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29 Jun 2005 : Column 1633W—continued

Student Loans

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what legal powers are available to the Student Loans Company to obtain repayments of loans in respect of top-up fees from graduates from EU member states working outside the UK; what estimate she has made of the likely total value of such loans in each year; and if she will make a statement. [4830]

Bill Rammell: The Student Loans Company will have the power to recover loans which are not recoverable through income tax in the UK, as a debt through litigation in the courts, if there is a breach of the terms. We anticipate relying on European Council regulation 44/2001 in support of this.

We estimate that the annual resource cost of fee loans issued to EU students who would work outside the UK on graduation could be around £25 million 1 (steady state at 2006/07 terms). This assumes that 91 per cent. of EU students are charged the full £3,000 fee, 9 per cent. charged £2,000, 80 per cent. of them take out a fee loan
 
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and around 75 per cent. of EU students work outside the UK after graduation. The latter assumption has been derived from data on the first destination of EU students on graduation. These data indicate that a large proportion of EU students do not go into work on graduation, the majority of these undertaking further study. In the absence of any data about the eventual employment of this group of students, we have assumed that they all enter employment outside the UK and hence, the £25 million figure could be an over-estimate.

The estimate presented here is in resource terms. This is the resource cost to the Department of loans—specifically of providing an interest subsidy and of writing-off some loans. It is on a different basis to (Commons Written) PQ 3057, which concerned the cost to the Department of issuing loans for fees to all EU students, not just those who move outside the UK after graduation, and uses an updated discount rate to calculate resource costs 2 .

2 Resource cost estimates updated using latest 2.2 per cent. discount rate.

Teacher Recruitment

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what the targets for recruitment to (a) science, (b) mathematics and (c) modern foreign languages teacher training courses were in each year between 1994 and 2004; and what the performance against those targets was in each year. [7393]

Jacqui Smith: The number of places allocated and the number of people recruited to science, mathematics and modern foreign languages in England from 1994 to 2004 are given in tables 1, 2 and 3.
Table 1: Science

PlacesRecruitmentDifference
1993/942,6152,397218
1994/953,2002,918282
1995/963,4022,794608
1996/973,7002,937763
1997/983,3002,789511
1998/993,0502,279771
1999/20002,3902,36228
2000/012,6902,413277
2001/022,8102,594216
2002/032,8502,701149
2003/043,2252,871354

Table 2: Mathematics

PlacesRecruitmentDifference
1993/941,7551,790-35
1994/952,2301,950280
1995/962,2671,795472
1996/972,5501,653897
1997/982,2501,464786
1998/992,1501,1201,030
1999/20001,6801,302378
2000/011,8501,290560
2001/021,9401,553387
2002/031,9401,674266
2003/042,3151,942373

 
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Table 3: Modern foreign languages

PlacesRecruitmentDifference
1993/941,6651,550115
1994/952,0601,789271
1995/962,0921,790302
1996/972,2501,720530
1997/982,6501,799851
1998/992,3001,657643
1999/20002,2001,469731
2000/012,0501,635415
2001/022,0501,705345
2002/032,0501,732318
2003/042,0501,819231

The number of places allocated and the number of people recruited do not take into account the Fast Track scheme or employment-based routes into teaching.
 
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University Students (Counselling)

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what changes to provision of counselling services for university students has been made to meet the changes in demand arising from broadening access. [7500]

Bill Rammell: Provision of Counselling Services is a matter for individual higher education institutions. Counselling Services in UK universities have responded positively to the changes in student populations resulting from the HE Widening Participation agenda. The Government have supported a number of initiatives to improve all core support services to students, such as the Developing Modern Higher Education Careers Services", report in 2001. A key focus of Developing Modern Higher Education Careers Services" was the need to ensure greater and more targeted access to those students and graduates who might be disadvantaged and/or in need of support. The follow-up report Modernising HE Careers Education—a framework for good practice" showed that universities had reviewed their provision of support services, and recognised the need to improve their standards of service.