§ Mr. Fisherasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what his Department's grant to the Open University has been in each of the last five years for which statistics are available.
§ Mr. BrookeThe information requested is as follows:
Academic year (Jan-Dec.) Recurrent Grant (£m.) 1979 34.3 1980 45.3
Requests for instalment payments in respect of 1980 percentage 1981 percentage 1982 percentage 1983 percentage Undergraduates Initial registration fee 27.9 16.7 50.7 40.8 Final registration fee 6.9 11.1 23.3 46.2 Course tuition fee 20.6 32.7 38.6 48.4 Summer school fee 6.5 9.4 17.5 20.4 Associate students Initial registration fee * * 56.8 50.6 Final registration fee * * 4.8 6.9 * The facility for paying by instalments was not made available to Associate Students before 1982. No student who applied to pay by instalments was refused.
§ Mr. Fisherasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many applicants to the Open University turned down places in each of the last five years for which statistics are available.
§ Mr. BrookeThe following table shows the number of new applicants who were offered a place at the Open University in each year of the period 1979–1983 and the number of applicants who did not take up that place:—
1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 Offers made 28,425 27,459 28,906 38,589 39,345 Places not taken up 7,285 8,011 8,574 13,278 13,732