Vice-chancellors found themselves badly in need of leadership as they attempted to make their way across the Warwick University campus from reception room to lecture theatre on the first day of the English funding council's annual conference. Luckily, Diana Warwick, CVCP chief executive, was on hand to take control. A few brisk instructions from her were enough to get the snaking queue of v-cs to take a sharp right - in entirely the wrong direction. Detecting a metaphor for our times perhaps, the higher education leaders were left feeling rather sheepish, in more senses than one.