OfS board papers join the web 2.0 revolution

At last! The Office for Students is using the latest in social media technology to bring us an unparalleled insight into what actually happens in an OfS Board meeting.

Recently minted OfS chair Edward Peck has produced what I understand young people would describe as a “video weblog” (or “vlog”) on popular Google-owned video sharing site “YouTube”.

In the past we’ve had to struggle with the likes of me reading through increasingly sparse board papers and pulling out the interesting nuggets, but this clearly pales into insignificance when we hear from the actual chair. It’s almost enough to make me forget that of three available meetings (9 June, 17 July, 8 October) we are treated to five papers from each – generally minutes, reports from the chief executive and chair, summaries of recent sector news (think of it like the Wonkhe Daily Briefing, but late), and the unmissable committee summaries.

The avid reader knows, of course, that the big important decisions made by the OfS will never find their way into the public realm in this way – but there are (as always) a few interesting points of note.

The minutes from 17 July are interesting – this was the point at which the board (and the student interest board, which met immediately before) discussed proposals for OfS’ new approach to quality. Both boards emphasised the importance of early and proactive engagement with students on quality assurance – something which has not hitherto been a feature of OfS work in this area. The students were also exercised about declining response rates for the graduate outcomes survey – though at substantially upwards of 40 per cent the survey compares well with other official statistics around employment.

The main board raised interesting questions around the tension between the focus on student outcomes and the development of the lifelong learning entitlement and linked short courses aimed at mature learners. There was also discussion around the importance of adequate governance for quality and standards related concerns, to the extent that a paper was brought to the October meeting – all we know from this is that OfS is developing a policy in this area, with a letter to providers this autumn and a consultation in 2026.

And if you read right through to the QAC report – you’d find that there will be an evaluation of the OfS’ approach to quality assurance. No details as of yet.

Fans of the evolution of England’s higher education regulator into a moderately sized firm of lawyers will be interested to note that a General Counsel has been appointed and started work in September.

And what of financial instability? Well, “project pine” is under discussion by the Provider Risk Committee – we’re not told what it entails but from the name I would assume that it is based on speedy growth but rather lightweight and prone to splitting without proper treatment. And the board warned that:

if tuition fees for UK students rise in line with inflation for the rest of the Parliament, there would be a positive impact which could make a meaningful improvement in some providers’ financial positions. However, this would not in itself resolve financial risk for all providers.”

We couldn’t read board papers without an eye on Data Futures – here the board was told that annual data collection is on track, but the Risk and Audit Committee is “less confident than it reported at the previous board meeting in Jisc’s ability to deliver in-year data collection to agreed timescales” and that the OfS’s increased technical capability is helping it reduce data burden.