§ Mr. Cookasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the average staff-student ratio for universities in the United Kingdom and the average librarian-student ratio.
§ Dr. BoysonIn 1979–80 the provisional student-staff ratio in universities in the United Kingdom was 9.3: 1. Complete information on all staff in university libraries is not collected centrally, but in 1979–80 there were about 1,500 full-time library staff on academic related pay scales. The full-time equivalent student load in the same year was provisionally 315,000 and therefore a ratio of students to library staff would be very large. A ratio based upon the student population alone is not very meaningful as university libraries also serve academic staff and researchers.