10. Mr. Edward M. Taylorasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what estimates he has made of the numbers of young people who will be seeking admission to British universities for the year 1967–68 and the numbers of vacant university places which will be available.
§ Mr. CroslandI would refer the hon. Member to my reply of 2nd November, 1966, to the hon. Member for Dumfries (Mr. Monro).—[Vol. 735, c. 125.]
Mr. TaylorWill the right hon. Gentleman give an assurance that he is not seeking to compensate for the shortsighted reductions in the university building programme by excluding foreign and Commonwealth students, and is he aware that considerable resentment has been caused by the Government seeking to save the small sum of £2 million by 625 shoving up the fees for foreign and Commonwealth students from £70 to £250 in one fell swoop?
§ Mr. CroslandAs to the latter part of the supplementary question, there are a number of Questions on that subject later on the Order Paper and I shall reply to them in due time. As to the implication of the first part of the supplementary question, there has been no such cut in the building programme as the hon. Member appeared to imply. The essential fact is that in the universities we are already about 2,000 above the Robbins' targets, which at the time when they were published and accepted by a previous Government were thought to be extremely ambitious