§ Mr. WillisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what mechanism he plans to introduce to ensure that universities are not financially disadvantaged by accepting students who are exempt from tuition fees. [12603]
§ Dr. HowellsThere will be no disincentive to universities to accept students who are assessed as not having to contribute to tuition. For 1998–99 local education authorities will conduct an assessment of income to determine how much students or their parents should contribute to the £1,000 tuition fee. The local education authority will pay the public contribution to the fee directly to the university or college where the student is enrolled. The university or college will be responsible for collecting the contribution from the student. Universities and colleges will retain these funds. The administrative arrangements for later years are still under consideration and will be announced later.
§ Mr. WillisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what steps he plans to take in respect of the introduction of tuition fees to ensure that the resources provided to universities reflect the average tuition costs of the courses they provide relative to the national average, with particular reference to medicine. [12576]
§ Dr. HowellsUnder our preferred funding option, full-time undergraduates will contribute up to £1,000 a year in tuition fees, depending on family income, with the balance being met from public funds. The maximum payable—£1,000—represents around a quarter of the 681W average annual cost of undergraduate courses. The remainder will be met from public funds through the teaching grant for universities and colleges allocated by the Higher Education Funding Council. The funding council's teaching grant allocations reflect each institution's student numbers and the relative average costs of providing courses in broad subject categories. Universities and college which provide medical courses will receive considerably more in teaching grant per medical student than the national average per student across all subjects.