Last week we published our Annual Report for 2022 – always a good time of year to be looking back and taking stock. This year’s report is my last as Independent Adjudicator and, after 19 years working at the OIA, I’ve been in a more than usually reflective mood.
I became Independent Adjudicator in 2017 – a very different world. Since then we’ve had eight Secretaries of State, five to seven ministers of state (depending on how you count them) with six different titles, the implementation of the Higher Education and Research Act and consequent new regulator and expansion of our membership.
We’ve had the relative calm of only two ministers in Wales and the long passage of the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Act with another new regulator and further expansion of our remit coming soon. We’ve had the significant impact of Black Lives Matter and #MeToo. We’ve had industrial action in the HE and FE sectors and so many other sectors, and the wider impact of the cost of living crisis. We’ve had the closure of GSM and ALRA. And we’ve had the pandemic. It’s been quite a ride.
