§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Minister for Overseas Development if he will make a statement on the action being taken by his Department to help students from developing countries studying in the United Kingdom to pay the increased tuition fees announced by the Secretary of State for Education and Science.
§ Mr. PrenticeMy Department will continue to meet fee increases for all those students accepted for training under our regular programmes, without reducing the number of such awards planned for 1977–78. I also propose to replace the Overseas Students Fees Awards Scheme (OSFAS), under which up to about 300 new full fee awards have been available each year since 1975 to privately financed students nominated by university and other institutions, by a fee support scheme. Under this scheme, 600 awards will be available to assist, on grounds of hardship, selected postgraduate students from developing countries otherwise supported solely from personal or family resources. They will receive annual grants of £325 as a fixed annual contribution towards the fee increase, for up to three years starting in 1977, provided they are now enrolled for courses commencing or continuing in 1977–78 which, in the view of my Department, are of developmental value. All those to whom OSFAS awards were granted in 1976 or in previous years will, however, continue to receive them until they complete the courses which they are now following.