Willetts tries to dampen the flames around Ebdon
Peter Hoskin 10:43am
Siphoning the contents of two brains through one mouth and on to a single page will
generally produce eclectic results. And that's certainly the case with David Willetts' interview with the Times
(£) this morning. The universities minister manages to range across subjects that include Robert Falcon Scott, climate change, the Falklands and universities access. He even reheats one
of his old theories about Feminism and social mobility in
a way that (coupled with the interview's headline: ‘Moving on and up is very hard — and feminism is partly to blame’) makes it sound far more provocative than I think it's meant
to be, and much weaker for it.
The most noteworthy part of the interview is Willetts' defence of the appointment of Les Ebdon (profiled by the Mail today) as the universities ‘fairness tsar’. His basic position will, I'm sure, rile those Tories who already see this appointment as a dreadful mistake. ‘The select committee’s power is not absolute,’ he says of the parliamentarians who tried to block Ebdon from getting the job. And he restates the notion — anthema to many in his own party — that an access regulator is ‘critical to improving social mobility by widening the type of people who go to the best universities’.
But Willetts does also offer a crumb of solace to his party. Speaking of Ebdon's threat to ban universities from charging more than £6,000 in fees if they do not meet certain ‘access criteria’, he says, ‘That would be a real threat to our universities. Therefore it is not a power one would wish to see the head of Offa using.’ And he adds, intriguingly, ‘I am not going to defend the exact way [Ebdon] explained his job at select committee, it is clear they were concerned about his performance and he himself accepts that he didn’t perform very well.’ But, like I say, that's only a crumb of solace — and it could soon be swept away once Ebdon sets to work.
Besides, even putting Ebdon aside, the potential for further flare-ups over universities policy is high. It's one of those areas of the coalition where, at a fundamental level, there's very little compatability between the Tories and the Lib Dems. On one side, a party that is still wary of tuition fees on principle. On the other, a party that doesn't necessarily see fees as an evil so long as they lead to a proper market in higher education. Now stir as outspoken a character as Ebdon into that mix, and it could get even more combustible.
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Fergus Pickering
February 25th, 2012 11:15am Report this commentI see that when you want to say someone is a complete arsehole you say he is 'outspoken'.
Publius
February 25th, 2012 12:03pm Report this comment"it is not a power one would wish to see the head of Offa using"
Rest assured, you give a bureaucrat power over you, he will use it.
And where will Willetts be then? Long gone, that's where.
Damn Willetts and the rest of these guilty men for what they have done. I despise them.
Jeremy
February 25th, 2012 12:13pm Report this commentDavid Willetts:
‘I am not going to defend the exact way [Ebdon] explained his job at select committee, it is clear they were concerned about his performance and he himself accepts that he didn’t perform very well.’
Clearly the right man for the job, then. When are we going to stop rewarding and promoting failure?
'...an access regulator is ‘critical to improving social mobility by widening the type of people who go to the best universities’.'
The best ladders of social mobility in this country were the grammar schools, which have been largely destroyed by the Left precisely because they do not want the working class to move upwards and out of their grasp.
Mike Brighton
February 25th, 2012 12:17pm Report this commentI'm sure Prof Dave Spart's experience at Luton Poly with courses such as Beauty Therapy and Spa Management, Breastfeeding Counselling and Football Studies will be of absolutely invaluable experience in determining acccess to some of the finest and most academinally rigourous universities in the world.
sinosimon
February 25th, 2012 12:18pm Report this commentEbdon, fresh from his experience leading the world renowned Luton Polytechnic, will work wonders. What we really need to finish the job of the total destruction of our education system, started so ably by the sainted Shirley Williams(currently enganged in preventing any possible improvement to the patient murdering machine that is the unionised NHS), is the prevention of excellence in those universities that are still good at what they do.
Ebdon, a man who sees every success as elitist trampling on the incapable, is just the man to do this.
Nick
February 25th, 2012 12:47pm Report this commentSuspect this will just hasten the day when Oxford, Cambridge & London universities go private.
Axstane
February 25th, 2012 12:58pm Report this commentProf. Ebdon will soon have his wings clipped by the courts when he attempts to force Oxbridge into his polytechnic mould.
Those universities are close to refusing any government funding and going "private" - Cambridge less so since it is far more Socialist.
I have never heard Willetts say anything that I agreed with.
WestIndep
February 25th, 2012 1:40pm Report this commentI was much less impressed by Willetts' judgement after reading The Pinch for reasons which I explained here http://bit.ly/n67sIg
FF
February 25th, 2012 2:30pm Report this commentSinoSimon, Luton University seems to have risen from the bottom to the middle of the university rankings during Prof Ebdon's Vice Chancellorship.
If that's so, it's an impressive track record he can point to.
Widmerpool
February 25th, 2012 2:53pm Report this commentMail having a field day pandering to Middle England nonetheless I do have a problem in taking a Professor who likes to be called “Les” seriously!
Will Prof Les’ performance be reviewed after say a year after appointment?
Will he appear before a H of C Select Committee soon?
If Prof Les falls at either of these hurdles can he be impeached?
mitcheltj
February 25th, 2012 3:18pm Report this commentLeave aside the merits or otherwise of this Les Ebdon's appointment, what astounded me was that he is to be paid £130,000 pa for three days a week. How on earth can this possibly be justified?
telemachus'
February 25th, 2012 3:45pm Report this commentIt will be a measure of Ebdon's success when the Times, Telegraph and Guardian all clamour for his head for violently different reasons We should wish him luck.
Willetts is courageous
TomTom
February 25th, 2012 4:14pm Report this commentWilletts must be desperate for a job with his track record on Doublethink. The fact that Comprehensive Universities are not worth £9000 fees is cleae when you hear about people with $100,000 debt after doing Masters in the US looking at warehouse jobs.
They are debasing University degrees just as they have debased the currency, that is the essence of Politics
It doesn't add up...
February 25th, 2012 4:46pm Report this commentWilletts demonstrates once again that he - like Ebdon - should be sacked.
Cynic
February 25th, 2012 6:10pm Report this commentWhy do we need either a Universities Minister or a fair access tsar? Axing them would save a fair amount of money. No wonder we're running a deficit!
Scary Biscuits
February 26th, 2012 8:46am Report this commentOnce again, this is Cameron's fault. He has stuffed his government with the most left wing Tories he could find. The inaction, drift and old-fashionedness of this government is nothing to do with the LibDems (although they do make it work); it is that the rightwing and indeed the mainstream of the party has been mostly excluded from the government. Cameron has surrounded himself with his own very narrow clique - just look at the political appointments to No10 - and his government is very much the worse for it.
Dimoto
February 26th, 2012 10:59pm Report this commentWilletts is just not ministerial material (like Letwin). Why do these people insist on trying for a political career ?
(It's almost as loony as Iain Dale and Fraser Nelson having delusions that they could be MPs).
Don't these dreamers have career advisors ?
For God's sake Cameron, get rid of Willetts and appoint somebody competent, to keep an eye on the mad sage of Twickenham, before he does any more damage.
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