§ Mr. Malcolm MacPhersonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many additional places for Commonwealth students, in total, have been made available, and will be made available next session, in the universities, in terms of paragraph 55 of Command Paper No. 841, Report of the Commonwealth Education Conference; how many have been or will be made available by each institution, respectively; and in what faculties or departments of study.
§ Mr. BraineI have been asked to reply.
At the time of the Commonwealth Education Conference in July, 1959, 3,457 students from the Commonwealth overseas were studying at United Kingdom universities the technical subjects, i.e., the applied sciences to which paragraph 55 of Cmnd. 841 relates. In the immediately following academic year, 1959–60, the total number of such students rose to 3,538. Statistics relating to such students studying at our universities in the current academic year, 1960–61, are not yet available but as soon as the figures are obtained I will send them to the hon. Member.
2. As the total number of places at United Kingdom universities increases as a result of the current expansion programme, more places are expected to become available for students from the Commonwealth overseas. At this stage, however, it is not possible to forecast the exact number of additional places which will be taken up in the academic year 1961–62 since this will depend on the number of applications received from prospective students from the Commonwealth overseas and their qualifications for entry to a university here.
3. The available information concerning the technical subjects studied by Commonwealth students from overseas at universities in this country is given in the table below. Existing statistics do 17W not show the distribution of such students by universities, or by faculties or depart-
APPLIED SCIENCES STUDENTS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH, OTHER THAN THE UNITED KINGDOM ENROLLED FOR FULL-TIME STUDIES OR FULL-TIME RESEARCH IN UNITED KINGDOM UNIVERSITIES AT THE BEGINNING OF THE ACADEMIC YEARS AS SHOWN Academic Year Agriculture and Forestry Dentistry Medicine Technology Veterinary Science 1958–59 … … … 177 130 1,475 1,608 67 1959–60 … … … 202 145 1,477 1,621 93