ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

Next time the Higher Education Funding Council for England seeks a new chief, tipsters would be well advised to keep an eye open for the chaps from Catz. Departing chief executive Graeme Davies points out that not only is he a fellow of St Catharine's, Cambridge, three of his four immediate predecessors at HEFCE and its earlier equivalents share this distinction.

St Catharine's hold over this aspect of national life might have been consolidated further had James Wright, vice chancellor of Newcastle, been appointed to the hot seat at HEFCE, as rumours in the week before Brian Fender got the job suggested he might. Nor is Professor Fender's appointment as much of a concession to the Monopolies Commission as it might look. He too is a fellow of St Catherine's . . . Oxford.