Minouche Shafik, the former Columbia University president who resigned earlier this month following criticism of her handling of pro-Palestine protests, is reportedly a contender to replace Simon Case as the head of the Civil Service.
According to ITV’s Robert Peston, the role — which is responsible for 500,000 civil servants — will be advertised formally and there is no suggestion that it will be an inside hire. The outgoing Case, who became the youngest senior civil servant in 100 years when he was appointed by Boris Johnson, has been forced to quit over a neurological condition which impedes his mobility.
Shafik, who was previously deputy governor of the Bank of England and vice president of the World Bank, came under intense scrutiny earlier this year after an appearance in front of the US House of Representatives’ education and workforce committee.
During the hearing, ‘Columbia in Crisis: Columbia University’s Response to Anti-Semitism’, the then-president of the Ivy League university changed her testimony after telling Democratic representative Ilhan Omar that she was not aware of any anti-Jewish demonstrations on campus. Shafik also came under pressure for the institution’s failure to remove an academic who had allegedly referred to Hamas’s 7 October attacks approvingly as a ‘resistance offensive’.
Shafik’s resignation, which was announced only two weeks ago, followed those of Claudine Gay of Harvard University and Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania, who were both ousted over concerns around their inadequate response to campus antisemitism.
In her letter Shafik, a crossbench peer, mentioned that the new Labour ministry had asked her ‘to chair a review of the government’s approach to international development and how to improve capability’. She added: ‘It also enables me to return to the House of Lords to reengage with the important legislative agenda put forth by the new UK government.’
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