§ Mr. MacArthurasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has yet received the advice of the University Grants Committee on the future of the Royal College of Science and Technology, Glasgow; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. BrookeYes. The University Grants Committee inform me that they feel that both on general grounds and in view of the need for more university places in Scotland a decision to enable the college to increase its number of degree students and to broaden the scope of its academic work should now be made. In particular, if the new Faculty of Industrial and Social Studies is to be developed adequately within the quinquennium, work on the necessary accommodation and the recruitment of the necessary staff must be started this year.
Though the work of the Robbins Committee on the future pattern of higher education is not yet complete, the University Grants Committee have felt justified in agreeing to the college's proposal to include accommodation for industrial and social studies in their building programme for 1962, and they took into account the College's wish to develop these studies in their submission to the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the Universities' financial needs for the coming quinquennium 1962–67. The Committee accept the case for the college being granted full university status, including the power to award its own degrees. In view however of the possibility that changes in the future pattern of higher education may be recommended by the Robbins Committee, they have thought it wise to limit present action to that which I have just described and to defer their final advice to the Government until that Committee have reported.