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UNIVERSITY AWARDS
1020 UNIVERSITY AWARDS STATE scholarships were offered in this country for the first time in 1920. The number was small-200 each year-and there was an overriding limit of E80 for maintenance, while the test of hardship was stringent. The scheme did little or nothing to help parents in the middle and lower-middle income ranges. Even so it was killed two years later on the ground that the country could not afford the money. Since the end of the late The number of State scholarwar we have done better. from 360 in 1945 to 800 in 1948. has increased been ships In addition, 100 technical State scholarships are now offered annually to students who have completed satisfactorily a course for the Ordinary National Certificate This has increased the opportunities for or Diploma. students who- leave school at fifteen and continue their training by full-time or part-time courses. A further 20 State scholarships are offered to students over twenty-five. A big attempt has also been made to increase the value of these awards, and to reduce the sacrifices which parents make-and we suspect always will make-for their children. In 1946 the limit of .E100 on maintenance grants was removed, and it was decided that the " full standard figures of maintenance " should be payable by the Ministry of Education. It was also decided to supplement open scholarships and exhibitions awarded by universities up to the amount paid to State scholars. These reforms have meant that State scholarships are no longer used to supplement open awards, and that local education authorities are no longer called upon to supplement open and State scholarships : their awards can now be devoted to helping other children of good intellectual quality. Most local authorities have responded by increasing both the number and amount of their awards, which have risen from around 1500 in 1945 to 4000 in 1948. Taken together, these improvements make an impressive total. But, as many parents know, opportunity is still limited and there are still anomalies and injustices. With these in mind, the Minister of Education appointed last April a Working Party to consider changes in the present system. Many of the recominendations in their reportare thoroughly sensible. They suggest, for instance, that in future no boy or girl should be compelled to promise, in exchange for a university education, to teach in a grant-aided school. They also do well in recommending. that scholars should no longer be stopped from going to the university of their choice merely because that particular university’s quota of scholarships has been filled. The Working Party are also concerned to increase still further the number of awards and toimprove their value. They propose that the number of State scholarships should be raised from 800 to 2000 and of localauthority scholarships from 4000 to 7000. This is ambitious ; in the view of some who are in a good position to judge, too ambitious : -.
,Quality,’7 says Mr. W. W. Grave, PH.D., registrar of Cambridge University, in a dissenting note to the report,
" must not be sacrificed to quantity.... If the university authorities are unable to recommend for awards as many candidates as the report contemplates, it is to be hoped that there will be no feeling that they are placing unjustifiable obstacles in the way of deserving pupils. It is notorious that once standards are lowered, they are very difficult indeed to restore." Whatever figure is fixed, it appears certain that there
will be a considerable further expansion. It becomes all the more important then to ensure that the awards, At present, the income scale once made, are generous. for assessing the value of awards to resident students starts at t600 and proceeds to a ceiling of £1500. A parent with an income above this figure-must meet the whole of ’a State scholar’s expenses, and a parent’s 1.
Report of the Working Party on University Awards. Stationery Office. 1948. Pp. 26. 9d.
H.M.
contribution rises steeply in the upper reaches of the scale. True, in calculating the parent’s contribution, an allowance of £50 is made for each dependent child (other than the student), and extra allowances may be made in respect of a child’s education-up to 60 for school fees and £100 for expenses of university education or professional training. But these allowances are too small, and a student who has won a State scholarship on his merits, but happens to be one of a large family, may have to forego a university education because the strain on his parents would be insupportable. The Working Party wisely recommend that the allowances should in effect be doubled, and that the student’s maintenance should include allowances for books, instruments, clothing, midday meals, travelling, subscriptions, and pocketmoney, as well as a contribution towards his keep during term-time and expenses during vacations. These improvements show an awareness of the difficulties which beset many parents today.2 The report also deals with the problem of those who are not eligible for any award because the income exceeds £1500. This ceiling introduces anomalies, for parents with three or four children and an income of £1550 get
nothing although they are heavy taxpayers-while those with one or two children and only £100 a year less are helped. The Working Party propose that the ceiling should be raised to at least S2000 ; that the increased length of the scale should be used to make the change in parental contribution more gradual, and that all students who qualify for a highly competitive award such as a State scholarship should derive some financial benefit. Thus it is suggested that JE30 a year should be given without regard to the parent’s means. This concession would be welcome, though it seems inadequate. More important would be a recognition that a parent’s position above or below the income ceiling should be ascertained after allowances have been made for his other responsibilities. MEDICINES UNDER THE ACT WHAT is a medicine Perturbed by the liberal answer of some practitioners, the Minister of Health is to refer this question to the standing medical and pharmaceutical advisory committees of the Central Health Services Council. Meanwhile executive councils are asked to be guided by two lists composed some ’years ago by an expert advisory committee in relation to National Health Insurance. One list is of substances which were considered never to be drugs, and the other of substances (including a number of tonic " preparations) which might sometimes be deemed drugs or medicines. Neither list has any statutory force., Composed in 1929, they Of alcoholic liquors only brandy, are not exhaustive. champagne, and sherry are’named as never being drugs, " whereas in the Minister’s view all alcoholic liquors should be similarly classed and should not be ordered on E.c. 10" (the National Health Service -prescription form). Moreover, while it is the practitioner’s duty to prescribe for a patient on his list whatever drug or medicine is necessary for proper treatment, he is not, of course, authorised to prescribe toilet requisites or foods or foodlike substances." Executive councils are empowered by regulations to recover from the practitioner the cost of substances prescribed by him under the Act which they deem not to be drugs or medicines ; and if the doctor wants to challenge the decision he may ask for it to be referred to the local medical committee, with the possibility of appeal to referees. Given good sense on each side, such disputes will be rare. The substances likely to cause real difficulty are those in the broad borderland between drugs and food; it is here that the upto-date ruling promised:by the Minister is most urgently needed. "
"
2. See Manchester
Guardian, Nov. 26 and Dec. 3.
,Quality,’7 says Mr. W. W. Grave, PH.D., registrar of Cambridge University, in a dissenting note to the report,
" must not be sacrificed to quantity.... If the university authorities are unable to recommend for awards as many candidates as the report contemplates, it is to be hoped that there will be no feeling that they are placing unjustifiable obstacles in the way of deserving pupils. It is notorious that once standards are lowered, they are very difficult indeed to restore." Whatever figure is fixed, it appears certain that there
will be a considerable further expansion. It becomes all the more important then to ensure that the awards, At present, the income scale once made, are generous. for assessing the value of awards to resident students starts at t600 and proceeds to a ceiling of £1500. A parent with an income above this figure-must meet the whole of ’a State scholar’s expenses, and a parent’s 1.
Report of the Working Party on University Awards. Stationery Office. 1948. Pp. 26. 9d.
H.M.
contribution rises steeply in the upper reaches of the scale. True, in calculating the parent’s contribution, an allowance of £50 is made for each dependent child (other than the student), and extra allowances may be made in respect of a child’s education-up to 60 for school fees and £100 for expenses of university education or professional training. But these allowances are too small, and a student who has won a State scholarship on his merits, but happens to be one of a large family, may have to forego a university education because the strain on his parents would be insupportable. The Working Party wisely recommend that the allowances should in effect be doubled, and that the student’s maintenance should include allowances for books, instruments, clothing, midday meals, travelling, subscriptions, and pocketmoney, as well as a contribution towards his keep during term-time and expenses during vacations. These improvements show an awareness of the difficulties which beset many parents today.2 The report also deals with the problem of those who are not eligible for any award because the income exceeds £1500. This ceiling introduces anomalies, for parents with three or four children and an income of £1550 get
nothing although they are heavy taxpayers-while those with one or two children and only £100 a year less are helped. The Working Party propose that the ceiling should be raised to at least S2000 ; that the increased length of the scale should be used to make the change in parental contribution more gradual, and that all students who qualify for a highly competitive award such as a State scholarship should derive some financial benefit. Thus it is suggested that JE30 a year should be given without regard to the parent’s means. This concession would be welcome, though it seems inadequate. More important would be a recognition that a parent’s position above or below the income ceiling should be ascertained after allowances have been made for his other responsibilities. MEDICINES UNDER THE ACT WHAT is a medicine Perturbed by the liberal answer of some practitioners, the Minister of Health is to refer this question to the standing medical and pharmaceutical advisory committees of the Central Health Services Council. Meanwhile executive councils are asked to be guided by two lists composed some ’years ago by an expert advisory committee in relation to National Health Insurance. One list is of substances which were considered never to be drugs, and the other of substances (including a number of tonic " preparations) which might sometimes be deemed drugs or medicines. Neither list has any statutory force., Composed in 1929, they Of alcoholic liquors only brandy, are not exhaustive. champagne, and sherry are’named as never being drugs, " whereas in the Minister’s view all alcoholic liquors should be similarly classed and should not be ordered on E.c. 10" (the National Health Service -prescription form). Moreover, while it is the practitioner’s duty to prescribe for a patient on his list whatever drug or medicine is necessary for proper treatment, he is not, of course, authorised to prescribe toilet requisites or foods or foodlike substances." Executive councils are empowered by regulations to recover from the practitioner the cost of substances prescribed by him under the Act which they deem not to be drugs or medicines ; and if the doctor wants to challenge the decision he may ask for it to be referred to the local medical committee, with the possibility of appeal to referees. Given good sense on each side, such disputes will be rare. The substances likely to cause real difficulty are those in the broad borderland between drugs and food; it is here that the upto-date ruling promised:by the Minister is most urgently needed. "
"
2. See Manchester
Guardian, Nov. 26 and Dec. 3.