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The coincidence that Peter Knight confirmed his impending departure as head of the University of Central England in the same week that news of this vacancy emerged has encouraged some optimistic dreaming.

Some believe that Mr Knight - who has dismissed Hefce as an "obscure acronym" that should be "ignored completely", who has remorselessly criticised its "self-righteous waffle" and attacked its massive research assessment exercise as "more bureaucratic than devising the timetable for India's railways from scratch" - would be the perfect candidate for the top job there.