HC Deb 27 January 1993 vol 217 cc739-40W
Mr. Rooker

To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will make a statement outlining the mechanism by which tuition fees for students in higher education institutions are transferred from his Department via local authorities to the institutions, setting out the costs involved, and time scale of payments; and if he will estimate the moneys outstanding to the institutions at the latest available date.

Mr. Boswell

The Education (Mandatory Awards) Regulations specify the tuition fees to be paid by local education authorities on behalf of award-holding students. For most courses, the regulations require the fees to be paid promptly in termly instalments by specified dates or within one month of the receipt of a valid request for payment, whichever is the later. For academic year 1992–93, the specified dates are 10 December 1992, 10 February 1993 and 30 April 1993, and the total amount of fees payable is estimated to be nearly £1,590 million. Information is not routinely collected by the Department on the amounts of any fees outstanding at a particular date.

The Department reimburses the whole of authorities' mandatory awards payments, under section 209 of the Education Reform Act 1988. Specific grant is paid to authorities in termly instalments for the fee elements, shortly before each specified date. The Department's administrative costs are met from within its overrall running cost provision. Authorities bear their own administrative costs. No current estimate is available of the administrative costs attributable to the payment of fees.

Mr. Rooker

To ask the Secretary of State for Education pursuant to his answer of 7 December 1992,Official Report, column 477, if he will make a statement on the reasons why he has not been able to publish an updated version of the table in annex 2 of "Higher Education: A New Framework" (Cm 1541), setting out projections of home student numbers in Great Britain.

Mr. Boswell

The Government's policy, as set out at the time of the autumn statement, is to maintain the current record level of participation by young people in higher education over the next three years. The figures given by my predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Mr. Forman) in his reply of 7 December 1992 at column477 are consistent with that. Progress to a participation rate of one in three by 2000 will be at a rate determined in future public expenditure rounds.

Mr. Bayley

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to his answers of 20 January,Official Report, columns 280–82, if he will list institutions not referred to in his answers which are funded by the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council or Universities Funding Council together with the authorities which are authorised to award (a) degrees for higher courses and (b) degrees for research courses which commenced in September 1992 at those institutions.

Mr. Boswell

The following institutions, all of which are funded by the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council, were not referred to in my reply of 20 January—Official Report, columns 280–81.

  • Bishop Grosseteste College
  • Bretton Hall
  • Buckinghamshire College of Higher Education
  • Camborne School of Mines
  • Central School of Speech and Drama
  • Chester College of Higher Education
  • Christ Church College of Higher Education
  • College of Ripon and York St. John
  • College of St. Mark and St. John
  • Dartington College of Arts
  • Edge Hill College of Higher Education
  • Falmouth School of Art and Design
  • Harper Adams Agricultural College
  • Homerton College
  • Kent Institute of Art and Design
  • King Alfred's College
  • La Sainte Union College of Higher Education
  • Liverpool Institute of Higher Education
  • Loughborough College of Art and Design
  • Nene College, Northampton
  • Newman College
  • North Riding College
  • Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication
  • Roehampton Institute of Higher Education
  • Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama
  • Royal Northern College of Music
  • Royal Academy of Music
  • Salford College of Technology
  • Southampton Institute of Higher Education
  • St. Martin's College
  • St. Mary's College
  • The London Institute
  • Trinity and All Saints' College, Horsforth
  • Trinity College of Music
  • West London Institute of Higher Education
  • West Sussex Institute of Higher Education
  • Westhill College
  • Westminster College
  • Winchester School of Art
  • Worcester College of Higher Education

The Secretary of State publishes a list of recognised degree awarding bodies in The Education (Recognised Bodies) Order. Bodies listed in that order are authorised to award degrees in relation to any of the above institutions. The Education (Recognised Bodies) Order is currently being revised and we expect it to be re-issued by the end of February.