The Scottish government clawed back almost £800,000 in funding from universities for unfilled places on teacher education courses in 2021-22, Tes Scotland can reveal.
Universities had to pay the government back £788,000 in 2021-22, according to Scottish Funding Council (SFC) figures obtained by Tes Scotland.
This bill, however, is likely to rise because in more recent years universities have found it increasingly difficult to fill places on secondary teaching programmes in particular.
While primary teacher education courses tend to be oversubscribed, places on secondary courses are becoming tougher to fill, especially when it comes to subjects such as maths, technological education and computing.
Teacher education recruitment difficulties
Every year data is published by the Scottish government showing the proportion of places on teacher education courses that have been filled just after the start of the academic year in October.
In October 2021 85 per cent of places on secondary programmes (both undergraduate and postgraduate) were filled - but in October 2022 that figure dropped to 64 per cent and by October 2023 it fell to 53 per cent.
Tes Scotland revealed earlier this month that secondary student teacher recruitment targets are set to remain the same for the coming academic year.
The Scottish Council of Deans of Education (SCDE), however, said “a reduced clawback” had been put in place for teacher education institutions and that this arrangement was continuing.
SCDE chair Dr Zoè Robertson said this was “appreciated and, indeed, essential in helping to support sustainability within the sector”.
“The arrangements for clawback for initial teacher education (ITE) follows a different model from other controlled areas [such as dentistry, medicine and nursing, as well as ITE],” she said.
“SFC and Scottish government have recognised the significant efforts that higher education institutions have been making in working to meet increased ITE targets in hard-to-fill secondary subject areas, in a sector-wide challenging context.”
‘A persistent global challenge’
Dr Robertson added: “Recruitment into ITE is a persistent global challenge and any further assistance around clawback, as part of a broader collaborative effort across the sector to address the shared recruitment challenge, is welcomed.”
According to the SFC there is a 3 per cent “tolerance threshold” for under-enrolment in most controlled subjects, including ITE. This means that if a university is within 3 per cent of its target, the SFC will not adjust its funding.
However, if under-recruitment is more than 3 per cent, contact is initiated and the university is asked to provide details of any mitigating factors.
When it comes to ITE the Scottish government is also involved in these discussions because “it pays directly for some of the controlled activity”, says the SFC.
In a letter to the SFC sent in February, recommending that targets for teacher education institutions remain the same for the coming academic year, the Scottish government says it recognises “clawback of funding for under-recruitment to programmes is a significant issue for ITE providers”.
It adds: “In taking any decisions around clawback there is a need to balance efforts made by ITE providers in terms of the recruitment of students against the fact that we should not be providing ITE providers with funding for students not studying in schools of education.”
The government concludes that “current arrangements” will continue for 2024-25.
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