asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is her Department's estimate of the cost of providing mandatory awards to part-time students attending the Open university.

The cost of extending mandatory awards to Open university undergraduate tuition and summer school fees alone would be some £4·9 million. However, it would be inequitable to discriminate in favour of Open university students and the cost of extending mandatory awards to tuition fees for all part-time students on designated courses would be some £8 million. If an allowance for travelling and books, similar to that for part-time student teachers were to be added, the total for all such students would be about £23 million.