Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTTasked the Secretary for Scotland whether the Parliamentary Grant which has been made to the Scottish universities this year was made without knowledge of the specific purposes to which it would be applied; whether it was made plain to the universities that the Grant for this year was entirely of an emergency character, and that it ought not to be applied to permanently recurring objects of expenditure without the sanction of the Secretary for Scotland; and whether he proposes to renew the Grant next year for these recurring items of expenditure?
§ Mr. MUNROThe universities were informed that there was no desire to lay down precisely the way in which the increased Grants were to be spent. But before the Grants were made each university submitted a statement of its most immediate and pressing needs, which were found to relate chiefly to the urgency of increased payments to the members of the teaching staffs in view of the present higher cost of living. The Grants were intended to assist the university in meeting these needs. The universities wore further informed that the Advisory Committee in making their recommendations had been careful to keep in view the emergency character of the Grants in question, and that the Grants were, therefore, to be understood as implying no approval of new scales of salary. Grants for the next financial year will be made on the recommendation of the University Grants Committee which has recently been appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.