Sir Michael Barber to step down as Office for Students chair

Sir Michael Barber has announced that he will step down as chair of England’s higher education regulator, the Office for Students, in March 2021.

In a letter to the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, Sir Michael said he would not seek a second term as chair. He was appointed to lead the new watchdog for a four-year term starting in February 2017, ahead of its formal establishment in January 2018, when the organisation replaced the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the Office for Fair Access.

Under Sir Michael and the chief executive, Nicola Dandridge, the OfS has put in place a new registration process for higher education providers in England and has set targets demanding a step change in equality of access to university courses in the country.

However, the regulator has been criticised for adopting what some sector leaders have perceived as an adversarial tone towards universities and for delays in its registration process.

Before Sir Michael steps down, he will undertake a review of the quality of online education delivered by English universities in light of the disruption to on-campus learning caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

In a letter to Mr Williamson, released by the OfS, Sir Michael says the English higher education sector is “not without its challenges” but is on the whole “precious and wonderful”.

“The country should be proud of it,” Sir Michael writes. “As we build our future, it has a huge part to play economically, culturally and socially at every level: local, regional and national.

“Meanwhile, in the global economy, it provides us with an extraordinary comparative advantage, which will be all the more important in the post-Brexit era.”

In his letter, Sir Michael says that the OfS has “challenged excessive pay” among vice-chancellors and that, as a result, salaries are “coming under control and in many cases, especially when vacant posts are advertised, falling”. He also highlights the OfS’ action to combat allegations of grade inflation, misuse of unconditional offers and threats to free speech.

In a reply, Mr Williamson says he is “very sorry” to hear that Sir Michael will be standing down. He goes on to say that he will ask Sir Michael to “consider how providers could continue to enhance the quality of their online delivery for the approaching academic year, so claims of quality can be made with confidence, and also consider what longer-term opportunities there might be for the higher education sector to develop and innovate in relation to the provision of digital and online teaching and learning”.

Prior to his role at the OfS, Sir Michael headed the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit under Tony Blair, and he also served as chief education adviser at Pearson and as head of the global education practice at McKinsey.

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com