§ Mr. Greenwayasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he has any figures available to him which would show the number of children who have gained places at universities and whose father was a manual worker or was from a similar social and economic background; and, if so, if he will publish such figures from 1967 on an annual basis:
§ Mr. WaldegraveFigures published by the Universities Central Council on Admissions shows that around 19 per cent. of home students accepted through the council for entry into a United Kingdom university in 1980 were from families where the parents were in skilled manual, partly skilled or unskilled occupations. The council has also published figures for some earlier years, but these are based upon a different occupational classification and are not comparable with 1980. The published figures show that candidates with a given A-level results from all social classes have a similar chance of acceptance at university.