First among equals

Mutual regard appears to be crossing the old binary divide in some profusion among the membership of the Association of Business Schools.

At merger time a year or two back, one or two of the more nervous old universities feared that the old polytechnic sector comfortably the majority of members would rapidly monopolise the organisation. But, following the first post-merger executive elections, ABS has an old university chairman -- David Weir of Bradford -- and eight old university types out of a total of 12 executive members, although the poll was topped by Ian Beardwell of De Montfort University.