John Blake's four-year term as the Director for Fair Access and Participation at the Office for Students (OfS) ends this year. The Secretary of State will be appointing an interim Director for Fair Access and Participation while an open and fair recruitment to the role takes place.
John Blake said:
‘It has been an enormous honour to serve as Director for Fair Access and Participation at the Office for Students. When I took up the role, I was charged with reforming OfS’s system of access and participation plans. Now that all-new plans are in place across the sector, and with the government recently setting out its plans in its Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper that they will build on this by introducing a risk-based equality regulation system subject to parliamentary time, and seek to address barriers around postgraduate access and success, I feel that it is the right time for me to move on to a new challenge. Therefore, I have decided not to seek a second term as Director for Fair Access and Participation.
‘Over the past four years, I have been both privileged and proud to have worked alongside my OfS colleagues, equality professionals across the higher education sector and in the third sector, and students themselves on a range of projects, including reforming OfS’s regulation of equality of opportunity, building a new system founded on the Equality of Opportunity Risk Register; delivering the first English-wide prevalence survey of sexual misconduct in HE; and rebuilding the OfS’s student engagement systems with new, more powerful insight work and founding a new Student Interest Board.
‘When I joined OfS, I said my priority for access and participation plans was “evaluation, evaluation, evaluation”. The recently-published OfS evaluation of our reforms showed we have seen a definite increase in scale and nature of evaluation work by higher education providers, which will continue to drive a positive culture of learning and improvement in the sector. I am delighted to see that evidence of the impact of our reforms, but also proud that the OfS has been willing to undertake and publish such a clear-eyed and thorough-going evaluation of our ongoing work.
‘I’ll be sharing more about my future soon, but for now, I would like to say thank you to everyone who has supported, engaged with, and challenged me in this role. It is your passion and commitment to changing lives and enriching society through open and outstanding higher education that has made this job such a joy.’
Susan Lapworth, chief executive of the OfS, said:
‘John has been a great colleague during his term as Director for Fair Access and Participation and has contributed significantly to the sector’s important work to extend opportunity for students from all backgrounds. His focus on driving improvement in evaluation, in particular, will leave a legacy of evidence that will benefit students and the sector for years to come. We wish him well as he embarks on the next steps in his career.’
Skills Minister Jacqui Smith said:
‘I would like to thank John Blake for his dedicated service to the Office for Students over the last four years. His commitment to supporting the most disadvantaged students reach their potential has been evident throughout his tenure as Director for Fair Access and Participation.
‘His work has helped to ensure that students from all backgrounds have the opportunity to access and succeed in university, something which is at the heart of the reforms we recently announced. I wish him every success in his future endeavours.
‘We will be appointing an interim Director for Fair Access and Participation while an open and fair recruitment to the role takes place.’