OfS ‘hasn’t got everything right’ but has ‘done a decent job’

The Office for Students “hasn’t always got everything right” but has “done a decent job in difficult circumstances” and there have been no “inappropriate” conversations with ministers, its chief executive has insisted.

Susan Lapworth also said that a continuation of the current financial environment will make things “exceptionally difficult” for an increasing number of institutions, when she spoke at the Higher Education Policy Institute’s annual conference.

Interviewing Ms Lapworth, Hepi director Nick Hillman asked her about criticisms from the sector of a perceived failure by the OfS to maintain independence from government.

He quoted a comment from Universities UK chief executive Vivienne Stern, who, in a Times Higher Education article, described the OfS, set up five years ago, as “a bit of a teenage regulator, occasionally rude and a lot of hard work, but also being leaned on really hard by its parent”.

Ms Lapworth said that “during that start-up phase we learned a lot. I think it’s true we haven’t always got everything right – and I guess that’s not surprising given the context. There are certainly things I would do differently if I went back and did the whole thing again.

“But I think we’ve done a decent job in quite difficult circumstances.”

The OfS started life during a time of acute political instability, had to create a new regulatory framework and then respond to sector turmoil in the pandemic.

Ms Lapworth continued: “The dynamic with government and ministers and the way it’s talked about doesn’t reflect my experience of those conversations in practice. Of course, we talk to ministers periodically – it’s really important we understand their priorities and where they are coming from – and that they understand our priorities.”

She continued: “But not once have I had an inappropriate conversation with a minister who wanted us to do something or not do something and was crossing the line. So, I’m confident that in practice we’re behaving entirely appropriately and as folk would expect us to.”

Mr Hillman noted that the OfS will shortly move its London offices into the Sanctuary Buildings – part of the Department for Education.

“There will be a locked door…so we can keep everybody out, which is entirely appropriate,” joked Ms Lapworth.

Asked what she would do differently if given the chance again, Ms Lapworth said that “having the conversations with ministers and DfE officials [about] the transition from the old system to the new system is the place I would start by going back to”.

She added: “I think the need to run a registration process for everybody was massively complex and time-consuming…We were so consumed in the difficult bits of that for so long that we were on the back foot in terms of…then how does a regulatory system run.”

Discussing the OfS’ recent annual report on sector finances, Ms Lapworth told the event that the OfS had “said a bit more in that than we’d done previously. I thought it was important that we started to give our views rather than neutrally describe the patterns in the data.”

The report said that “in aggregate the sector is in pretty good health…but there is really significant variation when you look at the individual cases”.

Ms Lapworth continued: “It must be the case – we said this – that if the current financial environment continues for the long run, then it is going to get exceptionally difficult for more of the providers.”

She added that while “some institutions are exposed in relatively limited ways to some of those key risks, others are exposed to multiple risks. If they all come together in that ongoing difficult financial context, then our judgement that broadly the sector is in decent health is going to date quite quickly.”

john.morgan@timeshighereducation.com