UK: Mandelson takes charge of universities

07 June 2009

The British prime minister on Friday scrapped the two-year-old Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, Dius, and awarded all of its responsibilities to a new Department for Business, Innovation and Skills designed to help the UK out of recession, reports Polly Curtis for The Guardian.

The new department, to be headed by Lord Mandelson, puts universities at the heart of the government's business policies, and will be opposed by some academics who believe higher education should be in a department dedicated to education and not commerce.

In a statement, Downing Street said the move would create a "single department committed to building Britain's future economic strengths". It went on: "It also puts the UK's further education system and universities closer to the heart of government thinking about building now for the upturn."
Full report on The Guardian site
See also the Times Higher Education story

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