The Access Platform, UK. David Barnes has joined The Access Platform as Chairman. David is a founding director of Edscencio Limited, which provides specialist debt finance advice to education institutions.  Previously David was a partner at Grant Thornton, the top six accounting practice, where he was Head of Education Practice, working with all types of institutions, from major research universities through to independent schools.  He is currently a trustee of Regent’s University London. In his spare time David is a keen music enthusiast (he has attended the last five Glastonbury festivals), and a keep fit enthusiast, with park runs, long distance cycle touring and skiing being key interests. The Access Platform (TAP) is an online tool which helps universities recruit more students through peer-to-peer conversations and/or User Generated Content, with its features TAP Chat and TAP Content, and it supports communication in any language.