§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether he will ensure that no reduction will be made in the recurrent grant payable to Queen's University until the funding implications of the Chilver report have been examined by the higher education interests in Ulster.
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§ Mr. John PattenI can give no such assurance. The same restraints on university finance must be applied In Northern Ireland as in Great Britain.
In accordance with the principle of parity, expenditure in the Northern Ireland universities in the academic year 1981–82 will reflect the average of the reductions which have been applied to universities in Great Britain. It is not intended to apply differential reductions to the two Northern Ireland universities.