§ Mr. MartlewTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills, what the cost would be of abolishing university tuition fees in 2003–04. [113971]
§ Alan JohnsonPursuant to the reply by my hon. Friend of 17 June 2003,Official Report, column 134, clarification is required to the answer which sated that the standard tuition fee contribution for full-time home and EU students of £1,125 is estimated to raise around £887 million for English institutions and around £60 million for Welsh institutions. The reply does not make clear that the sum of £456 million, given as the public contribution to fees in England for 2003–04, includes public funding of approximately £40 million allocated to support postgraduate study through the Research Councils. Correspondingly, the sum of £31 million given as the public contribution to fees in Wales for 2003–04, includes public funding of approximately £3 million allocated to support postgraduate study through the Research Councils.
An amended table is set out below:
2003–04 Estimate England (£ millions) Wales (£ millions) Public contributions to fees 416 28 Private contributions towards the cost of tuition 431 29 Total 847 57 The amount of private contribution to fees (£431 milliion in England) is not altered by this and so 634W there is no change to the figure of 90,000 places, referred to in the earlier answer, that would be lost if the private contribution were to be abolished.