HC Deb 19 July 1988 vol 137 cc931-3
4. Mr. Canavan

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the value in real terms of the maximum student grant, expressed as a percentage of the 1978–79 maximum grant.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science (Mr. Robert Jackson)

The basic rate of grant payable to students studying outside London is worth 86 per cent. of the corresponding rate in 1978–79.

Mr. Canavan

Does the Minister accept that the cut in students' living standards is even greater than his figures suggest if we take into account the cuts in students' social security benefits, housing benefit and of course the dreaded poll tax, which is just around the corner? Therefore, will the Minister take immediate steps to restore the student grant to at least the purchasing power that it had in 1978–79, when the Labour party was in power, instead of toying with the idea of either partially or completely scrapping the grant system and replacing it with a student loan scheme? That would prohibit many students from lower-income families from going on to higher education.

Mr. Jackson

The hon. Gentleman is obviously reflecting deeply on this subject and he might like to consider that since 1979, in spite of, or in line with, the fall in the value of the grant, participation in higher education has increased by 12.9 per cent. and that the number of students in higher education has increased by 18.9 per cent.

Dame Elaine Kellett-Bowman

Will my hon. Friend give the House some information on how our grants compare with those of other countries? Are they more, or less, generous?

Mr. Jackson

The proportion of the national product that is spent on higher education in Britain is the highest in the Western world. My information is that our grant system is almost certainly the most generous and certainly the most extensive in the Western world.

Ms. Armstrong

Many people are somewhat concerned at the Minister's logic when he says that the reason why not enough women and people from lower social classes—[Interruption.]

Mr. Speaker

Order.

Ms. Armstrong

—are getting into higher education is that we are paying them too much. Will he ensure in any review—[Interruption.] I am sorry that Conservative Members are not listening——

Mr. Speaker

Order. This is a serious matter.

Ms. Armstrong

Will the Minister ensure that any review that he carries out will make sure that people from low income families whom he has committed himself to getting into higher education will have a greater, not a lesser, opportunity?

Mr. Jackson

We share the hon. Lady's concern with the widening of opportunity for access to higher education. That will continue to be an important theme for us in the review. The key determinant of access to and opportunity for higher education seems to be the numbers who come into the system. We have recently had the enrolments and the fact is that the Government have now achieved their target of 50,000 additional places by 1990—and we have done so by 1988.

Mr. Marlow

As my hon. Friend knows well, this House decreed many years ago that the age of majority and independence for young people should be 18. It is therefore totally inappropriate, under those circumstances, that the grant given to individual students depends in any respect on the wealth or otherwise of their parents. Before someone else does it—I have asked my hon. Friend to do this before—will he test this thesis before the European Court of Human Rights?

Mr. Jackson

We are considering the future of parental contribution to student maintenance in the context of our review. Every system that we have studied involves some element of family or parental obligation. I believe that the family is a vital institution. It is reasonable to expect parents to make some contribution to the support of their student children.

Mr. Andrew F. Bennett

What is so good about student loans if the Cabinet is vetoing them? Will the Minister confirm that there are now storm warnings in the Department of Education and Science in case No. 10 leaks the student loan document? Why has he now abandoned his unattributable briefings to the press about the virtue of student loans? Will he admit that the real losers are not Ministers' reputations but students, the real value of whose student grants has dramatically fallen over the past 10 years? Will he also admit that there should now be an immediate increase in the level of student support, for the benefit of students and the country?

Mr. Jackson

As my hon. Friend the Member for Eastwood (Mr. Stewart) has a later question on that point we should not steal his thunder.