The OfS has made a ‘critical friend’ in its Provider Panel – and its diversity will be its biggest strength

If I had to characterise the English higher education in one word, it would be “diverse”.

There are more than 400 institutions registered with the OfS, all coming in very different sizes and with different subject mixes, student characteristics, and business models – and that’s just the regulated sector. With the Department for Education’s (DfE) announcement that franchised providers with more than 300 students will be required to register with the OfS, we can expect an influx of smaller, specialist providers and colleges entering the fray.

That diversity is good for student choice, the breadth and quality of research, and local communities. It also means the OfS has a challenging job to do as it strives to understand the perspectives of a range of institutions, all with their own distinct missions, priorities, and challenges. After all, the priorities of a Russell Group university are likely to be quite different to those of my former institution, Leicester College.  

As an OfS board member and a former principal, I know the OfS has been working hard in recent years to do exactly this. Most recently, we made a commitment to collaborate more closely with the sector in our new strategy, acknowledging that a strong relationship with institutions is key to being an effective regulator.

Today, the OfS is putting those words into action with the launch of our new Provider Panel, which I am delighted to be joining as its chair. It brings together 11 senior leaders of higher education institutions around the country to help shape current and future regulation and act as a “critical friend”.

As well as providing useful advice on the risks and opportunities facing the sector and assisting the OfS’s thinking on policy development, we hope the panel’s expert members will help us to better understand how current and future regulation might affect different types of university and college. We’ll be discussing a range of topics, which might include things like governance reform, AI regulation, minimising data burden, the development of a future integrated quality system, registration processes, and financial sustainability.

In my view, the biggest strength of this panel is the different perspectives its members will be able to share with the OfS. We have leaders from large research-intensive universities, registered and unregistered institutions, further education colleges, and specialist creative institutions – all ready to bring their views to the table.  

A critical friend is someone you trust to provide honest, constructive feedback and ask challenging questions that help you improve, and that’s exactly what the Provider Panel will be for the OfS. My role will be to facilitate that relationship and I can’t wait to get started.