HC Deb 08 May 1990 vol 172 cc41-2W
Mr. Pawsey

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) if he will make a statement on the TEMPUS (trans-European mobility scheme for university studies) programme;

Spanish French German Other modern languages
Number of full-time teachers teaching the language 1,800 17,400 6,300 900
Of which, the number for whom this was their main teaching subject 600 11,800 2,800 300

The numbers of teachers of Italian within the figures for "other modern languages" are too small to estimate reliably.

(2) what representations Her Majesty's Government have made to the European Community to increase numbers of Polish students studying in western centres of advanced education.

Mr. Jackson

As my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment made clear in the House on 3 May in the debate on the Commission's proposal, the Government welcomes and supports increased opportunities for Polish students to study in the Community under the TEMPUS programme. The United Kingdom has supported the proposed programme since it was originally discussed by the European Council in Strasbourg on 8–9 December 1989 and has worked actively for its adoption.

Mr. Pawsey

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science, pursuant to his reply of 27 April,Official Report, column 337, what plans exist to increase further the number of full-time students from Poland taking higher education courses in universities, polytechnics and other publicly funded colleges.

Mr. Jackson

The Government welcome students from Poland, as from any other country, who wish to study in the United Kingdom, but it is for individual universities, polytechnics and colleges to determine how many such students to provide for. The Government are looking at ways of increasing publicly-funded support to enable such students to study here.