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Does departing HEFCE chief Graeme Davies have an unrevealed enthusiasm for four-legged friends? A few weeks before his arrival as vice chancellor of the University of Glasgow, the place is raising Pounds 6 million for a new horse hospital (THES last week).

Readers with long memories will recall the large animal hospital - specialising in horses - that appeared at the University of Liverpool while he was v-c. And which subject has been undergoing dizzying growth during his tenure at the Funding Council? None other than equine studies. Perhaps he is trying to avoid fears of pro-sheep bias that might be raised by his New Zealand origins.