§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will publish figures to show the total number of (a) students at Scottish universities during the academic year 1981–82 and (b) full-time academic staff at each university, giving the student to staff ratio in each case.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe latest information provided by the University Grants Committee is as follows.
The student to staff ratios has been calculated in the normal way on the student level for 1980–81. This represents the load on teaching staffs of the full-time equivalent of full-time and part-time students on courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level, but not of those on extra-mural and continuing education courses. The staff figures relate to full-time academic staff funded wholly from university general funds.
Each university provides a different mixture of subjects; and student-staff ratios vary greatly between subjects.