§ Mr. MacFarquharasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she will make a statement as to the progress of her talks on the possibilities of combining foreign languages with studies in engineering and technology.
§ Mr. OakesMy hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State wrote to my hon. Friend on 19th May about the prospects for the early development of language studies in combination with other348W disciplines, referring to the Department's continuing contacts with the Technician and Business Education Councils. Since then there have been no new developments in relation to technicians, but I understand that the Business Education Council will shortly receive the report of a working party set up to consider the future place of language education in their programme structure. At first degree level, there are already many courses which combine studies in engineering or another technological subject with French, German, Italian, Spanish or Russian.