§ Mr. Allan StewartTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he has yet replied to the letter of 21 December 1988 from the acting chairman of the governors of Newbattle Abbey college; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. RifkindI met the chairman and other representatives of the governors on 24 February and have today written to him. A copy of my letter has been placed in the Library. This confirms my intention, announced in December 1987, to cease grant payments to the college at the end of this academic year.
The future of the college is a matter for the governors and trustees. The Government are committed to increasing the proportion of mature students in higher education in Scotland and our current projections assume that numbers of such entrants will be maintained at more than 6,000 a year. The Scottish wider access programme (SWAP) announced last year is working to that end, and resources released from Newbattle will support collaboration under SWAP between further and higher education institutions and education authorities in regional consortia based on each of the four main cities. Such consortia are already operating in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and plans are far advanced in Dundee and Aberdeen.