HL Deb 09 June 1993 vol 546 cc926-8

2.47 p.m.

Baroness Perry of Southwark asked Her Majesty's Government:

On what criteria they decided to reduce the higher education grant of the Overseas Development Administration by 30 per cent. within an overall budget reduction of only 15 per cent.

Baroness Chalker of Wallasey

My Lords, the higher education grant, now known as the Fund for International Co-operation in Higher Education (FICHE), will continue in 1994–95 and in 1995–96 at about £3 million. We are re-allocating resources where they can most effectively be used. We shall be able to provide for the new links which are so valuable.

Baroness Perry of Southwark

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her Answer. Nevertheless, she will be aware that there is real concern in the higher education community about the reduction in the grant. Can she assure us that Her Majesty's Government are aware of the value of the links created by the universities in the UK with the developing countries and that these links create real good will and international trade for Britain, as the people who come are often leaders in their own countries?

Baroness Chalker of Wallasey

My Lords, I think my noble friend knows only too well how keen I am to develop new links between British universities and developing countries. It is not only those links about which we have spoken that are so valuable to the future leaders in those countries. It is also the value for our own students in British universities who gain much from the exchange and cross-fertilisation of ideas with students from the developing world. That was the reason I sought to ensure—because I know my noble friend wished me to—that there could be new links in the coming years.

Lord Taylor of Blackburn

My Lords, is the Minister aware that the figures that she has announced, according to a quick calculation, are about 3.5 per cent. less than they were three years ago? If that is so, is that not going back on what the Minister has already said?

Baroness Chalker of Wallasey

My Lords, I must tell the noble Lord that that is indeed not going back. The FICHE programme, which has now been established, is a four-year programme, which gives it much more ability to plan ahead. That programme will be better targeted so that we can make the maximum use of it for students from abroad rather than having to chop and change from year to year. I am confident that under this new system we can make a great deal more of it than we were able to do in the past.

Viscount Caldecote

My Lords, does my noble friend remember the report of the Select Committee of this House on the technical aspects of overseas aid? In that report emphasis was placed on the importance of adequate education and training in the countries receiving support so that full use could be made of the technical equipment supplied under the programme? Can she give an assurance that that point has been taken into account in the reallocation of funds?

Baroness Chalker of Wallasey

My Lords, I am glad to assure my noble friend that that very wise recommendation of the Select Committee has been one of the many aspects uppermost in our minds in trying to make the very best use of all the facilities and opportunities that we have. The technical education given by the British universities to students from developing countries is quite outstanding. I wish not only to see it continue but, when resources are there, to see it expanded.

Lord Callaghan of Cardiff

My Lords, will the Minister take encouragement from the fact that I was recently told by the director of the Cambridge University Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme, of which the noble Lord, Lord Carrington, and I are two of the trustees, that the level of the Indian students who were taking their taught PhD degrees was so high that they were raising the standard of the taught courses for our own people here at home? Would she therefore regard it as a very good investment to increase the amount that is given for those scholarships?

Baroness Chalker of Wallasey

My Lords, I believe that the noble Lord is absolutely right. I too was delighted to hear that news. I believe that it also teaches us something in regard to our own first degree courses; namely, that the competition from students studying for their first degrees in overseas universities is very high and many of the courses are just as good as anything that we can produce. We must look to our own standards too.

Lord Judd

My Lords, does the Minister agree that there is sometimes a distinction between financing higher education here and meeting the real front-line development needs of the third world? Does she also agree that obviously our colleges and universities have a vital role to play, and that their quality as academic communities will be greatly enhanced by an international culture? Does she further agree that the ODA is primarily about development overseas, and that that must always be the guiding principle in the disbursement of funds?

Baroness Chalker of Wallasey

My Lords, I am only too glad to say to the noble Lord that development must be about those benefits which overseas persons and their countries can gain from education in this particular case, and from other things too. Whereas there can be much valuable education either in the country or in the region of the student, where we concentrate our efforts and will increasingly do so, there is also very good reason to bring students to this country for specialist courses. To do that effectively we want to have good links. That is why I am so pleased that the FICHE system now has a four-year programme, and that we can give it the priority that I know my noble friend Lady Perry of Southwark wants us to give it.