One of Britain’s leading vice-chancellors of recent years has questioned whether the Office for Students is fit for purpose, claiming it avoids engagement with the institutions it regulates because it fears that “dialogue with the sector will diminish its authority”.
When he gave evidence on 21 March, Sir David Eastwood told a House of Lords select committee, which has begun an inquiry into the role and running of the OfS, that he had doubts about the regulator.
“Are they up to the job? No; they do not currently have the people that they need to engage in these dialogues,” said Sir David, who led the University of Birmingham for 12 years until December 2021.
Sir David, who ran the OfS’ predecessor body the Higher Education Funding Council for England for three years before leading Birmingham, said the lack of regionally based teams made it harder for the OfS to conduct informal conversations with higher-education providers about the impact of regulatory requirements.
