HC Deb 08 April 1987 vol 114 cc222-3W
Mr. Radice

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) what has been the total number of home full-time and sandwich students in higher education in each year since 1979;

(2) what has been the total full-time equivalent number of part-time students in higher education in each year since 1979;

(3) what has been the total number of home full-time entrants to universities in each year since 1979.

Mr. Kenneth Baker

The information is shown in the following table :

Academic year beginning in 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985
FTE1 of part-time students Higher Education 93.8 2100.9 2104.0 2105.9 2109.1 2109.1 114.0
1 Conversion factors vary in the different sectors and for different levels of course. An illustrative average factor of 35 per cent. has been used for all part-time students.
2 Including about 1,000 non-advanced full-time equivalents in Scotland. The figures are to be revised.

Mr. Radice

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science, on the basis of the revised projections of future higher education student numbers announced in the White Paper, "Higher Education: Meeting the Challenge", what he estimates average unit costs in 1986–87 prices will be in 1988–89 for the universities, for the polytechnics and local authority colleges and for the voluntary and grant-aided colleges.

Mr. Kenneth Baker

Unit costs in 1988–89 will depend on various decisions still to be taken by the institutions in recruiting students, by the Government in the annual public expenditure survey, and by local authorities and others in providing additional income. However, it is worth noting that against the 2.1 per cent. increase in student numbers between 1986–87 and 1988–89 adopted as the planning target in the recent White Paper, current plans for centrally provided or determined recurrent funding allow for an increase, at 1986–87 prices, over the same period of 6 per cent. for universities, 7 per cent. for local authority polytechnics and colleges, and 2 per cent. for voluntary and other grant-aided colleges.