Chris Millward returns to OfS as interim fair access director

The government has reappointed Chris Millward interim director for fair access and participation at the Office for Students (OfS) following John Blake’s decision to step down.

Millward, currently professor of practice in education policy at the University of Birmingham, will return to the position he held between 2018 and 2021 in an interim, part-time capacity as the search begins for a permanent director, which is a ministerial appointment.

During his first stint at the regulator, Millward was credited with overseeing the transformation of access and participation plans, leading to “record entry levels” to the highest tariff universities for students from places that had benefited least from higher education expansion.

Although Millward was praised by former OfS chief executive Nicola Dandridge at the time of his departure for doing an “exceptional job”, documents published later suggested that his contract had been terminated, with the treasury secretary approving a severance payment of £80,000 to agree a “voluntary exit” – stoking concerns about the extent of ministerial influence over the sector regulator.

During Blake’s tenure, the OfS changed its approach to access and participation, focusing less on targets and more on identifying risk, including creating a national “risk register” of circumstances that could hinder an individual’s ability to participate and succeed in higher education.

Upon announcing his resignation last week, Blake said it was the “right time” to move on now these plans were in place across the entire sector.

The current Labour government has made widening access a cornerstone of its post-16 education strategy, with the recently published skills White Paper signalling a focus on increased participation in postgraduate education among disadvantaged students for the first time.

Prime minister Keir Starmer also scrapped Labour’s long-held target of ensuring that at least 50 per cent of young people attend university, instead announcing a new ambition for two-thirds of young people to go to university or start a “gold standard apprenticeship”.

At Birmingham, Millward leads research on educational equity and its impact on policy and practice.

In a statement, the Department for Education said a “full recruitment campaign” for the director for fair access and participation role would be advertised on the public appointments website “in due course”.

helen.packer@timeshighereducation.com