§ Mr. Fowlerasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what arrangements he is making to review the rates of student awards.
§ Mr. CroslandAfter consultations with the Local Authority Associations, the National Union of Students and the Scottish Union of Students, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and I have decided that the Standing 123W Advisory Committee on Grants to Students should not be again convened to advise on standard rates of awards.
For the next review of standard rates of awards, we have appointed a small independent advisory panel to consider changes necessary to maintain the real value of awards. The panel will invite memoranda on this subject from the Government and interested organisations and may collect information on its own initiative. At the conclusion of its review the panel will be responsible for submitting to the Government a reasoned report, which will then also be made available to the Local Authority Associations and the Student Organisations.
The responsibility for making decisions on any changes in grants in the light of the panel's report and of general economic and financial and other relevant considerations, must be a matter for the Government. Before reaching these decisions, however, the Government will be prepared to discuss with the Local Authority Associations and the Student Organisations any suggestions for changes in the real value of awards or on cognate subjects.
The report of the advisory panel will be published when changes in the standard rates of awards are announced.
Professor A. J. Brown, University of Leeds, has been appointed Chairman of the Panel and the other members will be Mrs. E. C. F. Leggat, Callendar Park College of Education, Falkirk, and Dr. M. Hutton, Sunderland Technical College.