§ Mr. Richard Wainwrightasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what range of staff-student ratios his Department considers appropriate for schools and departments of music in higher education; and whether there are any difficulties involved in observing a 1: 10 ratio of staff to students in such schools and departments.
§ Miss Margaret JacksonThe pooling committee established by the local authority associations has recommended a staffing ratio of between 1:7.5 and 1: 8.5 for a group of subjects including music; it was not intended to apply specifically to individual departments or subjects. However, the recent White Paper "Public Expenditure to 1979–80", Cmnd 6393, indicated that there will be little if any scope for increasing total staff in higher and further education after 1976–77 and, although the teaching situation varies from institution to institution, there can be no guarantee that it will be possible to match the levels of staffing recommended by the pooling committee.