§ Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how the funding for technology and science students in the public sector in the current year compares with the funding in 1981–82 before the Government decision to transfer resources into that sector of higher education.
§ Mr. BrookeThe Government's expenditure plans provide for a 20 per cent. increase (from £487 million to £585 million) between 1981–82 and 1984–85 in the cash available for local authority higher education. It is for local authorities and their institutions to determine the precise distribution between subjects of the funds available. The allocations to them however, from the advanced further education pool for 1984–85 as determined by my right hon. Friend, on the advice of the National Advisory Body, were based on target student numbers for each subject: they thereby reflected the significant shift in student numbers towards science and engineering built into the NAB's plans for 1984–85 as endorsed by my right hon. Friend.