Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, for what reasons the cap on the number of dental and medical students has not been extended to cover pharmacy students.

Pharmacy students are funded in the same way as chemistry, biology and other science subjects which will not be subject to a student number control at HEFCE funded institutions in 2015/16. Medicine and dentistry attract a much larger amount of Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) grant funding than science subjects like pharmacy. Therefore it would not be appropriate to cap pharmacy student numbers.