§ Andrew MackinlayTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether figures are available which indicate the number of students who are eligible to pay tuition fees and who do not receive the required contribution from their parents. [49803]
§ Margaret Hodge[holding answer 17 April 2002]: In England and Wales students on undergraduate courses and their families are expected to make a contribution towards their tuition fees only if they can afford to do so.
In academic year 1999–2000, the latest year for which data are available, the number of higher education students (both dependent and independent) eligible for support was 479,000.
The only data available on parental contributions to tuition fees come from the Student Income and Expenditure Survey in 1998–99 when only first-year students were liable to pay tuition fees. In that survey four in five students, whose parents had been assessed for a contribution, said that they had received the full amount. However, the survey also showed that the parental contribution to students' maintenance was on average £348 more than the assessed amount.