§ 8. Mrs. LiddellTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland when he last met the chairman of the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council to discuss university funding. [19576]
§ Mr. LangI met the chairman of the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council in November 1994 to discuss a range of subjects, including the funding of higher education.
§ Mrs. LiddellWill the Secretary of State seek an early meeting with the chairman of the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council and place on the agenda a revision of the importance of higher education to Scotland's economic and social well-being? Will he also consider at that meeting the devastating effect on Scottish higher education of the 35 per cent. reduction over five years in the unit of resource available for each student currently in higher education? Failure to do so would show that the Secretary of State was weak, out of touch and determined to sell out Scotland's economic and social future.
§ Mr. LangI am afraid that the hon. Lady seems to have got her facts wrong, because not only do we recognise the importance of higher education but we have doubled the participation of the relevant age group in higher education since the Labour Government left power. We are making provision for a 2.5 per cent. expansion in student numbers next year.
§ Mrs. LiddellWhat about student resources?
§ Mr. LangOn resources—I hear the hon. Lady murmur from a sedentary position—let me point out that, since 1989, there has been a 19 per cent. increase in real terms in grant and loans.
§ Mr. StewartDoes my right hon. Friend agree that there has been a steady increase in the number in higher education in Scotland, against a steady flow of forecasts from Opposition Members that the figures would go in the opposite direction? Is it not an indication of the Government's commitment to higher education in Scotland that, although Scotland has only 9 per cent. of the population, it provides 12 per cent. of the number in higher education in Great Britain?
§ Mr. LangMy hon. Friend makes his point extremely well. He is right to say that we have been committed to the expansion of higher education and have been successfully delivering it. That has been done with no loss of quality. Indeed, some 30 per cent. of departments appraised recently were categorised as excellent.
§ Mr. GalbraithWhen the Secretary of State meets the chairman of the Higher Education Funding Council, will he discuss with him the possibility of developing a much simpler system for assessing research in universities? Does he not realise that, under the current system, more time is spent on talking about past research and what will happen in the future than is spent on research in the present? Is it not time that we had a simpler system that encouraged research rather than taking up the time of bureaucrats?
§ Mr. LangI shall certainly bear in mind the hon. Gentleman's remarks. Research is extremely important and is something to which the Government have given considerable attention and resources.