§ Mr. Meadowcroftasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will publish in the Official Report the current distribution of female students by National Advisory Body programme areas.
§ Mr. George WaldenThe full-time equivalent numbers in each National Advisory Body programme area of home and European Community female students on advanced courses in institutions which fall within the remit of NAB, and their proportion of the total, are given in the table.
361W
§ Mr. Meadowcroftasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will publish in the Official Report his estimate of the impact on the total numbers, and the percentage of women in public sector higher education, by programme area, of the differential cuts in programme areas.
§ Mr. WaldenNo decisions have yet been taken on target student numbers in public sector higher education for 1987–88. Decisions on the resources available for the public sector will be taken in the autumn, and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will decide on the disposition of academic provision and the allocation of the advanced further education pool in December following advice in that month from the National Advisory Body for Public Sector Higher Education.
No estimates are therefore available of the target number of students and the likely percentage of women, in 1987–88. In 1984, the latest year for which figures of actual enrolments are available, the total full-time equivalent number of home and EC students following courses of advanced further education at institutions falling within the remit of the NAB was 274,790, of whom 119,551 were women students. Since 1979 the growth in female enrolments has exceeded that for male enrolments by a substantial margin (41.9 per cent. compared with 26.2 per cent.), sufficient to raise the proportion of the total represented by women from 40.7 per cent. in 1979 to 43.5 per cent. in 1984.