Spending on education & training in Scotland is significantly higher per head than the UK average

Over the last decade the Scottish government has increased per head spending on education more than the UK average.

Scotland's higher per head spending on education is a function of both underlying cost-to-serve challenges and policy choices.

• No tuition fees for eligible Scottish-domiciled undergraduates at Scottish institutions is a policy choice that clearly leads to higher education spending in Scotland (SAAS pays those fees on those students' behalf).
• Scotland's lower population density and high prevalence of rural and island communities means that observed lower pupils/school and pupils/teacher ratios are to be expected - but given education is fully devolved, it's difficult to separate the impact of structurally higher costs-to-serve vs different policy and spending priorities in Scotland.

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