Professor Ebdon will take over the helm of the Office for Fair Access from Sir Martin Harris later this year, despite the coalition coming under huge pressure from Tory MPs to rethink the choice, reports the Times Higher Education. His selection was rejected in a report backed by four Tory MPs on the business, innovation and skills committee, leading to a political stand-off and stream of negative press articles questioning Professor Ebdon’s suitability. In a letter to the committee chair, Adrian Bailey, Mr Cable said the government had conducted a “lengthy and careful search for the right candidate, twice over”, but he and David Willetts, the universities and science minister, were “confident” they had the right candidate. Mr Cable said he had considered the committee’s report “most carefully”, but had concluded that the report did not raise any “new, relevant facts about Professor Ebdon’s suitability for the post such as to cause me to revise my original position”.
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=419059&c=1