HL Deb 05 December 1968 vol 298 cc303-5
LORD ABERDARE

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many students offered places at colleges of education in the years 1966, 1967 and 1968 failed to take them up.]

BARONESS PHILLIPS

My Lords, full information is not available, but the Annual Report of the Central Register and Clearing House for 1967 contains statistics about the number of applicants accepted by colleges of education who also applied for entry to university. The number of such applicants who did not take up their college places was 2,696 in 1967 and 2,311 in 1966. I understand that the corresponding figure for 1968 is expected to be about 2,650.

LORD ABERDARE

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness for those figures. Would she agree that these are very high figures and show a considerable hesitation among those who otherwise were going into teaching, which indicates that they are not quite sure of their future career possibilities in teaching? Has not this situation been aggravated recently by the Government restrictions on local authority expenditure, which have led to real fears of unemployment among teachers and students for teaching?

BARONESS PHILLIPS

My Lords, I am not sure that the noble Lord can read into my Answer what he appears to, because upon discussion one finds that many of the candidates—I would guess the majority of them—prefer to have a university place. This appears to be the way the Clearing House system works. The colleges themselves, incidentally, have more than their accepted intake already waiting to go in.

LORD HEYCOCK

My Lords, would it be perfectly true to say that people who apply for a place in a college of education normally are sitting their "A" level examinations in the year and, subject to passing "A" level examinations, would go to university? If a closer analysis of that were taken it would be found that most of those people invariably take a specialised subject in university, as distinct from taking the general subjects in a college of education.

BARONESS PHILLIPS

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, whose knowledge in this field we of course bow to. I certainly agree that, while it is almost impossible to obtain a detailed analysis, what he has suggested is borne out by the train of events the noble Lord has mentioned.

LORD PEDDIE

My Lords, may I ask my noble friend whether the figures quoted include those who failed to survive the course?

BARONESS PHILLIPS

No, my Lords. These figures are quite specifically what I said. They are the numbers of applicants who were accepted for colleges of education and who had also applied for entry to university. In other words, they are people who enter for both. I think the noble Lord was referring to those students who had in fact started a course and failed halfway.

LORD LEATHERLAND

My Lords, would not my noble friend agree that at the present time there are far more students who are potential teachers in these colleges of education than ever were under the previous Government?

BARONESS PHILLIPS

My Lords, that is so.

LORD ABERDARE

My Lords, the noble Baroness has not really answered my Question exactly as I wanted. I was not asking for figures of those who subsequently went to university; I was more concerned with those who applied for and were offered teacher-training vacancies in colleges of education and then did not take them up because, for one reason or another, they did not go into teaching. I quite understand that these figures may not be available.

BARONESS PHILLIPS

My Lords, I am not sure that they would be completely available, inasmuch as they would cover every possible entrant; but I will see whether I can obtain some other figures for the noble Lord. I attempted to answer the Question as put originally, but the amplification throws a slightly different light on it.

LORD TREFGARNE

My Lords, can the noble Baroness say what happens to these vacancies? Do they remain vacant or are they subsequently offered to other students?

BARONESS PHILLIPS

My Lords, I am happy to tell the noble Lord that the vacancies are filled.