Jo Johnson has swept off the stage leaving behind him a jittery Sector, battered by radical policy changes and media hostility

Universities Minister used to be an easy job, by ministerial standards. Unlike schools, prisons, local government or the health service, the office rarely held much direct power over its sector. The funding councils, combined with a tradition of self-regulation, formed a barrier between ministerial demands and institutional activity.

The job was often given to an up-and-coming backbencher hoping to move on to greater things, though sometimes it was farmed out to a wonkish, technocratic sort; the sort of minister reluctant to appear on newspaper front pages but happy to manage civil servants and behave soberly at the ceremonial openings of new laboratories or lecture theatres.

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from Education | The Guardian http://ift.tt/2CZ55nN