Further to the First Minister’s statement on 24 April 2008 that some 160,000 students in Scotland are currently not liable for the council …

As a point of clarification, the First Minister referred in the Parliament on 24 April 2008 to around 160,000 students in Scotland not earning enough to pay local income tax. He did not say that 160,000 students are currently not liable for the council tax.
A breakdown of the estimated numbers of full-time students in 2006-07 who were potentially exempt from paying council tax is given below.
Postgraduate Students
| 30,040

First degree Students
| 117,600

Other Students in Higher Education
| 35,870

Students in Further Education
| 38,720

Total
| 222,230

Notes:
(i) Full-time students are exempt from paying council tax in most cases. Some full-time students in further education are enrolled on courses that do not qualify them for a council tax exemption as the course is not considered long enough to be full-time for council tax purposes. A number of other full-time students will be liable for other reasons, but the number of such students is not currently known.
(ii) The figures in the table above are based on Higher Education Statistics Agency and Scottish Funding Council enrolment data. They exclude dormant, visiting exchange, writing-up and sabbatical students at higher education institutions, as well as those college students who failed to complete 25% of their course.