Entry charges for local councils independent school and colleges
FOI reference: FOI24/25 080
Date received: 27/08/2024
Date responded: 20/09/2024
Information requested
I would be grateful if you could provide the following information under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
I would like to request the most up-to-date information held by the SQA on its charges for school qualifications, including national qualifications, like Highers, and vocational qualifications like NPAs.
The SQA annual report says each year “SQA informs its customers (normally in advance of the academic year) of its fees structure for the coming year”.
I would like to receive this information for the 2024-25 academic year – please include the entry charges applicable to councils, as well as the charges that apply to independent schools and colleges.
For clarity I’m looking to understand the entry charges for the range of SQA qualifications incurred by councils and independent schools so any information held by the SQA that makes this explicit is what I’m seeking.
For the academic year 2018-19 and 2023-24 could you also please set out:
How much income the SQA received in total from entry charges
How much councils paid SQA in charges for school qualifications (please provide the total amount as well as a breakdown by local authority)
How much independent schools paid SQA in charges for school qualifications (please provide the total amount as well as the number of independent schools that paid these charges to SQA in these years)
How much colleges paid SQA in charges for qualifications (please provide the total amount as well as a breakdown by local authority)
Response
Information on the charges is contained within the letter attached.
Annually we receive notification from the Scottish Government confirming our pricing and any changes circa September/October in relation to the current year’s session, at which point the Entry Charges letter is circulated for updates, passed for approval, and subsequently distributed to centres. We are unable to provide the 24/25 price list at this time but can provide the 23/24 letter as attached.
As per above charges and the terms of the levy are set by the Scottish Government and the levy on local authorities (which remained static since 2013) is a consistent charge from one year to the next, Local authorities have paid the same amount for national qualifications since 2013.
The charges per qualification for other centres increases each year in line with the entry charges letter which has been agreed by Scottish Government.
The information for the four questions is contained within the attached spreadsheet.
As the 23/24 accounts are unaudited currently, we are providing 22/23 figures instead.
Documents:
Information sheet (22 KB)