Independent Commission for Land-Based Learning - review and implementation plan: SG response - progress report
Progress of the actions in response to all the recommendations from the Review of Land-Based Learning in the 12 months since the Scottish Government response report was published.
Recommendation 4:
Ensure funding to support core and innovative nature-based education and training programmes, to ensure sustainable provision to allow for fluctuating uptake.
Implementing Actions
In this challenging funding environment, the Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council (SFC) continue to take a considered approach to college and university funding with the focus on sustainability and the delivery of high-quality provision to meet the needs of learners, employers, communities and regional economies. Institutions are responsible for their own sustainability and operational decisions, including course provision, and are best placed to respond flexibly to emerging trends at local and regional level.
Progress Update
Following the 2025-26 budget announcement, the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) has engaged with both sector bodies and individual institutions as part of the engagement around the annual process of allocating institutional funding, university funded places and college credits.
For universities, the SFC has been able to support teaching by increasing the teaching price, the investment in each individual learner by 3.3%, while also removing the 2,500 temporary SQA Covid places. The SFC has re-allocated places to reflect patterns of demand over recent years, and to ensure that opportunities are offered to meet current student demand. This is a 3.6% increase in core funding for research and innovation, meeting a direct ask from the sector which will benefit Scottish universities.
For colleges, the SFC has responded to sectors demand as well as the Minister Letter of Guidance regarding transparency and funding comparability between learners on similar courses and colleges, and modified the funding formula. For the allocations to be published, SFC have mapped college activity across price groups to reflect the actual (current) split of activity (rather than historic). In addition, SFC have removed the premia from the core allocation and split colleges into groups. A single premia rate per credit will be applied to colleges in the same group.
The SFC published the indicative university funding allocations for Academic Year (AY) 2025-26 on 3 April 2025. The indicative college funding allocation for AY 2025-26 was published on 10 April 2025.
The final funding allocations for both universities and colleges are expected to be published by the end of May 2025.
Funding announcements - Scottish Funding Council
Timescales
The funding process for colleges and universities follows an annual cycle, through the SFC’s allocation process. SFC work closely with the sectors to identify the best split of the available resources, taking into account Government priorities and the sectors’ needs. The allocations enable colleges and universities to move forward with their planning for the forthcoming Academic Year and offering student places - complete.
Milestones
Publication of Scottish Funding Council’s annual funding allocations for colleges and universities - complete.
Contact
Email: ruralpolicymailbox@gov.scot