§ 15. Dr. Kingasked the Minister of Education why the new scales of maintenance grants for training college students in some instances widen, instead of narrowing, the gap between these and comparable university grants.
§ Mr. Geoffrey LloydThe new rates were fixed after careful inquiries. I believe that they preserve a proper relationship between the grants of university and training college students and that they will effectively remove hardship.
§ Dr. KingIs the Minister aware that all university and college students are of the opinion that whenever the scales are altered the gap between university and training college students should be narrowed? If one takes two comparable figures from the recent adjustments of the maintenance scales, one finds that the gap has been widened rather than narrowed. The Minister's own advisers admit that this is true to a matter of a few pounds, but a few pounds mean a lot to a training college student.
§ Mr. LloydI should like to discuss that matter with the hon. Gentleman. He knows that the effect of these regulations is, inevitably, rather complex and that they affect different cases differently.