THE percentage of young Scots going into higher education has soared in the past decade from 19 per cent in 1986-87 to 47 per cent in 1996-97, according to Scottish Office statistics. The figures show that 53 per cent of the 125,000 entrants in 1996-97 were female, and that 48 per cent of all entrants were aged over 25. Sixty-six per cent of the total of 239,300 students were studying on full-time or sandwich courses. The proportion on part-time courses increased from 32 per cent in 1995-96 to 34 per cent.
There was an 11 per cent increase in the number of students taking higher education courses in further education colleges, 67,6 of total enrolments of just over 400,000.