§ 6. Mr. Andrew Robathan (Blaby)How many Welsh students currently attend universities in Scotland. [50274]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Mr. Peter Hain)In 1997–98, there were 602 Welsh-domiciled students studying at Scottish higher education institutions.
§ Mr. RobathanI am sure that some of those students will be constituents of the Minister and I suspect that they will be unhappy should they have to pay the extra year's tuition fees. May I quote what the Minister's right hon. Friend Lord Callaghan of Cardiff said? He is a man who has spent rather more time in Wales than the Minister, who had to hawk himself around the Labour party bazaars of England before coming to rest in Neath. Of the compromise that has been reached, Lord Callaghan said:
the Government are morally bound to accept all the major conclusions that follow from it."—[Official Report, House of Lords, 14 July 1998; Vol. 592, c. 123.]I hope that the Minister will bear that in mind and put it to his constituents if they come to him about having to pay that extra year's tuition fees.
§ Mr. HainYou will forgive me, I am sure, Madam Speaker, if I refer in passing to the fact that the hon. Gentleman has not asked a single question in that respect about English students, or about his own constituents; so it is clearly not a problem for them. In fact, the number of applications from Wales to Scottish institutions is up this year. The principle involved is that we are providing a fairer system of funding for all students in Britain, which will give greater opportunity and greater access to higher education.