David Young, deputy chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, is to succeed Sir Michael Checkland as chairman of the Higher Education Funding Council for England from October 2001. Oxford-educated Mr Young is a former civil servant in the Ministry of Defence and a council member and treasurer of the Open University. Richard Coldwell, consultant to National Grid plc and a former chair of governors at the University of North London, and Peter Scott, vice-chancellor of Kingston University and a former editor of The THES , have been appointed board members.