HC Deb 06 December 1962 vol 668 cc1470-2
4. Mr. Gower

asked the Minister of Education what estimate he has made of the number of graduates of British universities who, after receiving grants from public funds for their education, take posts in other countries immediately or soon after they leave university; and if he will make a statement.

Sir E. Boyle

I have no such estimate. I understand that the University Grants Committee, in consultation with the University Appointments Boards, is collecting information about the occupations which graduates take up, including information about those who go abroad. This survey, which will be published in the spring, will not, however, show how many of the graduates had received grants from public funds.

Mr. Gower

Is my right hon. Friend aware that, since I tabled this Question, I have received a great deal of correspondence from all over the country containing an enormous number of suggestions that people receiving this help from public funds should enter into some form of undertaking that they will work in this country for a prescribed number of years? While not necessarily agreeing about this, I should like to know what my right hon. Friend thinks about it.

Sir E. Boyle

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for the way in which he put his supplementary question. I do not entirely agree, for two reasons. First, it may well be that, in the interests of this country in the longer run, people should do some job abroad and return to take up appointments in this country, but, more important, 90 per cent. of all undergraduates are assisted to some extent out of public funds, and while this may leave them with some sense of obligation, I do not think we should regard this as imposing an obligation on them. We have our system of public education because our community wants it that way. I should not feel happy about any suggestion that this imposes an obligation.

Sir A. V. Harvey

Will my right hon. Friend resist the well-intended suggestion of my hon. Friend the Member for Barry (Mr. Gower) and agree that the fact of undergraduates going abroad after com- pleting their training, whether to America or to the Commonwealth, brings us nothing but dividends in the long run?

Sir E. Boyle

In fairness to my hon. Friend the Member for Barry (Mr. Gower), I would point out that he was merely passing on suggestions which had been made rather than giving his own views. There is, however, a great deal in what my hon. Friend has suggested.