Les Ebdon, the new Director of the Office for Fair Access, faced a campaign of vilification from the press. Ebdon, a prize-winning chemist who was, until recently, Vice Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire and Chair of the new universities group Million+, was called, among other things, a "social engineer," a "friend of the Mickey Mouse degree" and "the man who wants to dumb down Britain's universities" Ebdon tells the author that he was completely surprised by the reaction of his appointment and it is clear the outpouring of hostility, much of it highly personal, still rankles. Ebdon thought that it was unfair to attack his former institution, and it was particularly painful that his family was paraded in the press. Ebdon tells the author that the major objection seemed to be that, if he got the job, he might actually do it. Ebdon shares that despite the attack, it only intensified his desire to do the job and to make higher education accessible to all who might benefit from it.