HL Deb 13 March 1990 vol 516 cc1538-9WA
Lord Cocks of Hartcliffe

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Taking grant and loan together what would be the average annual expenditure per student in Britain under the Government's proposals for student loans, and how this will compare with average expenditure per student in the United States of America, Japan, the Federal Republic of Germany, France and Italy.

Baroness Blatch

The average amount of recurrent public expenditure on student loans from mandatory awards and top-up loans in 1990–91 is expected to be £1,730 per full-time and sandwich student in higher education in England and Wales. The latest available figures from other countries are for 1984 and are not comparable with this figure.

The figures from other countries include part-time students. Including part-time students in the England and Wales figure above and converting it to 1984 prices yields an average expenditure of some £770 per student. For accurate comparisons with the other countries it would be necessary to take account of changes since 1984 in their student bodies and in their support arrangements, for which information is not available; but the figure has some indicative value.

Figures from other countries show that, compared with this figure of £770 per student in England and Wales, the public expenditure per student in higher education in 1984 was £270 in the United States of America, £30 in Japan, £70 in West Germany, £180 in France and £40 in Italy.