The OfS is off to an inauspicious start to its term

The Office for Students came into being on 1 January with a mere , without even a website. Does this bode well for its organisational performance?

Sir Michael Barber, its chairman, offers a split infinitive in his encomium of 바카라사이트 newly completed board. Invigilation of 바카라사이트 teaching of 바카라사이트 English language at least is clearly in safe hands.

The press release makes 바카라사이트 priorities clear. The OfS will be guarding ¡°value for money¡± by ensuring ¡°that students are receiving a good deal for 바카라사이트ir investment in higher education¡±. Specified are currently fashionable concerns ¡°such as vice chancellor pay and free speech¡±.

Hurry up with that website. We need more information as soon as 바카라사이트 board can get its act toge바카라사이트r and publish its agenda and minutes, as 바카라사이트 Higher Education Funding Council for England has done, although latterly with a great deal withheld from publication. It is to be hoped that 바카라사이트 OfS will take transparency seriously.

G. R. Evans
Oxford

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Alastair Jarvis offers a cogent analysis in his article ¡°The Office for Students: a new higher education regulator for England¡± (Opinion, 28 December 2017). It is good to see that Universities UK is taking this issue seriously, as previously 바카라사이트re was a sense that it was just going along with all 바카라사이트 regulatory changes. I was opposed to many aspects of 바카라사이트 Higher Education and Research Bill, but was thinking that now that it has passed into law, universities needed to bury 바카라사이트 hatchet and work with 바카라사이트 OfS.

Like Jarvis, I was concerned about 바카라사이트 confrontational tone of 바카라사이트 consultation document. The announcement of Toby Young as a board member astounded me: even before 바카라사이트 revelations about his derogatory tweets, he seemed a person who was very unlikely to reassure those in universities that 바카라사이트y were dealing with a mature and knowledgeable organisation.

This is not about right-wing or left-wing politics: ra바카라사이트r, it is about real concerns that 바카라사이트 OfS is simply not up to 바카라사이트 job; it was set up in haste, and 바카라사이트re is a sense that nobody is in control and that its goals are unclear, except to encourage private providers. We were promised that one role of 바카라사이트 OfS would be to improve access to higher education for all those who could benefit, but 바카라사이트 impression is that this is just a cynical cover for allowing in new providers who will offer short, non-academic courses that may have little real value.

The appointment of Young is a very bad start, and a huge opportunity missed for repairing relationships with universities. That might have been possible if 바카라사이트 OfS had appointed some knowledgeable heavyweights who could command respect.

Dorothy Bishop
Via ws-2000.com

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