§ Mr. Blakerasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the total number of first degree and graduate students, respectively, at United Kingdom universities currently; and what are the projected growth figures over the next five years.
§ Mr. OakesIt is provisionally estimated that in 1977–78 the numbers of full-time and sandwich undergraduates and postgraduates in United Kingdom universities were 237,500 and 48,950 respectively, of whom 230,700 and 48,100 respectively were in universities in Great Britain.
286WIt is expected that there will be about 285,000 full-time and sandwich students in universities in Great Britain in 1978–79, of whom about 48,000 might be postgraduates; the recently announced planning aim is for 310,000 full-time and sandwich students in 1981–82, of whom about 16 per cent might be postgraduate.
Aims for the intervening and later years have yet to be settled.
I understand that the target for 1981–82 for the Northern Ireland universities has not yet been determined.