§ Mr. O'Halloranasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether his Department has any information on the number of foreign students who came to the United Kingdom for language courses over the past five years; and what is the trend in numbers taking these courses.
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§ Mr. WaldegraveThe following table gives the number of overseas students who took courses in languages, literature and area studies in universities and major establishments of further education in the United Kingdom.
1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 estimated 2,590 2,770 2,520 2,400 1,930 In addition, a significant number of students have taken English language courses run by the private sector. Their number cannot be estimated accurately, but it is thought to be of the order of 20,000 a year.