OfS announces new independent committee members

@OfficeStudents’ new members are:

Risk and Audit Committee

The Risk and Audit Committee considers the effectiveness of processes relating to corporate governance, risk management and internal control at the OfS and assures the OfS board and Accounting Officer that these are being properly applied.

Satish Jeram

Satish has held a range of finance and executive roles in the private space specialising in Finance, HR and Internal Audit. He has worked for a variety of SMEs and blue-chip companies across several sectors in the UK and overseas. His last role was as a Finance Director with Qmatic. He is currently pursuing work in the voluntary sector.

Provider Risk Committee

The Provider Risk Committee has reserved decision-making powers under the OfS’s scheme of delegation to take regulatory decisions in relation to English higher education providers as described in the OfS’s scheme of delegation. The committee considers whether a higher education provider is complying with initial and ongoing conditions of registration and enforcement is an important aspect of its work.

Nisha Arora

Nisha is Director, Consumer and Retail Policy at the Financial Conduct Authority. She was previously Senior Director, Consumer at the Competition and Markets Authority and Acting Senior Director at The Office of Fair Trading. Nisha’s experience builds on an earlier 20-year legal career in private practice and as a senior Government lawyer.

Dr Michael Grenfell

Michael is Executive Director, Enforcement, at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and an executive member of the CMA Board. Prior to the CMA’s establishment he was a partner in legal practice at Norton Rose Fulbright LLP (previously Norton Rose), where he specialised in competition law for 25 years, including as Head of the firm’s London Competition Group.

Quality Assessment Committee

As required by section 24 of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 (HERA), the Quality Assessment Committee provides advice to the OfS board on the approach to be taken by the OfS to assessing the quality of, and the standards applied to, the higher education of registered providers and those providers seeking registration, as well as the grant of degree awarding powers, and the way in which the Designated Quality Body (DQB) has exercised the functions under section 27 and Schedule 4 of HERA, including: 

• the arrangements for holding the DQB to account for the performance of the assessment functions
• considering the annual report by the DQB
• preparation of the triennial report by the OfS.

Paul Gratrick

Paul is the Head of Operations in the Careers and Employability Team at the University of Liverpool. Previously, Paul has worked in Faculty Business Partner roles at the University of Liverpool and University of Manchester, working with senior academic and professional service colleagues on employability and student experience initiatives. Alongside this Paul is also a Director for the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (AGCAS) and a member of the Research and Policy Steering Group for the Institute of Student Employers (ISE).
Currently Paul is also a part-time PhD student at Durham University, researching student perceptions of value for money at UK higher education institutes.

Dr Jagjeet Jutley-Neilson

Jagjeet is a Director of Student Experience and Progression in Psychology at the University of Warwick. She is responsible for enhancing students’ learning experiences and strengthening the student voice. Jagjeet is also involved in educational research which explores black, Asian and minority ethnic and disabled students’ learning experiences in Higher Education.

Dr Graeme Pedlingham

Graeme is Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Student Experience at the University of Sussex and has strategic responsibility for assessment across the institution. He has expertise in curriculum design and management, and in supporting student transitions in Higher Education. An academic in English Literature, Graeme has experience of working across education sectors and in developing cross-institutional collaborations.

The OfS seeks new independent members for its Quality Assessment Committee and Provider Risk Committee 

15th June 2021: Office for Students are looking for new members to join these two board committees at an important point in the development of the regulation of the OfS.

In November 2020, we began a multi-phase consultation on teaching quality and standards. The proposals in the consultation were designed to ensure that our approach to the regulation of quality and standards maintains and strengthens the English higher education sector and its international reputation.

We aim to rebalance our approach by introducing further clarity on:

• how the requirements of our quality and standards conditions are expressed
• our requirements for registration with the OfS
• our approach to monitoring of providers.

It will also mean we are in a better position to anticipate risks to quality and standards, either for individual providers or for the sector as a whole.  

The Quality Assessment Committee (QAC) provides advice to the OfS board on its approach to quality and standards.

As required by section 24 of the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 (HERA), the committee provides advice on the approach to be taken by the OfS to assessing the quality of, and the standards applied to, the higher education of registered providers and those providers seeking registration, as well as the grant of degree awarding powers, and the way in which the Designated Quality Body (DQB) has exercised the functions under section 27 and Schedule 4 of HERA, including: 

• the arrangements for holding the DQB to account for the performance of the assessment functions
• considering the annual report by the DQB
• preparation of the triennial report by the OfS. 

For the QAC, we are looking for applicants with experience of providing higher education on behalf of an English higher education provider or being responsible for the provision of higher education by such a provider. We are additionally seeking candidates with knowledge and experience of working effectively at a senior level in a complex principles-based environment.

The Provider Risk Committee has reserved decision-making powers under the OfS’s scheme of delegation to take regulatory decisions in relation to English higher education providers. 

The committee’s work focuses on registration applications and on monitoring and intervention cases. The committee considers whether a higher education provider is complying with initial and ongoing conditions of registration and has a decision-making role in relation to degree awarding powers and university title.

Going forward, our expectation is that the committee’s business will increasingly take decisions on the full range of business described in the OfS’s scheme of delegation.

For the PRC, we are looking for applicants with knowledge and experience of a complex principles-based regulatory environment, for example, a regulator, an advisor, a regulated undertaking, a consumer body, a representative body or similar. 

As this committee takes decisions about the regulation of providers, we would not normally appoint members who are employed by higher education providers. 

We challenge ourselves to fulfil the commitments set out in our mission and values, to include a range of voices in our work and widen the diversity of our committees within the requirements of the equality and human rights legislation.

We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, and socio-economic background. 

We particularly welcome applications for these committees from disabled candidates and from black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates who are currently underrepresented in relation to our diversity aspirations for committee appointments.

Further information, including the person specification for each committee, is available in the candidate information packs.

You will be asked to complete a statement outlining your experience and addressing the essential criteria for the role.  These are fixed-term appointments for two or three years, and a fee for attendance at meetings and expenses may be claimed.