HC Deb 19 December 1957 vol 580 cc593-4
31. Mr. Rankin

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he is aware that Great Britain is the only one, among the major industrial nations, where there are no specialised technological institutions able to award their own degrees, and that this contributes to the shortage in our output of graduate engineers and scientists; and what steps he proposes to take to increase the yearly number of graduates.

Mr. Powell

It is the Government's view that the best results will be got by specially developing the scientific and technological side of certain existing institutions.

Mr. Rankin

Yes, but is not the financial Secretary aware that at present the universities for the most part concentrate on the arts side, and that nearly three-quarters of the graduates in British universities are on that side, and that this injures or affects the status and the stature of technological institutes and puts them on a lower level? Would not he reconsider the matter?

Mr. Powell

In the last two years there has been a 25 per cent. increase in the number of students entering science and technology courses. I should have thought that this was pretty good.