Mr Invisible's silent entry

He has stepped silently into Eric Forth's shoes to handle a brief which takes in many education and training issues for the over-16s. To the academic community Lord Henley, the new higher education minister, is so little known and so rarely seen that he might easily be dubbed "the invisible man".

His low-profile style is in marked contrast to Mr Forth, who passed on to him responsibility for higher education and students in an unannounced switch at the Department for Education and Employment.

Lord Henley continues to be responsible for examinations and qualifications, including National Vocational Qualifications and General NVQs, disability, information technology, special educational needs and the European Union.

His previous positions as under secretary of state in the Departments of Social Security, Employment and Defence, brought little contact with academia. And he is bound to maintain a passive role in higher education until after the General Election and the outcome of Sir Ron Dearing's committee of inquity in summer 1997.

Mr Forth will not move entirely out of the higher education arena, as he now takes on teacher training and teacher supply. He also has responsibility for grant-maintained schools policy, to become the lead minister on the next Education Bill which deals largely with that area. He will cover truancy and discipline in schools, and retains his employment policy brief.

As higher education minister, Mr Forth won a reputation for pulling no punches. Shortly after his appointment to the DFEE last year, he was questioning the need for further growth in higher education. In an interview with The THES at last year's Conservative Party conference, he suggested continued expansion might threaten quality.

Along with an image as the DFEE's "Mr Angry", Mr Forth may be remembered as the minister who kicked the Government's plans for privatisation of student loans into touch.