Visiting professors

Do higher education regulators need to spend more time on university campuses?

Conservative peer James Wharton has visited just five higher education institutions since he became chair of the Office for Students more than two years ago, Playbook can reveal this morning.

Last week, former chair Michael Barber spoke passionately in a House of Lords committee hearing about his time in the OfS role, at one point stating that he had visited “roughly 40” universities as chair—over a period of four years—and was a particularly frequent visitor in his earlier years in the job.