HC Deb 05 March 1984 vol 55 cc409-10W
Mr. Freud

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will consider establishing an inquiry with appropriate representation from such bodies as the University Grants Committee and the National Advisory Board for Further and Higher Education into the provision of pharmacy teaching in both the university and the public sector in the United Kingdom; whether he will instruct the University Grants Committee not to proceed with the review which it is currently undertaking into the provision of pharmacy in the university sector only; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Brooke

My right hon. Friend does not intend to intervene in the University Grants Committee's review of pharmacy provision in the universities. An inquiry into the scale, nature and location of provision for advanced work in pharmacy in local authority higher education in England has been conducted by the pharmacy working group of the national advisory body. The group's terms of reference required it to have regard to provision in the universities has as to how many graduates of the pharmacy department at Heriot-Watt university went on to find employment in each of the last five years.

Mr. Brooke

I understand from Heriot-Watt university that the numbers of their pharmacy graduates who were subsequently successful in finding employment were as follows:

Numbers graduating Numbers employed
1979 41 41
1980 40 40
1981 37 37
1982 40 39
1983 40 40

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what has been the number of applications for student places to study at Heriot-Watt university; and what is the number of places allocated, in line with the University Grants Committee's advice, for each of the last five years, giving separate figures for each year.

Mr. Brooke

I understand from Heriot-Watt university that the total number of applications for first-degree courses at the institution in the last five years and the number of places allocated were as follows:

and in non-advanced further education. The UGC's panel on studies allied to medicine received the papers of that group and met representatives of it.