The reason for Toby Young’s ‘resignation’ may take some time to emerge. It was clearly not precipitated by Jo Johnson who as late as yesterday was criticising the public who were opposed to Young’s appointment as being ‘armchair critics’. As I tweeted late last night this seems to be at odds with the call by Eric Pickles back in 2010 for ‘armchair auditors’ of local Government and their budget setting. It seems as though that call may well have been less helpful for this and future Governments than Mr Pickles had hoped. The departure of Young is clearly a very good thing for students and Universities alike and it is simply sad that it took so long for the arrogant Tory Party to realise that their chum was not fit for the job. The fact that he took so long to ‘resign’ indicates how inadequate the Government is. So now we need a replacement for Toby and just to remind us all of what the role of Toby and his five colleagues is intended to be:

“These appointments will not only reflect the diverse needs of the Higher Education sector but will also make sure the interests of employers and students are represented by the new body”

In the existing group we have an executive of Boots, an ex executive of HSBC, a senior legal executive of a large law firm who is also a lecturer at Imperial College, a student and then the Chair of a Theatre School who was also invited to serve on the Committee of Standards in Public Life in 2015. Bizarrely the press release does not say if she accepted the invitation. So these five people between them represent big business and one student along with a College Trustee. The balance of the team are the 9 people previously appointed who either work for the Office for Students or come from Universities or HEFCE, the body that OfS will replace in April. The clear gap then is for another student or a representative of a Small to Medium Size business who can help OfS ensure it prepares Universities (and the students) for a world that is largely inhabited by small businesses and self employed sole traders. If the whole committee was up for grabs then 3 students and 3 businesses would be the best mix and of the 3 businesses at least one would be an SME. However unless Toby Youngs ‘resignation’ leads to the whole group being reconsidered, there is only one vacancy to fill.