§ Dr. A. Thompsonasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs the number and percentage of Foreign Service officers holding degrees involving post-graduate research, with details of the degrees held.
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§ Mr. R. AllanThe majority of entrants to the senior branch join the Foreign Service immediately after graduating. The proportion with research degrees is therefore small. But there has since 1953 been an annual over-age competition with age limits which are now between 27–33 whereby we hope to encourage more post-graduate students to join the Service. A number of people have done post-graduate work or have held fellowships, lectureships, etc., without taking research degrees.
Most members of the junior branch join direct from school but an increasing number are graduates and a few have research degrees. Entrants to the research cadre are normally graduates and a number have research degrees.
The commissioned grades of the Foreign Service number about 1,250. According to our records, 13 have le-search degrees and about 30 others have done post-graduate research, held fellowships, etc., or taught at universities: the percentages are thus about 1 per cent. and 2½ per cent. respectively. Details are as follows:
Directorates 8 Ph.D.s at Cambridge, London, Leeds, Hamburg and Prague 7 D.Ec.Sc. at Dublin 1 Other Research Degrees 5 M.A. (London) 2 B.Litt. (Oxford) 2 M.Phil. (Wisconsin) 1 Fellowships, Lectureships, Post-Graduate Research Workers, etc. 31 Fellows and former Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford 4 Former Fellows, Lecturers, Research Assistants, etc. (who have held posts at Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, London. Durham, Sheffield, Leicester, Heidelberg and Bucharest) 8 Post-graduate Fellowships or Studentships in the United States 11 Other Studentships, etc. 8