavaialble to a local student and effectively a reduction in funds available to run the college.
But the doors still need to open of a morning and the books still need balancing. Don’t get me wrong; international students add a new and valued dimension to college life; and are most welcome. However the college reps that are out in India recruiting are out there working to help plug a funding gap, NOT because of any notion that foreign students are somehow more lucrative…
What that means is that they’re out there working to protect the jobs of lecturers, technicians, admin staff, campus staff cleaners cooks… AND the college provision, infrastructure and traditions that all those people provide…
Should we question the appropriateness of this? No; we should question the situation imposed upon the colleges that has precipitated that necessity…
As for the colleges being more selective; why WOULDN’T we measure performance and do everything possible to improve success rates? With fewer places available it’s only to be expected that the first people in line for them are those who are best matched and most likely to complete…
If you want to question anything question the politics and the self-interested parties that one way or another are conspiring to put these sort of pressures and impositions on college principals and managers… IF foreign students are displacing locals (and it’s by no means clear to me that this is in fact the case) then the place we need to start asking questions is at Holyrood.
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