§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what was the actual recurrent grant to universities in each of the last five years for which figures are available in constant prices and in cash terms; and what are the projections for grant in constant price terms for the next five years.
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§ Mr. Brooke[pursuant to his reply, 16 February 1984, c. 311]: given in cash and in cost terms—using the actual and assumed GDP deflator as appropriate—are the recurrent grants paid to universities through the University Grants Committee in the last five financial years. The figures for the financial years 1984–85 to 1986–87 are based on the Government's expenditure plans for those years, published in Cmnd. 9143. The last two years are subject to review in the course of future public expenditure surveys.
Financial Years Cash £ million Cost terms (base year 1979–80) 1979–80 729 729 1980–81 943 799 1981–82 967 740 1982–83 1,119 803 1983–84 (provisional) 1,190 813 1984–85 (planned) 1,249 813 1985–86 (planned) 1,289 799 1986–87 (planned) 1,320 783 These figures provide from 1980–81 for the progressive withdrawal of the subsidy for overseas students. They include provision for minor capital works as defined from time to time, and from 1983–84 for the information technology and "new blood" programmes—announced on 16 December 1982 at c. 187–189. They exclude payments to meet the cost of redundancies.
The figures do not reflect the financial position of the universities accurately because of the increase in recurrent grant in 1982–83 and later years to compensate the universities for the loss of fee income from the reduction in the tuition fee for home students in that year. With the amount of that compensation taken out, the corresponding figures for these years are as follows:
Grant less fees transfer Cash £ million Cost terms 1982–83 1,006 722 1983–84 (provisional) 1,067 729 1984–85 (planned) 1,124 731 1985–86 (planned) 1,160 719 1986–87 (planned) 1,188 704