1The recruitment process
Background
1.The Office for Students (OfS) is a new public body, formed to regulate the higher education market. Its creation is subject to the passing of the Higher Education and Research Bill 2016.
2.According to the May 2016 White Paper, Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, the OfS will be formed by a merger between the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Office for Fair Access (OFFA).1 The paper proposes that the OfS will be in operation for the 2018/19 academic year as a non-departmental public body:
We will establish a new market regulator, the Office for Students (OfS) that operates on behalf of students and tax payers to support a competitive environment and promote choice, quality and value for money. In doing so we will put students at the heart of how higher education is regulated. The OfS will be explicitly pro-student choice, a champion of transparency, and will make sure that a high quality higher education experience is available for students from all backgrounds.2
3.The Higher Education and Research Bill was presented on 19 May 2016. The Bill implements the legislative proposals of the White Paper. It comprises four parts, the first of which establishes the OfS as a new body and includes details on its structure and its general duties. It also creates a new single entry system for all HE providers.
4.On 19 October 2016, the Secretary of State for Education, Rt Hon Justine Greening MP, wrote to the Chair to inform him of the creation of the OfS. The Secretary of State explained that in order for the organisation to be ready to carry out its duties in 2018, the Government wished to recruit some of the key leadership posts in parallel to the passage of the Bill. The letter included the recruitment pack for the Chair of the OfS and invited us to undertake a pre-appointment hearing.
5.The role was advertised from 27 October 2016 via press release and was advertised on the Cabinet Office Centre for Public Appointments website and the websites of the Guardian, the Economist and Times Higher Education. The advert also appeared in print in the Guardian, the Economist and the Times Higher Education.
6.The selection panel was chaired by Olivia Grant (Public Appointments Assessor) and comprised Ruth Hannant (Director of Higher Education Reform, Department for Education), Nicola Dandridge (Chief Executive of Universities UK), Lord David Currie (Chair of the Competition and Markets Authority) and Neil Carberry (Director for People and Skills at the CBI).
7.On 22 November the deadline for applications was extended to 1 December and the Chair subsequently agreed to accept two late applications from candidates.
8.Thirty-nine applications for the post were received, from which ten candidates were shortlisted for interview. Subsequently, one candidate withdrew ahead of interview. Nine candidates were interviewed on 11 and 12 January 2017. The panel recommended four appointable candidates. Jo Johnson, Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation, met with each of the appointable candidates and the name of the preferred candidate was passed to the Prime Minister’s office.
9.Sir Michael Barber was announced as the Government’s preferred candidate on 7 February 2017.
1 Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, Success as a Knowledge Economy: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice, May 2016, p 15
22 February 2017