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Dept for Education and Employment

Answer

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what policy the Humanities Research Board of the British Academy operates in respect of funding for students wishing to undertake masters and doctoral higher degrees; what proportion of studentships have been allocated to mature students in the last five years; and how many of the studentships were allocated to those who have graduated from colleges of higher education in the last five years. [23823] Dr. Howells: The Humanities Research Board's (HRB's) policy is to allocate postgraduate awards through an annual competition. It does not allocate quotas of awards to specific institutions, courses, age groups or subjects. Rather, all applications are assessed and graded, and awards made down a list of rank order candidates until available funds are exhausted. Applications are submitted on students' behalf by the institutions at which they intend to study and are assessed by panels of senior academic staff in the relevant subject areas. Panel members are drawn from universities across the country and serve for a term of three years. In assessing applications, they take account of candidates' performance in examinations at first degree level; candidates' statements about their intended programme of study or research and their reasons for undertaking it; referees' reports and, where appropriate, reports on candidates' performance on postgraduate-level courses; and information provided by institutions about supervision arrangements, and the training and support it will provide. The Board's expectation is that applicants should normally have completed an initial year of postgraduate study before embarking on a three-year programme of doctoral research. With regard to mature students, the HRB monitors only those applicants who are aged 40 or over at the date of application. The percentage of awards offered to such applicants is shown in the following table. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Per cent. 1993 5 1994 3 1995 4 1996 4 1997 5 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. The number of awards offered for Masters courses to applicants with a first degree from higher education colleges for 1993-97 was: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Year Number from HE Colleges 1993 21 1994 12 1995 17 1996 12 1997 10 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. The number of awards offered for Doctoral study to applicants with a first degree from higher education colleges for 1993-97 was: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Year Number from HE Colleges 1993 23 1994 6 1995 7 1996 11 1997 4 _________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

23823; 305 c84-5W

Session

1997-98

Subjects

Degrees Grants Higher education Students British Academy Mature students Postgraduate education

Contains statistics

Yes