Despite the drop, the long-term trend is said to be upwards

The Higher Education Statistics Agency figures said student numbers were down by almost 5,600, or 2.1%, mainly because of a drop in part-timers.

The Scottish Executive insisted that the long-term trend was still upwards.

The number of Scottish students dropped by 7,837 and those from other parts of the UK fell by 654. But overseas students shot up by 2,893 in 2002/03.

New entrants

There were 267,029 higher education students in Scotland last year compared with 272,627 in 2001/02.

The drop marked the end of the year-on-year increase in student numbers since devolution in 1999.

The figures also showed a 4.7% drop in the number of new entrants with 134,825 in 2002/2003 compared with 141,447 in 2001/2002.

Despite the slight drop in the overall number last year it was still 24.6% higher than in 1995/1996 when the total sat at 214,261.

The number of full-time students actually went up last year by 1.1%. The overall figure fell because of a 7.2% drop in part-timers.

The statistics also showed that in 2002/03, 78% of higher education students studied in higher education institutions and 22% in further education colleges.

Part-time students

Between 1995/1996 and 2002/2003 the number of female higher education students increased by 40% to 148,559.

Over the same period the number of male higher education students increased by 10% to 118,470.

Female students represented 56% of all higher education students in 2002/03 compared to 50% in 1995/96.

Between 1995/1996 and 2002/2003 the number of full-time higher education students increased by 18% to 172,132.

Over the same period the number of part-time higher education students increased by 38% to 94,897.

Between 1995/1996 and 2002/2003 the number of higher education students aged over 25 as a proportion of all higher education students grew from 41% to 44%.