HC Deb 14 November 1988 vol 140 cc382-4W
Mr. Win Griffiths

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he has any plans to introduce a tax on graduates for students who have completed higher education courses.

Mr. Jackson

My right hon. Friend announced on 9 November the Government's proposals for the financing of student maintenance in the future. They provide for loans to top up grant, not for a tax on graduates.

Mr. Win Griffiths

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he has any plans to introduce a voucher system in higher education.

Mr. Jackson

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish (Mr. Bennett) on 3 November, at column 742.

Students in higher education: percentage by social class
Young entrants to full-time Higher Education in 19852
Social Class All students in full-time Higher Education 19621 Universities Polytechnics Colleges All Higher Education
Profesional 15 21 12 12 17
Intermediate 39 47 47 46 47
Non-manual 14 14 15 13 14
Skilled-manual 24 12 14 16 13
Unskilled/semi-skilled 9 6 11 13 9
All 100 100 100 100 100
1 From Appendix 2(b) Robbins (1963) tables 5, 81 and 102.
2 From a sample survey of young people in England and Wales: 'Young people's intentions to enter higher education'.

Mr. Wray

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) what information he has on figures for full-time and part-time students entering universities in(a) Belgium, (b) Canada, (c) Denmark, (d) the Federal Republic of Germany, (e) France, (f) Italy, (g) the Netherlands, (h) Norway, (i) Spain, (j) Sweden, (k) the United Kingdom and (1) the United States of America for each year since 1975;

(2) what information he has for each year since 1974 of the percentage of the population entering (a) full-time and (b) part-time education in universities in (1) Belgium, (2) Canada, (3) Denmark, (4) the Federal Republic of Germany, (5) France, (6) Italy, (7) the Netherlands, (8) Norway, (9) Spain, (10) Sweden, (11) the United Kingdom and (12) the United States of America.

Mr. Jackson

The readily available information is as follows:

Country1 New entrants2 to higher education Participation rate3 (percentage)
(main ages on entry) thousands (latest year) in latest year in 1975
Denmark 30 (1985) 35 35
(18–20)
France 282 (1985) 32 28
(18–20)
Germany, West 272 (1985) 25 20
(19–21)
Italy 246 (1986) 25 31
(19–21)
Netherlands 78 (1985) 438 426
(18–20) (1978)
Norway 28 (1983) 44 n.a.
(n.a.)
Spain 203 (1985) 31 31
(18–20)
United Kingdom5 304 (1986) 32 30
(18–21)
United States of America6 2,292 (1985) 61 60
(18)
1 No information is available for Belgium, Canada and Sweden.
2 Includes full-time and part-time students entering higher education for the first time i.e. excluding postgraduate students and others already having a qualification in higher education. Not all

Mr. Win Griffiths

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will tabulate the percentage of students from each socio-economic group who entered(a) university, (b) polytechnics, (c) institutes of higher education and (d) teachers' training colleges in each year since 1958.

Mr. Jackson

The following data are readily available.

other countries may adhere to this general definition.

3 To aid comparison and overcome the problem of the varying lengths of courses in different countries the participation rate used is the percentage of all new entrants (defined above) to a derived relevant single year group. The latter is calculated by taking the total populations for the ages providing at least 70 per cent. of the new entrants and dividing by the number of ages involved. For the United Kingdom this is the population of ages 18 to 21 divided by 4. OECD recommends this procedure.

4 Change in coverage between these two years in the Netherlands.

5 Exludes the private sector and students from abroad. Includes nursing and paramedical students at health department establishments.

6 Includes private colleges.