§ Mr. PikeTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what proposals exist to ensure that the Higher Education Funding Council for England is able to provide additional margin funding to institutions providing building services engineering degree courses in respect of the special laboratory and equipment needs of this course. [40146]
§ Mr. ForthThe Higher Education Funding Council for England's allocations of capital funding for equipment are weighted to reflect the institution's historical patterns of spending in different subject areas. Its allocations of recurrent grant for teaching also reflect the institution's own internal distribution of funding between subjects. Students on laboratory or workshop-based courses also attract a higher tuition fee from their local education authorities.
It is for institutions themselves to determine funding priorities for building services engineering and other courses out of their overall income from grant and tuition fees.