HC Deb 08 February 1985 vol 72 cc718-9W
Mrs. Renée Short

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list the grant allocation to universities and polytechnics in each single year since 1979.

Mr. Brooke

Recurrent and capital grants made available to universities in Great Britain for each financial year since 1979–80, on the advice of the University Grants Committee and the Computer Board, were as follows:

Financial year Recurrent £ million Capital (including equipment grant) £ million
1979–80 741,190 101,271
1980–81 956,464 110,598
1981–82 982,335 116,308
1982–83 *1,193,333 118,926
1983–84 *1,240,181 117,615
†1984–85 1,268,564 124,334
* Includes redundancy and restructuring costs — £57,000,000 in 1982–83 and £38,800,000 in 1983–84.
† Estimates provision.

The figures are not readily comparable from year-to-year because of various funding changes, most notably made to reflect changes in the level of the home undergraduate tuition fee. The real value of this fee was halved for the 1982 –83 academic year and further reduced for 1983 –84. In both these cases, there were compensating adjustments in UGC recurrent grant. A minor adjustment was also made in 1984 –85.

The total allocations for financial years from 1982 –83 for polytechnics in England from the capped AFE pool for recurrent expenditure were as follows:

Financial year £ million year
1982–83 371,000
1983–84 377,555
1984–85 388,856

Separate allocations to polytechnics were not made before 1982–83. Capital expenditure on polytechnics is met from their maintaining authorities' total allocations of education capital expenditure, determined annually. Authorities have freedom under the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 to determine their own distribution of capital expenditure within their total allocation.