HC Deb 14 May 1985 vol 79 c103W
Mr. Ashdown

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list in the Official Report all the different types of licences operated or granted by his Department and the year in which they first came into operation.

(a) (b) (c) (d)
Financial year Cash Cash adjusted for fees compensation Column (b) in real terms * Percentage change in real terms between each year and 1987–88
£ million £ million £ million Per cent.
1979–80 outturn 842.5 842.5 1,229.0 -5.7
1980–81 outturn 1,067.1 1,067.1 1,311.8 -11.7
1984–85 provisional
outturn 1,391.5 1,266.8 1,212.2 -4.4
1987–88 plans 1,511.5 1374.9 1,158.5
* Cash figures adjusted for general inflation as measured by the GDP deflator at market prices using a 1983–84 base.

The figures include recurrent, capital and equipment grant paid to the universities on the advice of the UGC and Computer Board. They do not include income from tuition fees paid from public funds, nor do they include additional provision for the new engineering and technology programme announced on 19 March 1985. The figures have been adjusted to exclude elements added to recurrent grant to compensate for the loss of fee income resulting from the reduction in the home undergraduate tuition fee in 1982–83, its freezing in 1983–84 and a further minor adjustment in 1984–85. Because of other funding changes, the figures are not comparable from year to year.

Mr. Freud

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list decisions already taken in respect of the future funding of universities which will overlap the time scale of the forthcoming Green Paper on higher education.

Mr. Brooke

The Green Paper which will be published later this month will be concerned with the development of higher education into the 1990s. My right hon. Friend published on 30 January this year a letter to the chairman of the University Grants Committee giving an early indication of the Government's view on certain matters with implications for the work of the committee in the immediate future. I am sending a copy of that letter to the hon. Member.