HC Deb 06 January 1913 vol 46 cc840-2W
Mr. KING

asked the President of the Board of Education whether he can state the number of students, male, female, and total numbers, respectively, in the universities of Germany, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom?

Mr. PEASE

(1) No official information is available as to the number of students attending universities in Russia. Official information as to the number of students attending universities in the other countries referred to is not in all respects complete. Moreover, the widely different conditions of admission and the different character of the courses of study prevent any effective comparison from being made between such figures as are available. (2) Students of engineering and certain other technological subjects in Germany attend the technische hochschulen and other higher fachschulen and not the university. Students of these subjects in France similarly attendecoles spéciales and not the university. So far as possible, therefore, in the figures which follow, students taking university courses in engineering and other technological subjects in the United Kingdom have been excluded. (3) According to the "Statistisches Jahrbuch fur das deutsche Reich," issued by the Kaiserliches Statistisches Amt, there were in the winter term of 1911–12 about 57,300 students in attendance as matriculated students at German universities. Of these, the number of men matriculated students was about 54,500, and of women about 2,800. (4) The "Bulleton adminis-tratif du Ministère de l'lnstruction Publique," for 23rd March,]912, gives the number of students attending universities, including schools of medicine, in France as about 40,000. Of these, about 36,000 were men, and 4,000 were women. Out of the total number about 5,500 were foreigners. (5) The number of full-time day students at universities and constituent colleges of universities in the United Kingdom is about 27,000. Figures for men and women students cannot be given separately. (6) Particulars of the students attending those universities and constituent colleges of universities in England and Wales which are in receipt of grant from the Board are to be found in the annual volumes of reports from those institutions [Cd. 6245 (1912)]. Information in regard to the students attending the four Scotch universities is to be found in their annual statistical reports, which are also presented to Parliament. (7) There is, so far as I am aware, no published information with regard to the students in universities in Ireland, who are included in the figures given in paragraph (5).