§ Mr. John Evansasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she is now able to announce the university grants for 1978–79 and later years.
§ Mrs. Shirley WilliamsI am today announcing grants both for recurrent expenditure and for furniture and equipment in the universities.
Following the pattern of the announcement that I made last year I intend to give the amount of recurrent grant for 1978–79 and provisional indications for the following three years, on the same price basis as the grant for 1978–79. I must emphasise that the figures for later years should be regarded purely as a basis for planning; like the figures in Cmnd 7049 they do not represent firm commitments and are subject to revision. In successive years the indicated grants will be revalued; that for the first year would then be settled in the form of a cash limit while those for later years would remain provisional indications of grant only.
The universities recurrent grant for the academic year 1978–79 will be £619 million. 290W This is to be a cash limit. Like last year's grant, it includes local authority rates payable by universities. The provisional figures for later years at constant prices are:
1979–80, £635 million; 1980–81, £648 million; 1981–82 £670 million.
In arriving at these figures the following assumptions have been made:
- (a) tuition fees will remain constant in real terms;
- (b) the number of university students will grow to about 285,200 in 1978–79, when 237,300 are expected to be undergraduates and 47,900 postgraduates and will reach 310,000 in 1981–82, when about 16 per cent. might be postgraduate;
- (c) the student population will remain roughly equally divided between arts and science.
The 1978–79 grant is calculated on the assumption that pay increases for all university staff are expected to rise by betwen 6 per cent. and 10 per cent. and prices by between 6 per cent. and 7 per cent. The base line to which these percentages are applied includes the full cost of pay awards in the year beginning 1st October 1977. These assumptions are in line with those made for the cash limits relating to the financial year 1978–79. If the pace of pay and price increases generally, or those which affect universities in particular, were to be substantially higher taken as a whole than those implied in the cash limits, the Government would be prepared to review the position.
The universities' recurrent grant is for the academic year ending on 31st July 1979. If the assumptions on pay and price movements adopted for other cash limits for the financial year beginning on 1st April 1979 are different from those in paragraph 6, consideration will be given to corresponding adjustment of the universities' grant from that date. The grant might also require adjustment in respect of the first step towards rectification of the university teachers' pay anomaly.
The grant for furniture and equipment for 1978–79 will be £41.6 million. This is a cash limit. In calculating this grant, an allowance of between 6 per cent. and 7 per cent. has been made for price increases. Indicated grants for furniture and equipment in years after 1978–79 will be announced at a later date.