University Admissions

HC Deb 07 May 1964 vol 694 cc1428-9

6. Mr. G. M. Thomson

asked the Secretary for Technical Co-operation if he will make representations to the University Central Council on Admissions to ensure that students from developing countries applying for places at British universities have the same admission procedure applied to them as is applied to students from the United Kingdom.

Mr. R. Carr

I have already been in consultation with the Council on this matter. It is sympathetic to this point, and has assured me that it is seeking to simplify the system in the hope of achieving a common procedure for all applicants in 1965–66.

Mr. Thomson

I appreciate the efforts made by the Minister in this matter, but is not he aware that during the coming year, for the first time, there will be discrimination against Commonwealth students from developing countries. Is he aware that the students' officers of the Commonwealth High Commissions here are deeply offended by this development? Can something further be done to make the university clearing house aware of the unfortunate effect which this action has on Commonwealth students?

Mr. Carr

What the Central Council is trying to do is something that I am sure we would all agree with, namely, to create a system of admissions for all students, home or overseas, on the same basis. Hitherto, overseas students have not been admitted on the same basis. This year has been what the Council has described to me as a running-in year. I am afraid that it is too late to do anything this year. The full system would not work this year. I am satisfied that this is a step towards a genuinely uniform system.

Sir Knox Cunningham

Is it not a fact that certain places are reserved for overseas students in universities, and that in such cases they have priority over our students?

Mr. Carr

I cannot speak from direct knowledge of that point. I would not have thought so, however, except in respect of the relatively small number of scholarships and endowments which various universities have specifically for overseas students. They would cover only a small number of overseas students. Generally the universities are completely autonomous in their selection of students, whether from home or overseas.