§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what the total cost has been of introducing foundation degrees; [142033]
(2) what the total cost is to his Department of the (a) creation and (b) promotion of foundation degree courses. [142372]
§ Alan JohnsonFoundation Degrees were announced by the Secretary of State in February 2000. The budget for Foundation Degrees was included in the 'Grants to HEFCE' and the 'other' Higher Education outturn figures published in the Departmental Report of 2002–03 (page169). The figures are; 2000–01—£4,390 million; 2001–02—£4,798 million; 2002–03—£5,043 million (estimated). Spending plans for Foundation Degrees for the period 2003–04 to 2005–06, totalling £32 million, were published in the White Paper 'The future of higher education' (ISBN: 0 10 157352 9, page 66) and set out clearly against specific activities in "Foundation Degrees—Meeting the need for higher level skills" (ISBN: 1 84478 076 07, page 18) published on 7 October 2003.