Producer capture

Nicola Dandridge, chief executive of the vice-chancellors' lobby group Universities UK, is to head the Office for Students.

Today’s papers

Ms Dandridge, a former lawyer who previously led the Equality Challenge Unit, will become the chief executive of the Office for Students in September. We have a profile of the woman who will lead the successor body to the Higher Education Funding Council for England. Hints that Ms Dandridge was the successful candidate included the choice made by Sir Michael Barber, who chairs the Office for Students, to deliver his inaugural address to vice-chancellors at Universities UK’s base in Tavistock Square on 23 June. No students were present. The decision to appoint an insider risks a backlash from a future, potentially hostile administration. Meanwhile Universities UK says it will have a new leader by September. Such a tight time frame suggests the appointment of an internal candidate: surely the charming and talented Alistair Jarvis is a shoo-in.