HC Deb 11 January 1993 vol 216 cc590-1W
Mr. Batiste

To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) what plans he has to enhance the levels and quality of medical education in the United Kingdom;

(2) what arrangements are in place to monitor (a) the relative cost-effectiveness and (b) the relative quality levels of medical education courses in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Boswell

It is for universities as autonomous institutions to take steps to maintain and enhance the quality of medical and other higher education. The General Medical Council has a statutory role to promote high standards of medical education through recommendations on the curriculum and monitoring of courses. The GMC has recently produced a consultation document on a revised medical curriculum. It will be for institutions to develop their courses within this framework.

The Higher Education Funding Council for England has a statutory duty to secure quality assessment of the higher education which it supports, including medical education. The council is taking forward work on the introduction of assessment across higher education and on the development of a range of performance indicators for all subjects, including indicators of relative costs.

Mr. Batiste

To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) what estimates his Department has made of the relative costs of medical education courses provided in London and at other centres of medical education in the United Kingdom;

(2) what study Sir Bernard Tomlinson's committee made in the course of the preparation of its recent report of the relative costs of medical education courses in London and the United Kingdom regions.

Mr. Boswell

Details of the costs of medical and other courses for each university in the United Kingdom are shown in the latest volume of "University Management Statistics and Performance Indicators in the United Kingdom", published jointly by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals and the Universities Funding Council in October 1992. Copies are available in the Library. Sir Bernard Tomlinson's report draws on the CVCP/UFC data on university costs in London and elsewhere.