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February 8th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda - Committee of MPs is expected
to block Les Ebdon, the Business Secretary’s choice as head of
the Office of Fair Access, which oversees university entry policies
By
James Chapman
Last updated at 11:22 PM on 7th February 2012
‘Invited to apply’: Vince Cable’s attempt to give a key universities post to Les Ebdon (pictured) will today be humiliatingly rejected by Parliament
Vince Cable’s attempt to give a key universities post to an academic who champions ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees will today be humiliatingly rejected by Parliament.
A powerful committee of MPs is expected to block Professor Les Ebdon, the Business Secretary’s choice as head of the Office of Fair Access, which oversees university entry policies.
Their decision – using new powers to reject major public appointments – will create an unprecedented showdown between Parliament and the Business Department.
In theory, Mr Cable could overrule the committee and give Professor Ebdon the job anyway, though this appears politically untenable.
The Daily Mail revealed last week that David Cameron had ‘serious concerns’ that the appointment would mean that pupils from high-performing state and independent schools may lose out as a result of attempts to ‘socially engineer’ admissions.
Vice-chancellors at elite universities were also said to be shocked that Professor Ebdon was selected by Mr Cable and Universities Minister David Willetts for such a sensitive job.
Senior figures in the sector are thought to have put pressure on the Government to get the appointment overturned.
Professor Ebdon has been a fierce critic of Government education policy and acted as an adviser to a Labour Party policy review, though he points out he has also advised both of the other main parties.
He has also defended what have been nicknamed Mickey Mouse courses, and criticised Education Secretary Michael Gove’s creation of an English baccalaureate to reinvigorate traditional academic subjects.
In one article, he wrote: ‘Subjects such as media and cultural studies, fashion design and consumer software computing are far from professionally irrelevant or academically unchallenging.’
Last week, he faced fierce questioning from MPs on the business select committee about his suitability for the role and his views.
He responded by attacking highly-selective universities with ‘patchy’ records on access – saying he would be prepared to use the ‘nuclear option’ of hitting those that did not improve their records with financial penalties.
He insisted that universities should be more ‘flexible’ about entry requirements if students apply after studying the wrong GCSEs and A-levels.
Humiliating: Vince Cable could overrule the powerful committee of MPs and give Professor Ebdon the job anyway, though this appears politically untenable
‘We have slipped back in some universities in widening participation and we must make up lost ground immediately.
‘They should know what things to do to improve participation and they should realise that if they don’t do that there will be an office which will not be afraid to employ sanctions.’
Under the Government’s changes to tuition fees, any university wanting to charge more than £6,000 a year must draw up an ‘access agreement’ saying how it intends not to put off poorer students.
OFFA can fine them £500,000 for falling short of targets, or refuse to sanction an access agreement, in effect banning them from charging more than £6,000.
Professor Ebdon, in a letter to the Daily Mail, insisted: ‘It is factually incorrect to claim… that I am or ever have been a Labour adviser.
‘Along with other education experts, I accepted an invitation to be a non-partisan member of a policy review convened by Andy Burnham MP, when he was the opposition spokesperson for education – a review which has in any case been disbanded.
‘ln similar fashion, I was invited by the Conservative minister, John Hayes, to sit on his Further Education and Skills Advisory Panel – again a role I readily accepted and which I still retain.
‘More recently, the Liberal Democrats have asked for my advice about science policy.’
Professor Ebdon added that he had been invited to apply for the OFFA post and had been a ‘passionate advocate of widening participation’.
A spokesman for Mr Cable declined to comment.
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