Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the selection criteria were for positions on the board of the Office for Students.

The Higher Education and Research Act 2017 requires that the Office for Students (OfS) must have a Chair, a Chief Executive Officer, a Director for Fair Access and Participation and between seven and 12 ordinary members. At least one of these ordinary members must have experience of representing or promoting the interests of students, individually or generally, on higher education courses provided by higher education providers. The Higher Education and Research Act (Schedule 1, S2(2)) sets out criteria for ministers to have regard to in making appointments.

The selection criteria were published in the applicant packs which were available on the Cabinet Office Public Appointments website for the duration of the campaign. Extracts from the applicant packs are provided in the attached document.