Professor Sir Les Ebdon, who received a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for 'his services to higher education and social mobility', is the former Director of the Office for Fair Access. He stepped down from the role ahead of its merger with the Higher Education Funding Council for England into the Office for Students.



During his tenure, Sir Les had a major impact on encouraging universities to think more carefully about their role in fostering widening participation from under-represented groups - and his achievements have been considerable. Universities now spend more than £800million of their fee income on boosting the number of students from a disadvantaged background embarking on a degree and the participation of these students has been steadily increasing during his time in post.

An award-winning analytical chemist by training, Sir Les secured his PhD from Imperial College in 1971 and went on to lecture at universities including Sheffield City Polytechnic (now Sheffield Hallam University) and Plymouth University, where he rose to deputy vice-chancellor ahead of his move to the newly formed University of Bedfordshire in 2006. He was appointed CBE for his services to higher education in 2008. He is currently the chair of council of University Centre Peterborough, and a governor of the University of East London, Spurgeon’s College and the Inspire Education Group.