On his first full day as Britain’s prime minister, Gordon Brown announced a major reorganization of the government, including the creation of a new Department of Innovation, Universities, and Skills. The department will assume responsibility for the development, financing, and performance of higher education from the Department of Education and Skills, which will be disbanded. It will also take charge of promoting science, research, and innovation from the Department of Trade and Industry, which will be eliminated.

Universities UK, a group representing vice chancellors, welcomed the changes in a statement, saying that the new department “creates an extremely powerful ministry and clearly shows the central place that higher education holds in Mr. Brown’s vision for the future of the country.”

The general secretary of Britain’s main faculty union, the University and College Union, said in a written statement that the group was looking forward to meeting with the new department’s minister as soon as possible “to establish exactly what his new role will involve and to detail the key issues we feel he will need to get to grips with.”

Britain’s main student union, the National Union of Students, noted that the new minister, John Denham, is himself a former student-union president. In its statement the student group said that, as the country approaches a review of how higher education is financed, it hoped the new minister would “remember the importance of student representation and consultation at every stage of this review.” —Aisha Labi