HC Deb 20 December 1983 vol 51 cc111-2W
Mr. Freeson

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps he is taking to ensure that more children from lower income homes gain access to higher, university and continuing education.

Mr. Brooke

Local education authority careers officers are always concerned to alert young people to the opportunities that exist for further and higher education. The Department publishes a wide range of material designed to inform young people and to encourage them to consider the full range of options including further and higher education. The Government's concern to protect access to higher education for children from lower income homes is also reflected in the changes to the mandatory student awards scheme announced last month. Necessary savings on total student awards expenditure will be made by increasing contributions from those in the middle and upper reaches of the parental contribution scale and by halving the minimum award for those at the top of the scale, so that the threshold at which parental contributions begin needs to be increased only in line with earnings.

Mr. Freeson

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) what consideration was given to the increasing number of children from social classes I and II in the Government's projection of lower student numbers in higher education in the 1990s;

(2) what consideration was given to the continuing trend of increasing participation by women in higher education in the Government's projection of lower student numbers in higher education in the 1990s.

Mr. Brooke

The Department's projections of the future demand for higher education in Great Britain are published in DES report on education No. 99, which makes clear that the underlying projections of those qualified to enter higher education take account of the increasing proportion of births occurring to families in social classes I and II. Statistical Bulletin 6/83 indicates that they also take account of the different trends for boys and girls in the numbers becoming qualified for entry.