§ Mr. Dalyellasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what study he has made of the correlation between the increase in fees to the Open University, and the decline in the number of applications; and if he will publish any conveniently available statistics.
§ Mr. Waldegrave:It is for the Open University to set the level of its tuition fee each year in the light of the assumptions made by my right hon. Friend when determining the level of recurrent grant to the university. The trend in applications, on which evidence is provided by the university, is only one of the factors taken into account.