HC Deb 20 December 2000 vol 360 cc225-6W
Mrs. May

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what percentage of the planned total increase in funding in each of the next three years will be met from (a) student fee contributions and (b) parental contributions. [142280]

Mr. Wicks

[holding answer 12 December 2000]: Publicly planned funding for higher education is to increase by £412 million in 2001–02, £268 million in 2002–03 and £298 million in 2003–04. The increases in contributions to fees by students or their parents on current planned fee income projections, taking into account increases in student numbers and inflation, are accrued to be £48 million, £26 million, and £24 million, representing 11.6 per cent. of the total increase in 2001–02, 9.7 per cent in 2002–03 and 8 per cent. in 2003–04.

For the first time in over a decade there will be a real-terms increase in funding per student in 2001–02, which will be sustained in the following two years.