Imagine the thought processes that lead to the decision to hold a board meeting on election day.
Thankfully it was by Teams, but the number of things that were deferred until after the pre-election period, and the scant two-and-a-bit months since the previous meeting, make for the dullest OfS board meeting, and thus the dullest set of papers on record. And that is a very low bar.
That’s not to say there wasn’t a lot going on. The fact of the election itself – and the likely foreknowledge of the content of the Behan review, must have generated a frisson of excitement. James Wharton quite possibly already knew he was on the way out – did he depart in a blaze of burn-it-all-down glory, or slip quietly out of the back door? And it must have put a rocket under talk about what we euphemistically call “sector engagement” but could now more clearly characterise as “stop it! Just stop it! You’re hurting them”.
The role of the board secretary is to ensure that no drama, and little interest, escapes the supermassive black hole of the OfS body corporate and in the main these papers represent a success. Here are a few morsels that escaped the vortex.
2 Report from the Remuneration and Nominations Committee
After the traditional Chair’s welcome (James Wharton’s swansong, and it is a genuine shame we don’t get any information about it) we get the important stuff about how much everyone gets paid. As you might expect this is exempt from publication, but we do get some data on this in the annual report and accounts.
3 Minutes of the meeting of 23 May 2024
Wonkhe has already covered the papers from this meeting, or those that we were graciously allowed to see, on the data of publication at the end of July.
There’s a little more on Wharton’s final grand tour – he got to the Committee of University Chairs, NUS, up to DfE (literally upstairs in the Sanctuary Buildings) for what must have been a hell of a quarterly performance review, a chat with (checks notes) Gillian Keegan about anti-semitism, a conversation with a gentleman named Luke Hall who was apparently minister of state at the time, a cuppa with new Ofqual chair Frances Wadsworth, and on provider visits to what was then St George’s University of London, and to University College Birmingham (I hear great things about the catering).
Susan Lapworth felt that the report on the financial sustainability of higher education “landed well” in the sector and the press. Responding to the previous day’s announcement of the general election – she said that some work would need to be paused and the board would be updated. I’m sure there was more to the conversation than that. I mean, I had a better conversation than that about the election the day after it was called, and I was sat round a pool in Andalucia with Lisa Stansfield’s horn section.
There was what seems to have been a good debate about Data Futures (I tried… the conversation had moved on to breath control for saxophonists) – the OfS board asked for “detailed information” about the independent review. The comment that sticks with me here is “the review will be extremely important for relations with the sector and will establish whether the product is fit for purpose”. Quite. There’s a report on the review that came to the 4 July meeting – as you’d expect we don’t get to see it.
OfS apparently had “emerging thinking on defining the student interest” – I think we’re all looking forward to hearing about that in the forthcoming strategy. On the OfS business plan we learn that the “data transformation programme” will “help solve technical issues and also drive efficiency and effectiveness” – which is nice.
The restricted item 16 “assessing financial stability” was a chat with three OfS executives, that repeats the usual stuff about provider forecasts being over-optimistic. The board was keen to emphasise that this is an interpretation of the sector’s forecasts on aggregate forecast, and was keen that providers tailor actions to their specific circumstances – which were acknowledged to “vary enormously across the sector”. We learn that work has started on strengthening the management and governance (E) initial conditions, in recognition that strong governance needs to be a prerequisite for sector entrants.
4 Chief executive’s report
Is everything alright with Susan Lapworth? I ask because this is the shortest chief executive’s report on record – weighing in at just four pages. The official reason is that it is shorter because of the short gap between board meetings and the pre-election period, but there was still clearly a lot to discuss.
At this moment OfS was poised to publish the first set of 10 B3 student outcomes cases and associated regulatory actions, the final two quality assessment reports on business and computing, and some sector-spanning engagement and communications about the wider findings from this work. There was also progress towards decisions about regulatory findings and action for five of the previously published quality assessments, which were likely to include decisions relating to validating universities involved in partnership arrangements. There was no information provided about the three ongoing investigations into academic standards, or the investigation into partnership activity at Leeds Trinity University.
On freedom of speech we hear that there were about 130 responses to the third consultation on freedom of speech, and that OfS was on track to deliver responses and decisions ahead of the launch of the scheme on 1 August – the board got a briefing later in July, which probably didn’t run entirely as OfS had expected when they announced it here. There was no information provided about the University of Sussex investigation.
The harassment consultation response was ready to go after the pre-election period, as was the pilot prevalence survey. Pre-election restrictions also get the blame for limited engagement with the student mental health charter.
The national trading standards reports were also locked and loaded at this point.
On finances, there’s every indication OfS are expecting a very difficult year for the sector – and the £1.5m that DfE has allocated OfS will be spent on consultancy support for assessing financial risk.
Annex A, the regular OfS communications review, is exempt from publication due to reasons of copyright.
5 Jisc’s Data Futures Programme
This covered the independent review, and an update on preparations for the data return due for submission in autumn 2024. It is somehow exempt from publication due to commercial sensitivities.
6 Draft OfS strategy
An update on the development of the next OfS strategy including a draft strategy document. And you know you’re not going to get to see a draft strategy document, until the consultation, right?
7 Risk report
The latest report on the current strategic and principal (high) corporate (OfS) risks. Generally turns up in the annual report, so are not published here.
8 Review of strategic risks, risk appetite and tolerance
The board considered a draft set of revised strategic risks for the board to consider. The outcomes might turn up in the next annual report.
9 OfS people update
Annual data about the OfS workforce and a summary of the people survey results – we do get bits of this in the annual report too, but this paper is exempt from publication.
10 Student panel update
The board heard an oral update on the June meeting of the student panel. A written report will be shared with the October board papers. This will mark the first published insight into the panel’s activity since March.
11 Finance report
An update on the financial position of the OfS at the end of period two (31 May 2024). Again, this will turn up, after a fashion, in the annual report.
12 Report from the Quality Assessment Committee
A report summarising the April committee meeting. The committee saw a timetable of upcoming degree awarding powers activity, and chose the moment to discuss the first cases
13 Report from the Risk and Audit Committee
A report summarising the June committee meeting. Some actual news! OfS is moving, at some point in the future, from Whitehall to Canary Wharf (in the spirit of driving efficiency in regulation, we know of an office suite with excellent carpets that may be available).
You’ll be glad to hear OfS got the thumbs up, risk-wise, from the head of internal audit. There was a bit of a kerfuffle as to whether OfS could or should submit accounts to the Comptroller and Auditor General during the election period.
The committee had a chat about Data Futures, saw a report on cyber security, an annual update on counter fraud, and on environmental sustainability.
14-16 Restricted items
Not for the likes of us.
