§ Mr. Boswell:To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he plans to extend the present remission for student nurses from higher education tuition fees to top-up fees incurred after 2006. [129701]
§ Mr. Hutton:While the proposals contained in the Department for Education and Skills' White Paper include allowing universities to increase tuition fees, there is as yet no dear indication from the higher education sector of the scope or scale of any increased charges. The Department will take measures to ensure that any increase in the cost of university courses will not have an adverse impact on the supply, retention, diversity or quality of students undertaking nurse training.