New university access regulator appointed

Friday, 15 October 2004 12:00 AM

The Education Secretary has announced the appointment of the Director of Fair Access to Higher Education.

The politically charged post will go to Professor Sir Martin Harris, previously the vice-chancellor at the University of Manchester.

The Office for Fair Access (OFFA) was created as part of the Government's Higher Education Bill, which offers universities the chance to charge variable fees of up to £3000 a year.

Any institution which wishes to charge variable fees above the basic level of £1200 will have to agree an "Access Agreement" with the Director. These agreements will primarily concern the extent to which universities will seek to attract and admit students from non-traditional backgrounds and will include agreed "milestones" on access.

If there is a "serious breach" of the Access Agreement the Director has the power to impose sanctions, including financial penalties. Some universities have expressed concerns that the office might be used as a form of social engineering, forcing them to take more state school pupils at the expense of pupils from the independent sector.

The Government though stresses that OFFA will have no say over the admissions arrangements of the universities and a failure to reach a target will, in itself, not be grounds for any sanction.

Speaking this morning, Charles Clarke, said: "The Director of Fair Access may be an essential position but I know universities are as passionate about widening participation as I am. That is why I expect there to be a healthy relationship between Institutions and the Director. I would consider it to be a success if the Director never had to rely on his sanctioning powers during his term in office."

He added: "The Director will make sure that every institution charging higher fees will have the quality bursaries, outreach work and financial guidance in place to help encourage greater applications from under-represented groups.

"Some universities have already announced bursaries of up to £4000 since the announcement to create OFFA. That means that some low income students will receive almost £7000 in non-repayable support each year. This is good news and I hope others follow suit."

The new Director, Professor Harris, said: "I fully share the Secretary of State's view that there should be a continuing drive to widen participation. However, the introduction of variable tuition fees is inevitably a time of change for institutions.

"Whilst one of my key aims in this new post will be to implement a process for setting up access agreements to safeguard fair access, I hope as Director to do this by working as collaboratively as possible with institutions and in doing so I will respect the Secretary of State's wish not to add to their bureaucratic burden. My past experience working in the sector has led me to understand and respect institutional autonomy and it is on this basis that I look forward to working with the sector."

In addition to his role as vice-chancellor at Manchester, Professor Harris has previously been heavily involved with education policy. He has served on the board of Universities UK, been a director of the Universities Superannuation Scheme Limited and conducted two reviews for government, the 1995-6 Harris report into graduate education and the 2000 review of university careers services.

Tags: