---

Science in Higher Education

Both the hon. Gentleman and I are involved in the campaign to try to save the physics department at Reading university. He talked about funding, but does he accept that in 2005 Reading university was successful, with the Open university and Leicester university, in a joint bid to the HEFC for a £2.4 million award to create a centre of excellence? Does the hon. Gentleman agree that that represented a substantial investment of Government money into the teaching of physics and science? Would it not be a criminal waste of taxpayers’ money if the physics department closed and that facility was no longer available in respect of physics teaching at Reading university?