asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is her estimate of the number of higher education students there will be in 1981 in the Northern Region and other English regions and Wales, respectively; and what assumptions she has made in the calculations.

As I told my hon. Friend in reply to his Question on 21st February these statistics are not available for 1981. Broadly speaking, the relative distribution of higher education, students in institutions in each region in 1981 may not differ very much from the present pattern. However it is not possible to forecast these matters accurately.