HC Deb 27 November 1952 vol 508 cc599-600
24. Mr. Grimond

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer why the non-recurrent grants to Scottish universities for the period 1947–51 were approximately only one-tenth of those to English universities.

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

The expansion of the universities in England and Wales has been proportionately greater than that of the Scottish universities, and plans for new building and re-equipment were put forward earlier by the former than by the latter.

Mr. Grimond

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that this is most unfair and that universities in the counties of Durham and Northumberland, a notorious haunt of Border brigands, got as much as all the Scottish universities put together in the last quinquennium?

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

All comparisons, and particular Border comparisons, are proverbially odious, but the hon. Gentleman will be consoled to know that there is still one full-time student for every 340 of the population in Scotland compared with one for every 639 in England and Wales.

Mr. Woodburn

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the scarcity of graduates for posts suitable for them is extremely great and that the prosperity of the country depends on making the best use of the brains in the country? Will he see that no stinginess about grants to Scotland prevents boys who are capable of taking degrees from reaching the tops of the professions?

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

While no one can give the unqualified assurance for which the right hon. Gentleman asks, I can assure him that we are very well aware of the great importance of the matter.

Mr. M. MacPherson

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the university situation in Scotland is not a simple and homogeneous one, and that the two smaller universities ought to be built up while the other two are far larger than any unitary university institutions in England and far beyond the optimum desired by those who are interested in this matter? Is he aware that there is a strong case for discrimination in the grants as between Aberdeen and St. Andrew on the one hand and Edinburgh and Glasgow on the other?

Mr. Boyd-Carpenter

That is as may be, but the hon. Gentleman will not lure me into a Scottish inter-university controversy.