THE principal of York St John College is to begin a new role promoting the values of higher education in the UK.

Professor Dianne Willcocks has been elected as the next chairman of The Standing Conference of Principals (SCOP), a position she will hold from November this year to 2005.

Professor Willcocks has served as a member of the SCOP Council of Management since 1999.

SCOP is the representative body for the colleges and institutes of higher education in England and Northern Ireland.

As the figurehead of this organisation, Professor Willcocks will be promoting the values of higher education colleges and institutes in the UK to influential figures in Government.

She will be putting the case for higher education colleges and institutes forward to ministers and decision makers, as the voice of the colleges on all important policy issues.

Professor Willcocks said her major commitment was to promote higher education that engaged with the needs of modern communities for social, cultural and economic wellbeing.

She said: "I am delighted to be taking over as chair of SCOP at such an exciting and strategically- important time for Higher Education Colleges.

"HE colleges have a distinctive role to play in the post-White Paper world and I look forward to working with colleagues to secure success for an increasingly diverse student body, building on the acclaim received from the Secretary of State for our work in teaching and widening participation."

Professor Willcocks serves on a number of regional boards and committees, including the York Diocesan Board of Education, the Advisory Board member of the Joseph Rowntree Continuing Care Retirement Community Scheme and the Board of Higher York.

Professor Willcocks, who servedon the Yorkshire Arts Board for six years, is on the Board of the Yorkshire Film Archive, the York Leisure Partnership and the York Museums Trust. She has recently been appointed the chairman of the York Theatre Royal Trust.

Nationally, she is a trustee of the Higher Education Staff Development Agency; a member of the Academic Advisory Board for the NHSU and a member of the HEFCE Widening Participation Strategy Committee.

Updated: 08:36 Friday, August 08, 2003