§ Sir D. Kaberryasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) if he give, in list form, the ratio of teaching staff to students in all the medical schools and teaching hospitals throughout England and Wales;
(2) if he will give the cost of annual training of an individual medical student at each of the medical schools in England and Wales, and the national average of such annual costings;
(3) why the annual cost of training a medical student in Leeds is over £1,400 whereas in Liverpool it is approximately 314W £750 and in some other medical schools even less; why these variations arise; and why they are permitted to continue.
§ Mr. CroslandThe latest available figures for staff-student ratios and the crude recurrent costs per student for the medical faculties of universities in England and Wales are given in Table A of Appendix E to the Fifth Report from the Estimates Committee, Session 1964–65, on Grants to Universities and Colleges (House of Commons Paper No. 283). The average cost per student for England and Wales on this basis is £1,099. The figures for the London medical schools are not shown separately in the Table, and I shall be writing to the hon. Member to provide him with these.
As the Appendix referred to explains, these figures must be treated with caution as a means of comparing costs between universities: these depend on the way in which medical education is organised in each university and the weight of postgraduate work. The whole question of the organisation and cost of medical education is under examination by the Royal Commission on Medical Education.