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University Vice-Chancellors And Principals

Volume 952: debated on Tuesday 20 June 1978

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5.

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science when she next intends to meet the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of the universities.

The Secretary of State for Education and Science and Paymaster General
(Mrs. Shirley Williams)

I have no immediate plans to meet the Committee of University Vice-Chancellors and Principals.

When the Secretary of State next meets the Vice-Chancellors, will she discuss with them ways of encouraging industry to make a greater financial contribution towards the universities? Does she agree that while industry for the most part accepts its responsibility for the training of unskilled or semi-skilled members of its work force, it makes very little contribution at the moment in the form of sponsored studentships to the highly-skilled engineers, physicists and scientists upon whom industry depends?

Yes, indeed. The hon. Gentleman may know that industry has recently entered into a joint system of industrial scholarships with my Department which are jointly funded between industry and the Government. Secondly, we have recently extended the amount which we permit to be paid to sponsored students before they become liable to a reduction in the normal mandatory award. Therefore, we are doing the best we can to encourage greater industrial interest in higher education.

What exactly are the criteria upon which these industrial scholarships are to be awarded?

In the first year the industrial scholarships will be awarded to young men and women who in their school records show leadership capacity and who intend to go into manufacturing industry. In the first year the awards will be tenable only for the specialised and enriched engineering courses with a strong management element in them, but beyond the first year they will be tenable with regard to any engineering course approved by the Council of Engineering Institutions.