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Higher Education
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what additional resources he plans to put into higher education for each year of the planning period. [12577]
Dr. Howells: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced on 23 September, a package of measures which will allow an extra £165 million to be spent on higher education in 1998-99. The level of funding for the higher education sector in 1999-2000 and beyond will be decided in the light of the Government's current comprehensive expenditure review.
Universities (Tuition Fees)
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what mechanism he plans to introduce to ensure that universities are not financially disadvantaged by accepting students who are exempt from tuition fees. [12603]
Dr. Howells: There will be no disincentive to universities to accept students who are assessed as not having to contribute to tuition. For 1998-99 local education authorities will conduct an assessment of income to determine how much students or their parents should contribute to the £1,000 tuition fee. The local education authority will pay the public contribution to the fee directly to the university or college where the student is enrolled. The university or college will be responsible for collecting the contribution from the student. Universities and colleges will retain these funds. The administrative arrangements for later years are still under consideration and will be announced later.
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what steps he plans to take in respect of the introduction of tuition fees to ensure that the resources provided to universities reflect the average tuition costs of the courses they provide relative to the national average, with particular reference to medicine. [12576]
Dr. Howells:
Under our preferred funding option, full-time undergraduates will contribute up to £1,000 a year in tuition fees, depending on family income, with the balance being met from public funds. The maximum payable--£1,000--represents around a quarter of the
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average annual cost of undergraduate courses. The remainder will be met from public funds through the teaching grant for universities and colleges allocated by the Higher Education Funding Council. The funding council's teaching grant allocations reflect each institution's student numbers and the relative average costs of providing courses in broad subject categories. Universities and college which provide medical courses will receive considerably more in teaching grant per medical student than the national average per student across all subjects.
Mr. Brady:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what was the average class size (a) in maintained schools in England and Wales, (b) for five, six and seven-year-olds in maintained schools in England and Wales, (c) for maintained primary schools in England and Wales and (d) for maintained secondary schools in England and Wales at (i) 1 May, (ii) 1 June and (iii) 1 July. [12569]
Mr. Byers:
The information is not available in the form requested.
The average class size of classes taught by one teacher in maintained primary and secondary schools in England in January 1997 were 27.5 and 21.7 respectively; the equivalent figure for key stage 1 classes in primary schools was 26.9.
Information on class sizes in Wales is the responsibility of my hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.
Mr. Todd:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list each of the functions relating to payment for goods or services supplied for which his Department is responsible indicating the management systems purchased, all subcontractors involved in the work, co-operative arrangements with other Departments; and the costs of the systems and processes in the last year for which figures are available. [12562]
Dr. Howells:
Information on the functions relating to payment for goods and services supplied for which the Secretary of State's Department is responsible, the management systems purchased, all subcontractors involved in the work, co-operative arrangements with other Departments; and the costs of the systems and processes could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Hinchliffe:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what proposals he has to promote courses in parenthood. [12481]
Ms Estelle Morris:
As stated in the White Paper, "Excellence in Schools" published on 7 July, the Government intend that all secondary schools should have a role in teaching young people the skills of good parenting, both formally and through contact with good adult role models. The Department will be considering
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with teachers and others how this might best be achieved and what parenting education programmes should contain.
Mr. Hancock:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to his answer of 25 July, Official Report, columns 768-69, on training and enterprise councils, how many starts were made for the two categories in each TEC area in each of the last three years. [12302]
Dr. Howells:
Information for (a) the proportion endorsed as having special training needs on entering youth training, and (b) the proportion reporting that they had a disability on entering training for work, for each TEC area in England is given in the following tables.
Notes:
1. Those endorsed as having special training needs on entering Work Based Training for Young People.
2. All people with disabilities entering Training for Work.
Source:
YT/TfW Trainee databases.
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