§ Mr. SteinbergTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what percentage of tuition fees collected since 1997 has been paid directly to universities; [35434]
(2) what the total amount is of tuition fees collected since they were introduced; [35435]
(3) what the total amount is of tuition fees that have been used to fund higher education since the introduction of tuition fees; and by what percentage funding for higher education would be received if the total amount of tuition fees collected had been used to fund extra higher education; [35967]
(4) what the increase in university funding has been since tuition fees were introduced. [35968]
§ Margaret HodgeAll tuition fees, whether paid by students or the taxpayer, are paid directly to higher education institutions. Introducing contributions to tuition fees in 1998 has helped the Government to fund the further expansion of the sector while maintaining and increasing the unit of funding per full-time equivalent student from 2001–02. The estimated total amount of private contributions to tuition fees collected by English institutions from 1998–99 to 2001–02 is £963 million. Over the same period, the total of publicly planned expenditure for higher education institutions was over £21 billion. The increase in publicly planned funding from this Department between 1998–99 and 2001–02 was £1,124 million, an increase of 12 per cent. in real terms. Planned public expenditure for the higher education sector in England in the six years to 2003–04 is set to grow by £1.7 billion. This represents a cash increase of 37 per cent. and a real terms increase of 18 per cent.