Prof Les Ebdon CBE DL is to become Director of Fair Access to higher education.

It has been remarked that Ebdon, throughout his 44 years in higher education, and in particular his period as a vice chancellor, has developed an impressive record in improving access among lower socio-economic groups, from neighbourhoods with low rates of participation, and from black and minority ethnic groups.

Prof Ebdon  is currently the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire. He attended Hemel Hempstead Grammar School (became The Hemel Hempstead School in 1970). Ebdon obtained both his BSc in Chemistry in 1968 and PhD in 1971 at Imperial College London. Ebdon was appointed Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Luton in 2003, replacing Dai John. With the merger of the University and De Montfort’s Bedford campus in 2006 he became the Vice Chancellor of the new University of Bedfordshire. In August 2009 Ebdon, via the think tank “Million Plus”, made the controversial suggestion that students from less wealthy families be allowed entrance to universities based on lower grades.

BPP University College offers a unique opportunity for widening access to higher education. Like the new University of Luton and Bedfordshire, students want a high-quality professional education, and I am proud to be a student at a place which encourages excellence which is recognised by a plethora of employers. Recently, the Guardian newspaper observed the following.

With shrewd timing, as Scottish universities prepare to charge £9,000 a year to non-Scottish UK students from 2012, BPP University College – the UK’s only for-profit private provider with degree awarding powers – has announced it will set fees at £5,000 a year for its three-year programmes, and £6,000 a year for two-year programmes.

The announcement wasn’t only significant for the contrast with the Scottish universities, but more pertinently because it has deliberately moved to undercut all English universities with the exception of the Open University, which has set its fees at £5,000 for 120 credits (equivalent to a full year of study in a traditional university).

So with BPP aggressively positioning itself to undercut mainstream provision, and with a confident pitch of career-focused courses to deliver on the employability agenda, the foundations are surely set for an aggressive growth strategy to start snapping up increasing numbers of undergraduate students.

Whatever the official statement of BPP is regarding this appointment, which I have nothing to do with, my fellow students at BPP work very hard, and many of us will support the idea of people succeeding irrespective of whether or not they have gone to a ‘prestige’ university at some time in their life. That Les Ebdon has a proven track record in this impresses me. I am also mindful of fair access to education is vital in the wider context of fair access to the legal profession, which many of us have a vested interest in.

The quotation is from an article which first appeared in the Guardian here written by Aaron Porter on 8 September 2010, entitled “First or fail: BPP University College and Edinburgh University fees”. Shibley, the author, is the President of the BPP Legal Awareness Society, a Society run by BPP students for BPP students, to promote the importance of law and regulation to corporate strategy.