§ Mr. EvansTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what estimate the Government have made of how many EU accession country citizens will make use of the education system in the UK at each level. [157348]
§ Alan JohnsonFrom 1 May children living within the UK who come from the accession countries will have access to education here. In addition, students who attend Further and Higher Education Institutions will have home fee status as long as they have been resident within an acceding country for three years.
The Government commissioned work from independent academic experts on likely numbers of migrants arriving which is published and available on the Home Office website. We will monitor the situation post enlargement to ensure that the impact on schools, FE and HE is understood. Government departments are working together to ensure that all the available data are brought together to offer a rounded picture of the impact of accession and as well as feeding into this we will be looking to use the results to inform the picture for education.
For Higher Education we have been collecting data on the nationality of students, including those from accession countries for some years. We estimate a one-off increase in the number of EU students in the UK of perhaps about 8 per cent. as a result of EU enlargement. Our January HEFCE Grant letter took account of the expansion of the EU due to take place in 2004, and so did the Additional Student Numbers (ASN) exercise that HEFCE are currently running for foundation degrees. We have already forecasted for growth in new EU students and will continue to do so in the next Spending Review. It is important to remember that since we do not give maintenance to students from the EU, coming to study in the UK is not a 'cheap option' for them; they still have to find ways to. support their living costs themselves.