Ministers bring back first OfS fair-access chief

Ministers have appointed a former higher education access chief to reprise his role at the Office for Students.

Professor Chris Millward (pictured), who was the first person to hold the director for fair access and participation post when it was created in 2017, has begun immediately on a part-time, interim basis. 

It comes as John Blake, the current director, announced on Friday that he will stand down when his four-year term ends this year to “move on to a new challenge”.

The director for fair access and participation is a statutory position established in the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 and comes with a range of powers to approve, monitor, and report on higher education providers’ performance against their access and participation plans.

Millward served a full four-year term in the role until January 2022. He has since been professor of practice in education policy at the University of Birmingham and a board member of Medr, the Welsh government’s commission for tertiary education and research.

He will join the OfS board and continue his role at the University of Birmingham.

Before joining the Office for Students the first time, he was director of policy at its predecessor regulator, the Higher Education Funding Council for England. 

Millward said: “I am delighted to be returning to work with the OfS during this crucial period, and grateful to my colleagues at the University of Birmingham for making this possible.

“We have made terrific progress on access and participation during the last two decades. Now is the time to seize the opportunities afforded by a wider range of pathways to higher education, which will enable more people and places to benefit.”

The Department for Education said it will recruit for a permanent post-holder in due course.

Blake described the role as “an enormous honour”.

“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 … I feel that it is the right time for me to move on to a new challenge,” he added.