The SNP government has become embroiled in another statistics row after the education minister admitted that his college dropout data is misleading.
Jamie Hepburn confirmed that the data does not include follow-up information on the reasons for departure.
College managers have condemned the statistics for suggesting that those who drop out are “failures” even if they have a bright future. Students who secure a good job or switch course halfway through their studies are simply marked down as having “withdrawn” while those who finish the course are marked “successful”.
