The Dame loves an academic spat…
On one side is a renowned educationalist, Professor James Tooley; on the other an ex-director of the Vegetarian Society of Great Britain who favours huge black square glasses and modish haircuts…not so very University of Buckingham!
Step forward Liverpudlian tecchie, Mark StJohn Qulater. Qualter is chair of the University of Buckingham’s governing body.
How he got the job is a mystery. He describes himself as a merchant banker but none of the Dame’s City titan friends know of him. His company, Control Now Ltd, seems to be run from serviced offices in Convent Garden….nothing wrong with that the Dame supposes but…..
Here’s the odd thing: this University is libertarian, anti-woke and very much a child of Thatcher thinking. Qualter is a bit of a New Statesmen reading, sandal-wearing bore…..hardly the most suitable leader of this radical right uni. More to the point, his CV tends to ‘glisten’ and seems not the stuff of senior academic leadership: much more suited, say, to the Uni of Lyme Regis IT faculty.
Could there have been a clash of cultures between the highly liked and well-regarded prof and the seriously boring Qualter?
Qualter’s precipitate actions are now the subject of a high-level investigation. Qualter has much explaining to do….
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