3 December 2009 :
Parliamentary Question
Higher Education: Agriculture
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will make it his policy to ensure that agricultural science graduate and post-graduate courses are recognised as science disciplines for the purposes of the higher education science funding structure. [302786]
Mr. Lammy: Decisions about the assignment of individual subjects to particular price groups are made by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). They are taken after consultation with the sectors concerned and informed by evidence about the relative costs of teaching and research in different subjects. I understand that, for teaching funding, agriculture and forestry are assigned to the same price group which covers all laboratory based science, engineering and technology. With regard to research funding, agriculture, veterinary and food science are allocated to the highest weighted cost band along with all other clinical and laboratory sciences. | 