Current status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 8 May 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what the average expenditure per (a) pre-school education, (b) primary school, (c) secondary school, (d) college and (e) university place has been in each year since 2007-08 in (i) cash and (ii) real terms.
Table 1 provides information on average gross revenue expenditure in Scotland per child attending pre-school, and per primary and secondary pupil alongside allocations (accounting for teaching and tuition fees funding) per college and university place.
2024-25 figures for Pre-School, Primary and Secondary School will be available after the publication of the 2024-25 Scottish local government finance statistics in February – March 2026.
The Scottish Government do not hold data on Pre-School registrations prior to 2010.
Indicative University and College funding allocations for 2025-26 were published by the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) earlier this month. These include a cash terms increase in teaching funding for colleges, and a cash terms increase to the Main Teaching Grant (and teaching price) for Universities, compared with last year. These indicative figures have not been included in this table as the underlying calculation requires further details, including the number of controlled and non-controlled funded places, which are not yet available to SFC.
Further detail of College and University Indicative Funding Allocations for 2025-26 can be found at:
College Indicative Funding Allocations 2025-26 - Scottish Funding Council
University Indicative Funding Allocations 2025-26 - Scottish Funding Council
Table 1: Average Expenditure Per Place for each Education Level (Cash Terms)
Pre-School | Primary | Secondary | College | University | |
2007-08 | - | £4,651 | £6,344 | £4,046 | £6,561 |
2008-09 | - | £4,833 | £6,665 | £4,219 | £6,760 |
2009-10 | - | £4,882 | £6,533 | £4,293 | £6,904 |
2010-11 | £3,456 | £5,007 | £6,607 | £4,289 | £6,957 |
2011-12 | £3,193 | £4,935 | £6,495 | £4,138 | - |
2012-13 | £3,194 | £4,899 | £6,629 | £4,012 | £7,139 |
2013-14 | £3,102 | £4,880 | £6,714 | £4,043 | £7,175 |
2014-15 | £3,411 | £4,819 | £6,795 | £4,029 | £7,240 |
2015-16 | £3,957 | £4,877 | £6,920 | £4,024 | £7,237 |
2016-17 | £4,344 | £4,980 | £7,050 | £4,092 | £7,005 |
2017-18 | £4,592 | £5,169 | £7,131 | £4,196 | £7,013 |
2018-19 | £5,190 | £5,444 | £7,459 | £4,539 | £7,182 |
2019-20 | £6,916 | £5,791 | £7,789 | £4,665 | £7,190 |
2020-21 | £9,366 | £6,130 | £7,906 | £4,878 | £7,316 |
2021-22 | £10,435 | £6,550 | £8,174 | £4,952 | £7,433 |
2022-23 | £11,282 | £7,075 | £8,766 | £5,054 | £7,558 |
2023-24 | £12,000 | £7,487 | £9,276 | £5,506 | £7,613 |
2024-25 | - | - | - | £5,506 | £7,635 |
Table 2 provides the same information at 2024-25 price levels. Real terms conversions were produced using use HM Treasury’s March 2025 GDP Deflator series, including forecasts for the 2024-25 financial year.
Table 2: Average Expenditure Per Place for each Education Level (Real Terms)
Education Level | Pre-School | Primary | Secondary | College | University |
2007-08 | - | £7,170 | £9,780 | £6,238 | £10,115 |
2008-09 | - | £7,191 | £9,917 | £6,277 | £10,058 |
2009-10 | - | £7,167 | £9,591 | £6,303 | £10,136 |
2010-11 | £4,979 | £7,214 | £9,520 | £6,180 | £10,024 |
2011-12 | £4,521 | £6,987 | £9,196 | £5,859 | - |
2012-13 | £4,440 | £6,810 | £9,215 | £5,577 | £9,924 |
2013-14 | £4,231 | £6,657 | £9,158 | £5,515 | £9,788 |
2014-15 | £4,597 | £6,494 | £9,157 | £5,429 | £9,756 |
2015-16 | £5,294 | £6,525 | £9,259 | £5,384 | £9,683 |
2016-17 | £5,684 | £6,516 | £9,224 | £5,354 | £9,166 |
2017-18 | £5,915 | £6,659 | £9,186 | £5,405 | £9,034 |
2018-19 | £6,548 | £6,868 | £9,410 | £5,726 | £9,060 |
2019-20 | £8,523 | £7,137 | £9,599 | £5,749 | £8,860 |
2020-21 | £10,955 | £7,170 | £9,247 | £5,705 | £8,556 |
2021-22 | £12,277 | £7,706 | £9,617 | £5,826 | £8,744 |
2022-23 | £12,399 | £7,775 | £9,634 | £5,554 | £8,306 |
2023-24 | £12,456 | £7,771 | £9,629 | £5,715 | £7,902 |
2024-25 | - | - | - | £5,506 | £7,635 |
Sources:
1.Local Financial Returns – Education (LFR 01) statistical return provided by local authorities to the Scottish Government: Local government finance statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
2.Pupil Census – published annually - for further details go to: Pupil census: supplementary statistics - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
3.Scottish Funding Council
4.GDP deflators at market prices: GDP deflators at market prices, and money GDP - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Methodology
The methodologies used to determine the average expenditure per place for each education level are provided in more detail below.
Pre-school: average gross revenue expenditure per child in pre-primary education is arrived at by taking the total gross revenue expenditure on pre-primary education, adjusted for inter-authority transfers, as reported by local authorities to the local financial return. These figures are then divided by the number of pupils in funded early learning and childcare as per the statistics reported in the early learning and childcare (ELC) census. The figures for per child expenditure on pre-primary education are likely to be overestimates due to the fact that September (when the figures for the ELC census are collected) is a point in the academic year when ELC registrations are at their lowest. This is because children starting funded ELC (usually when they turn three) start at the beginning of the term which starts after their birthday – so, in the Autumn term only some of the children who will become eligible for funded ELC during that academic year have already taken up their funded place. However, this issue applies every year, meaning that the above time-series comparison is reasonable.
Primary and Secondary schools: average gross revenue expenditure per pupil in primary and secondary education respectively is arrived at by taking the total gross revenue expenditure adjusted for inter-authority transfers, reported by local authorities on primary and secondary education to the local financial return, divided by the number of pupils in primary and secondary education as per the statistics reported in the pupil census.
Colleges: The Scottish Funding Council (SFC) have supplied detail of the average cost of a College place (expenditure per full-time equivalent (FTE)). This is calculated by taking funding provided to Colleges for core teaching and assumed tuition fee income (see supplementary note 3) and dividing this by the number of student places.
Universities: The cost of an average University place, also provided by the SFC, is estimated by taking the total teaching grant awarded to Universities (excluding teaching grant associated with rUK students studying expensive strategically important subjects, who are not eligible for funding) and assumed tuition fee income associated with those places (see supplementary note 3) and dividing this by the total number of SFC funded places for Scottish and EU domiciled FTEs. Expenditure figures exclude funding for student support, and SFC’s research and strategic funds. Total FTE figures are SFC/SG funded places and do not include fees only and international places.
Supplementary notes:
1.“-“ indicates that there is no available data for this year.
2.Assumed tuition fees include income from SAAS, SDS, employers and students paying their own tuition fees for SFC funded programmes.
3.For college and university figures, the funded places/weighted SUMS/credits figures used are taken from the final published main grant letters or outcome agreements, and do not take account of any subsequent adjustments.
4.No fee assumption was made in AY 2011-12. In response to a reduction in grant in aid each university's teaching grant was reduced pro-rata, rather than being calculated based on our funding formula. As a result, no figure was provided by SFC for this year.
5.Further detail on College and University funding figures each year can be found in the supplementary notes of the answer to question S6W-15187 by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 7 March 2023