A beginner's guide to Tim Oates CBE

Where does he work?

Tim Oates is Group Director of Assessment Research & Development at Cambridge Assessment, which operates and manages three exam boards and undertakes research on assessment in education. His role involves leading a 40+ research group which focuses on national and international research on assessment and measurement.

Quick facts:

What's his background?

Oates studied at the University of Sussex, graduating with a first in Philosophy with Literature in 1979 and an MA in Philosophy two years later. He became an educational researcher after helping out on a project while still a postgraduate student.

Beginning his career as a Research Officer at the University of Surrey he moved to the Further Education Staff College in 1987 where he helped run the work-based learning project. Following a stint as NCVQ Research Fellow at UCL Institute of Education he joined the National Council for Vocational Qualifications, initially as Head of GNQ Research and Development and culminating as Director of Research.He left to join QCA as Head of Research in 1997 and in 2006 took on his current role at Cambridge Assessment.

Oates is a Fellow of Churchill College Cambridge. He was awarded CBE in the Queen's 2015 New Year Honours list for services to education and in December 2017 was the recipient of Education Investor magazine's 'Outstanding contribution by an individual' award. 

On secondment between 2010 and 2012, during Michael Gove's tenure as Secretary of State for Education, Oates led the review of the National Curriculum in England.Speaking to Schools Week about this and other work he has done for governments, Oates said:

"Because I've done work for governments of all complexions, people have tried to pigeonhole me as being unduly supportive of Conservative interests or unduly supportive of left-wing interests and that's just naïve. What we are really interested in at Cambridge is evidence about education and that's what drives me and the institution. So crude political labelling just does not get it right." 

What does he research?

What he says:

"Deep knowledge and a rewarding life – they are intimately connected. It is only people who have blinkers who set those two things in opposition – and it's an entirely false opposition."

On CFEE Research re the links between Collaboration and Schools Reform (2015): 

"All too frequently, policy elements which should form part of a complex, interconnected set of actions and objectives take on a life of their own. They become ends in themselves – something to be achieved at all cost. 'School "collaboration" has all the hallmarks of entering a phase of mutation into an 'end in itself'. This sophisticated review is a vital corrective to 'collaboration' as a sloganistic pre-occupation divorced from the moral and technical aims which should lie at the heart of modern improvement strategy".

What others say:

Why you should consider reading more:

Oates is considered a leading expert on curriculum design, development and assessment and continues to advise Government on the development and implementation of the National Curriculum and allied policy. He also has an extensive knowledge of how other high performing jurisdictions structure their curricula.

Top reads:

Other info and coverage:

Tim Oates and others give evidence to the Education Committee re Primary Assessment (Parliament TV – 18 January 2017)

The future of assessment (Evidence Based Education – 1 September 2017)

Top adviser calls for rethink over 'really demanding' grammar test for 11-year-olds (TES – 30 August 2016)

Why ditching textbooks would be to the detriment of learning (TES – 18 April 2016)

Profile interview (Schools Week – 9 June 2015)

Assessment without levels in depth (Cambridge Assessment: Video – 31 October 2014)