Dark horse with a hint of blue

The final three contenders for the Hefce top job are still widely believed to be Ivor Crewe, chief executive of Universities UK; David Eastwood, vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia; and David Watson, former vice-chancellor of Brighton University. But there is a dark horse on the horizon. Rumour has it that Roger McClure, the Scottish funding councils chief executive, may be a runner. If this is true, one wonders whether a proposal to move his office from Edinburgh to a still unidentified outpost suddenly made the new job more appealing.