To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what was (a) recurrent and (b) capital spending by the Government on (a) universities, (b) polytechnics and (c) colleges of further education for each year since 1978–79 in (i) cash terms and (ii) real terms, indexed so that 1978–79 = 100.

[holding reply 11 June 1990]: The information for universities covered by the University Grants Committee and, from April 1989, by the Universtities Funding Council, is as follows (real terms figures are derived using the GDP deflator):

Financial year	Recurrent		Capital
	Cash £'000s	Real terms	Cash £'000s	Real terms
1978–79	612,599	—	79,304	—
1979–80	741,190	634,622	101,370	86,795
1980–81	956,464	691,997	110,598	80,017

Financial year	Recurrent		Capital
	Cash £'000s	Real terms	Cash £'000s	Real terms
1981–82	982,335	647,316	116,308	76,642
1982–83	1,193,333	733,413	118,926	73,091
1983–84	1,240,179	728,217	117,616	69,063
1984–85	1,272,416	707,007	119,195	66,230
1985–86	1,302,752	691,686	132,688	70,450
1986–87	1,341,817	689,021	145,465	74,696
1987–88	1,490,175	726,267	144,106	70,233
1988–89	1,608,497	731,818	157,457	71,638
1989–90	1,711,604	726,968	179,247	76,131

It is not possible to disaggregate from other local education authority expenditure that element which represents recurrent or capital expenditure on colleges of further education or polytechnics which were or are funded by local authorities.