asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what are his latest estimates of the effect of increases in overseas student fees on the number of overseas students entering the United Kingdom and on the range of countries from which they come.

It is not possible to make reliable predictions of the precise effects of the fee increases on demand nor on the way in which different countries may be affected.

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what was the total cost to the taxpayer in 1978–79 of providing university education below cost for students from Europe, the United States, Iran, Kuwait and Nigeria; and what percentage this represented of the total provision of university education below cost for overseas students.

£23·5 million. This represents 32 per cent. of the total subsidy to overseas students in universities in the academic year 1978–79.