It was, in every way imaginable, a Scottish results day like no other. And as the news broke that 26.2 per cent of the 511,070 teacher estimates that the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) received for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher were adjusted - the vast majority downwards - the focus was rightly on schools and their students as they tried to assess the impact of this on them and their futures.

But schools are not the only institutions where these qualifications are taken - this year over 9,000 of the 185,844 Higher entries, for example, came from colleges.

A closer look at the data published by the SQA shows that among the learners in the 18 and over age group - who will have taken the qualification in FE - 83.9 per cent were estimated by their teachers to be deserving of an A to C grade. However, when it came to the actual results they received yesterday, only 70.9 per cent of these students will have found themselves with an A-C. That difference, 13 percentage points, is the biggest of any age group. For 15- to 18-year-olds, by far the biggest group of learners sitting Highers, it is 10.1 per cent.

SQA results day 2020: Poorest far more likely to have Higher pass downgraded

Background: Analysis of the SQA’s methodology

‘Exam results’ in the Covid era: ‘Sense of injustice on a whole other level’

So what does that mean? Were college lecturers just over-optimistic in how they viewed their students’ abilities? More so than, on average, teachers in Scotland’s secondary schools? Much has been said in the past 24 hours about the fact that those from deprived areas were much more likely to have their estimated grades changed than those from better-off backgrounds. Teachers have written in Tes about how this made them feel - with one asking whether, because almost all their grades had been changed, the SQA thought they and their colleagues were “dishonest? Unprofessional? Unqualified?”

SQA results 2020: Frustration for adult learners 

FE lecturers will be asking themselves the same questions today as they approach what I am sure will be a busy appeals period. Andrea Bradley, EIS assistant secretary, told me today that the union feels there are “a number of concerns regarding the SQA’s moderation processes this year”.These included the body’s “unwillingness to liaise with schools and colleges where results might have appeared out of kilter with previous trends and the lack of transparency about the narrow methods used to moderate and adjust candidates’ results, arguably for the benefit of some and to the disadvantage of others from less affluent backgrounds, including those who have studied within FE”.

Students, of course, will mostly be concerned with what this means for their future. And while they took the same qualifications, it is worth remembering here that the FE cohort is, in many ways, fundamentally different from that in schools - and not just in age. Students taking Highers or National 5s in college, even more so than those in schools, will most likely have done so to pave the way towards further learning or a new career. They are more likely, on the whole, to come from more deprived backgrounds. They will often, although not always, be adult returners to education, many with other careers behind them, childcare responsibilities or other demands on them and will have often faced many barriers.

A lot of mature students had a slower start to these qualifications, one lecturer told me yesterday, with “lots of gaps to plug”. Many, she said, would significantly improve their grades along the way. These are candidates whose “distance travelled” would be “massive” by the time they reached the end of the course, she stressed.

I can’t imagine what it must feel like for them to find out that while your teachers might have felt you deserved that grade you were hoping for, the SQA process stated that you did not.

And so yesterday, as I read the many posts that were part of the #NoWrongPath campaign that I hope provides reassurance to lots of learners, I couldn’t help but wonder how they must have felt to some adult learners who believed they missed out on the results they needed yesterday.

It is certainly true that there is no one route to success, and many people we most admire can look back on the odd detour or two on their CV. But what if you are a single parent returning to college for that qualification so you can change your life? Have you really got the time to encounter dead ends along the way? And how many detours can you really afford?

Many will have their results appealed on their behalf, I am sure. Colleges Scotland has also stressed to me that its member institutions are here to support students looking to continue their education journey. But after months of the increased pressures and the uncertainty of the coronavirus lockdown, I just hope that those who found their results disappointing yesterday are not taking that to be the end of their journey. And that their teachers have the confidence to support them going forward.