§ Dr. HampsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the scale of operations cost and relationship of the educational counselling and credit transfer information system (ECCTIS) and the credit accumulation of transfer systems (CATS).
Mr. JacksonThe ECCTIS is a computerised information service funded by the Department of Education and Science at an estimated cost in 1988–89 of £789,000. Its main purpose is to provide prospective students with information about courses in further and higher education. It also contains a facility to provide information about credit transfer opportunities including, where available, the credit rating of certain courses included in its database. The credit rating information is provided by the Council for National Academic Awairds (CNAA) which runs CATS. The CNAA is an independent chartered body funded from fee income and CATS forms an integral part of the services which the council provides. I understand that the annual cost to the CNAA for CATS is of the order of £350,000.