§ Mr. DafisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will make it his policy to set a target date for doubling the number of science undergraduates in United Kingdom universities.
§ Mr. FormanNo. However, the number of full-time students taking science-based higher education courses has formed formed a more or less constant proportion of a rapidly rising total throughout the 1980s. While students cannot be compelled to take particular subjects, our commitment to encourage recruitment to science based courses is clear.
In higher education, the publicly funded tuition fee for laboratory and workshop based courses is already set at 50 per cent. above the classroom rate, and we are planning to increase the relative incentive to develop such courses. My right hon. Friend has also asked the Higher Education Funding Council for England to encourage continuing expansion of science and technology through its funding.