WITH the unwavering confidence that has taken him to the top of the world’s most daunting peaks, David Hopkins looks forward to his latest challenge as the new director of the Standards and Effectiveness Unit.

He will no doubt be relying on his mountaineering skills of perseverance, endurance and dealing with unexpected hazards when he takes up the post at the Department for Education and Skills next month.

Hopkins is also adept at raising educational standards. Michael Barber, his predecessor, said: “He can take an educational service which has made it on to the higher ridges to the summit. That is the next step and that is what he will do.”

Another observer is not so impressed with the St Bernard of the schools system. “It is not quite true that when people heard that he had saved Chris Woodhead from falling off a cliff they never spoke to him again. But he probably is best known as The Man Who Saved Woodhead’s Life - to the dismay of the nation’s teachers.”

It was in 1996 that Hopkins hauled his friend from the clutches of death while climbing with the former chief inspector in Cornwall.

Currently professor of education at Nottingham University, David Hopkins, 52, believes he was given the job because: “I have a reputation for school improvement. I have worked a lot with schools and local authorities and understand what needs to be done to transfer policy into practice.”

In his new role in charge of the 350 staff of the SEU, Professor Hopkins will be directly responsible for school standards and improvement and for the Government’s diversity agenda.

His achievements include turning around the failing LEA in Leicester, where he is chair of the city partnership board, and bringing the National College for School Leadership to Nottingham, where he is on the governing council.

One of two children of an accountant who came from mining stock, he was brought up in Cardiff where he attended Marlborough Road primary and Howardian high school. He read politics at Reading University before becoming an Outward Bound instructor and a school teacher. Before arriving in Nottingham in 1996 he was a tutor at the University of Cambridge Institute of Education for 10 years.

Professor Hopkins combines ambition with a deep commitment to improving educational standards. He pioneered the introduction into British schools of the American Success for All reading scheme. His colleagues have nothing but praise for his working style and contribution to the job.

Steven Andrews, director of Leicester education authority and another man saved on a mountainside by Professor Hopkins, said: “He is a very open person, who is always available and he is very responsive to ideas. He has a huge understanding of what works educationally and brings immense enthusiasm to his work.”

Heather Du Quesnay, director and chief executive of the National College for School Leadership, said: ‘He is incredibly passionate about all he does, very focused. You can say what you think to him. We have had the odd row but he doesn’t bear grudges.”

David Jackson, also of the NCFL, said: “He can translate theory into practice in a way that makes a difference to schools. He is a very genuine guy who is driven by moral purpose and puts student learning at the forefront of all he does.”

Professor Hopkins has no reservations about leaving academic life for the civil service, nor does he mind that from now on he can only utter the Labour Government line. He said: “My educational values are sympathetic to the Government’s and I want to help implement policy.”

He and his Dutch wife, Marloes, are also looking forward to taking full advantage of state education for their three children when he moves to London. While his younger two, Jessica aged 10, and Dylan, nine, are at Hempshill Hall state primary school in Bullwell, Nottingham, his 13-year-old son Jeroen, who is dyslexic, has been attending pound;9,000-a-year Trent College because “it did not prove possible to find a state school to meet his needs when he moved up at 11”.

Observers look forward to seeing how Hopkins will build on his predecessor’s legacy at the SEU. Quite a different personality from Michael Barber who fizzed with ideas, Hopkins is regarded as a talented implementor, excellent at time management, who will deliver reliably the existing policy.

CV DAVID HOPKINS

1949 - born on January 30, Cardiff.

1980 - PhD in organisational change in faculties of education, Simon Fraser University in Canada.

1986-1996 - tutor at Cambridge Institute of Education.

1996-2002 - professor of education, University of Nottingham.

1996-2000 - chair of school of education, Nottingham.

1996-2002 - chair of Success For All literacy programme in England.

1997-2002 - chair of British Mountain Guides professional standards committee.

1998-2001 - dean of faculty of education, Nottingham.

1999-2002 - chair of Leicester City Partnership Board.

2000-01 - on governing council of the National College for School Leadership.

Feb 2002 - director of Standards and Effectiveness Unit at DFES.