HC Deb 24 May 1965 vol 713 cc24-6W
Mr. Armstrong

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will make a statement on the rates of student awards under the 1962 Awards Regulations and for students at colleges of education and university departments of education.

Mr. Crosland

Yes. The Secretary of State for Scotland and I have received the report of the Standing Advisory Committee on Grants to Students. Their Report has been of great value in considering the levels of awards for the academic year beginning this September.

The Secretary of State for Scotland and I intend that, as from 1st September, the standard value of awards shall be increased. I shall lay necessary regulations before the House in due course. Details of the increases are as follows:—

The Standard Maintenance Allowances in awards for first degree and comparable courses will be increased to the following levels:—

College, Hall, Hostel or Lodgings Home
Oxford, Cambridge and London universities and further education establishments in the London area. £370 £275
per year per year
Others £340 £275
per year per year

The grant received by a recognised student in England and Wales resident in a college of education or approved lodgings, whose board and lodging is provided without payment by the college, will be increased to £156 per year. The grant for a college of education student in England and Wales, living in the parental home, or, in the case of a married woman, in her husband's home, will be increased to £295 a year; that of a college of education student living in a home which he himself maintains will be increased to £370 per year, or, in London, to £400 per year. In Scotland a college of education student will continue to receive the same award as a university student.

The grant for students required to attend a university abroad will be increased to £370 per year, and this provision will be extended to cover students required to attend any establishment of further education abroad.

The payments made in respect of periods outside the normal yearly attendance (25 weeks at Oxford and Cambridge universities, 30 weeks elsewhere) will be increased to 17s. 6d. per day for a student living away from home and to 10s. per day for a student living at home. These increased rates will apply equally to students who, on the recommendation of the academic authorities, undertake a course of vacation study under guidance. Where a student is reading Modern Languages and, on the recommendation of the academic authorities, undertakes a course of vacation study in the country whose language is the main language he is studying and lives with a family approved by the academic authorities, the payment made to him will be increased to 17s. 6d. per day.

Allowances for dependants, etc., will be increased from their current values as follows:

£
(a) For the spouse or other adult dependant, or in cases of particular hardship, the first dependent child 190
(b) For the first dependent child (except where covered by (a) above) 80
(c) For the second dependent child 60
(d) For each further dependent child 55
(e) "Two-Homes" grant 65
(f) Mature students
(i) for each year of age over 25 20
(ii) up to maximum of 100

Veterinary students will receive the £15 additional grant for necessary expenditure on instruments already received by medical students.

The standard maintenance allowances include an element for travel within the United Kingdom for the purposes of attending university, establishment of further education or college of education, and for certain other necessary travel. This will be increased to £12 per year and a student may claim expenditure necessarily incurred above this sum. The element included in the standard maintenance allowances for books, instruments, stationery and other materials, will be increased to £35; the element included for maintenance during vacations will be increased to £35 (£27 for students at colleges of education).

It is not proposed to alter the scale of parental contributions.