§ 44. Mr. Fletcher-Cookeasked the Minister of Labour why deferment from National Service is not granted to 422 teachers who have passed the final examination for the Associateship of the Royal Institute of Chemistry in the same way as those who have taken a Third Class Degree at a university.
§ Mr. Iain MacleodAn extension of this nature could not be limited to associateship of this Institute alone and would involve drawing distinctions between different professional and academic qualifications which I should be most reluctant to undertake. Moreover, any further extension of the scheme to men with other science and engineering qualifications would deprive the Services of many men with technical or scientific training whom they cannot afford to lose.
§ Mr. Fletcher-CookeIs my right hon. Friend aware that those who have taken technological courses of this sort feel that they are being somewhat slighted in that they do not receive the same sort of treatment as those with third class degrees receive, whom they regard as not their superiors, and, in many cases, as their inferiors?
§ Mr. MacleodI recognise that it is difficult to draw exact comparisons. In the precise case my hon. and learned Friend has in mind, I think that the award was one not regarded as equivalent to graduate level. If I were to accept the associateship of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, I should have to accept also that of many other bodies such as physics, the mechanicals, the electricals, civil engineering, and so forth. I feel that it is impossible to enter upon that.