HC Deb 07 May 1970 vol 801 cc555-6
9. Mr. Wright

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science when he will announce his decision on grants for the next university quinquennium.

52. Mr. Christopher Price

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science when he will announce the level of university grants for the next quinquennium.

63. Sir E. Bullus

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is to be the level of university grants for the period of the next five years.

The Secretary of State for Education and Science (Mr. Edward Short)

I hope to announce a provisional grant for the academic year 1972–73 towards the end of 1971, and the grant for the whole of the next quinquennium in the summer or autumn of 1972. This is the same timetable as my predecessors followed for the present quinquennium.

Mr. Wright

This is the second delay we have had when we have asked this question. As long as nine months ago—on 23rd July—a similar evasion was given to my right hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Handsworth (Sir E. Boyle). Does not the right hon. Gentleman appreciate the concern in the universities with making plans for the whole of the 1970s?

Mr. Short

I do appreciate that, but this is the same procedure as was followed when the present quinquennium grant was announced. It is agreeable to the University Grants Committee. There are some difficulties about having a provisional grant for the first year, but the U.G.C. is not able to let me have its plans sooner. There is no way of avoiding this situation.

Mr. Price

What liaison is there between the decision on the amount of grant for the universities and that for the polytechnics and colleges of further education in other sectors of higher education? When we know the increase in the new grants, will we know the way in which the Government have allocated priorities for the expansion of higher education over the next five years between the universities and other sectors of higher education?

Mr. Short

That is another and broader question upon which we can perhaps have a debate some time.

Mrs. Thatcher

Could the right hon. Gentleman take the unusual course for him and try to do better than his predecessors on this matter? He said that the U.G.C. was satisfied with the timetable. It would seem to us—and we visit universities as much as he does—that individual universities are worried about the uncertainty in their plans for expansion.

Mr. Short

As I have said, the U.G.C. cannot let me have reliable estimates for the whole quinquennium earlier. I do not see any way of avoiding provisional allocations for the first year. I agree that the situation is in some ways unsatisfactory.