THE uproar provoked by the choice of Les Ebdon, Vice-Chancellor
of the University of Bedfordshire, to head the Office of Fair
Access (OFFA) was startling.
OFFA's task is to bring down the barriers that stand between
bright working-class and ethnic-minority young people and higher
education; and persuade the élite universities, in particular, to
widen their recruitment, possibly by giving lower offers to
applicants from disadvantaged areas.
Right-of-centre commentators were vituperative. Professor Ebdon
was described variously as a "functionary from a minor university",
an "access bore", "grey-minded", and a "platitude-spouting
menace".
David Cameron was "understood to have serious concerns", and the
House of Commons Select Committee on Business, Innovation and
Skills refused to endorse the appointment made by the Secretary of
State, Vince Cable, and backed by the Minister for Universities and
Science, David Willetts.
Presumably Dr Cable and Mr Willetts saw the charge that
Profes-sor Ebdon had constantly expressed concern that higher
tuition fees might act as a deterrent to working-class students as
a qualification for the task he had been given. They did not back
down, and he took up the post at the beginning of the academic
year.
Reflecting on the controversy, some weeks into the job,
Professor Ebdon admits that he was surprised. "I think they were
afraid I might actually do the job," he says.
And he is wasting no time. "Do you know that in post-1990
universities the ratio of students from the poorest 40 per cent of
the population and the richest 20 per cent, is 1-1, while at
Russell Group universities it's 1-7?" he says. "It's getting worse,
because it used to be 1-6."
Professor Ebdon likes the Anglican, Roman Catholic, and
ecumenical institutions in the Cathedral Group, because he believes
that they are serious about their inclusive mission statements. And
they like him. Professor Joy Carter, their chair, and
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Winchester, speaks of
Professor Ebdon's "genuine passion for widening participation".
Russell Group vice-chancellors, on the other hand, were said to
be more wary, particularly after it was reported that he had
threatened to "use the nuclear option" to bring them into line.
"It's true," he says, that he said that he was prepared to use
the powers of his office to fine universities as much as £500,000
for persistently failing to broaden their student base. As it
stands, universities have to agree their fees with the Office for
Fair Access, and its approval depends on whether they have
effective access plans.
WHERE does this passion come from? Primarily from his Christian
faith: Professor Ebdon is a Baptist lay preacher who is not
embarrassed to admit to his belief that all human potential is
God-given, and that no one should be held back.
There is also something of the Old Testament prophet about his
concern for the most disadvantaged, and his stubborn refusal to be
deflected from his vision, however uncomfortable the recriminations
that come his way. In fact, he prays regularly about his task.
There is also his own background: born in a north-east-London
suburb, 65 years ago, he grew up in Hemel Hempstead, part of the
idealistic post-war New Town movement. His father worked in the
Development Corporation's accounts department.
One of four children, Professor Ebdon did well in Hemel
Hempstead's grammar school, and went on to read chemistry at
Imperial College, London - the first in his family to enter higher
education. It was only after he graduated that his father told him
how "held back" he felt by his lack of a degree.
Professor Ebdon believes strongly that the first family member
to go to university acts as a catalyst for the whole family. One
brother took a part-time degree; another got into the University of
Bath on clearing, and went on to do a Ph.D. at Cambridge. His
sister, a nurse, is also now a graduate.
His first job was teaching chem- istry at Makerere University,
Uganda, where he worked with colleagues from the Church Mission
Society. The advent of Idi Amin's regime sent him home after two
years to teach analytical chemistry at Sheffield City Polytechnic
(now Sheffield Hallam University).
In 1981, Professor Ebdon moved to what is now Plymouth
University, becoming head of environmental sciences; then he became
Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academic Development. It was in the
latter post that he achieved the creation of a medical school at
Plymouth; the first in a "new" university, and with a fair
complement of medical students from non-traditional
backgrounds.
It is important, he says, to have more doctors who are from
working-class and ethnic-minority backgrounds, and are prepared to
work in disadvantaged areas.
He became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Luton (later
Bedfordshire) in 2003, and retired this year. His successor is Bill
Rammell, a former Labour higher-education minister, who supported
top-up fees.
WHILE Professor Ebdon's academic success was thoroughly
traditional and science-based, he has suggested that students from
non-traditional backgrounds could be accepted for élite
universities with lower-than-usual grades.
Inevitably, this view has been challenged by opponents who think
that the impetus should start by schools' becoming more demanding
of their students. Or that the return of grammar schools - such as
the one that was his own pathway to Imperial - might better serve
able working-class children.
His answers are clear. "It's easier to get top grades if you're
at Eton than at a comprehensive on a disadvantaged estate. And,
remember, that bringing back grammar schools means the return of
'secondary mods'."
He believes that the more effective, and more ethical, route is
that demanded by his office: the patient, strategic courting of
working-class and ethnic-minority families by the universities
themselves.
He lists the possibilities: bursaries; fee waivers; and taster
courses that give inner-city students an experience of university
life and advanced study. Last summer, he attended a taster course
at Oxford University. "It was wonderful. I wanted to go myself," he
says.
Particularly effective, he suggests, is the influence of
role-models, or student ambassadors: working-class and
ethnic-minority graduates who go back to their old schools to
demonstrate what can be achieved, and encourage others to take the
same opportunities.
Will OFFA succeed? "Between them, universities will be spending
£809 million on access over the next four years. So the answer is
yes, of course."