§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will set out the unit of student funding in higher education for each of the next three financial years.[140364]
§ Mr. Wicks[holding answer 27 November 2000]: Between 1989–90 and 1996–97, under the previous Government, the unit public funding for higher education students in England fell by 36 per cent. In 1997, the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education chaired by Lord Dearing stated that planned further rapid reductions in unit funding were not achievable without putting quality unacceptably at risk, and that efficiency improvements should be limited to 1 per cent. a year for the following two years. The present Government agreed with and followed Lord Dearing's recommendation. Now, for the first time in over a decade, there will be a real-terms increase in funding per student in 2001–02, and that level of funding will be sustained in the following two years.