§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the average debt expected for a student starting his or her degree course in autumn 1990 under the student loans system and studying(a) a three-year arts or humanities degree, (b) a four-year engineering degree and (c) a five-year medical degree at an English university or polytechnic.
Mr. JacksonThe loan facility is available to support students' maintenance. The size of the debt in any individual case will depend on the amount of loan facility drawn down. The size of the facility does not relate to the nature of the course.
If inflation runs at 3 per cent., a student at a higher education institution outside London and living away from home, starting a course in 1990–91 taking up the maximum loan facility in each year, would have a total debt in real terms of £1,317 for a three-year course, £1,922 for a four-year course, and £2,592 for a five-year course.
§ Mr. HaselhurstTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will consider weighting student loans to take account of regional variations in the cost of accommodation.
Mr. JacksonThe loan facility, like the maintenance grant, will be available at three levels, according to whether the student is living during term time in the parental home, away from home in London, or away from home outside London. Differences in regional accommodation costs were also taken into account in distributing the higher education access fund between the various sectors. We wish the UFC and PCFC to have regard to relevant accommodation costs in making allocations to their institutions.