Head of Regulatory Function - Office for Students

Job summary

Head of Regulatory Function

Location: Bristol
Fixed term: 12 months
Salary:£99,412 - £104,163

We are the independent regulator of higher education in England. We aim to ensure that every student, whatever their background, has a fulfilling experience of higher education that enriches their lives and careers.

The higher education sector in England is complex and diverse and the OfS’s approach to regulation recognises this. Our strategy signals a shift from an organisation in a start-up phase to an established regulator that understands its regulatory tools and how best to use them to shape incentives across the sector we regulate. We work to ensure that students in England enjoy higher education provision that is high quality; that their access to opportunity, success and progression is not limited by background, location or characteristics; and that providers are well and sustainably led.

Job description

We are looking to fill a vital ‘Head of’ role within our Regulation directorate as part of our senior team.

This is one of a number of roles leading our frontline regulation with a broad remit. They have responsibility for a significant portfolio of work across conditions of registration, quality, equality, skills and pathways and funding. The role we are recruiting to now has a particular focus on:

• Quality assessment and degree awarding powers

• This senior role provides strategic leadership for our work assessing the quality of providers seeking registration and for those applying for degree awarding powers. You will guide teams responsible for delivering robust and high-quality assessments, as well as engage with providers and a range of external stakeholders. This is an opportunity to shape regulatory practice at a national level - ensuring that providers meet the high standards students and the public expect and enabling informed, evidence-based decisions at the heart of the OfS’s regulatory mission.
  

• Further information on our work in these areas can be found here: Quality and standards assessments for providers applying to register - Office for Students and Degree awarding powers - Office for Students
  

• If you would like an informal conversation about the role, please get in touch with our Recruitment team (Recruitmentteam@officeforstudents.org.uk) to arrange.

You will be people focused, committed to our mission of driving positive outcomes for students, and able to work at pace within complex and ambiguous environments. Regardless of the focus of your portfolio, you will be an experienced leader of people and able to demonstrate an ability to motivate, develop and deliver exceptional results through people across an organisation.

You will be comfortable making complex risk-based decisions, often in novel circumstances, and will be able to quickly grasp the regulatory and legal frameworks under which the OfS carries out its duties. You will understand the role and value of a regulator and, regardless of your professional background, show an understanding of how effective regulation works in practice. How we do things is as important to us as what we do, and your approach will be grounded in our strategic attitudes - being ambitious, collaborative, vigilant, and vocal.

Person specification

Person specification – essential criteria

1. Demonstrable good regulatory judgement, including in relation to risk, and ability to work creatively with qualified lawyers
2. Demonstrable ability to design, implement and communicate effective regulation on the basisof the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 (HERA). and the OfS’s regulatory framework
3. Demonstrable ability to reach and convey impartial, reliable and legally-robust judgements on the basis of complex and imperfect information, and in novel circumstances
4. Demonstrable intellectual credibility, analytical capability with the ability to think strategically and take a broad view of issues, events and activities and understand their likely impact or wider implications
5. Demonstrable ability to work comfortably with high levels of complexity and ambiguity
6. Demonstrable ability to lead regulatory operations to deliver significant regulatory interventions at pace, including across professional functions
7. Demonstrable ability to develop, lead and manage a team of expert regulators in a complex and ambiguous environment to make reliable judgements about regulatory risk
8. Demonstrable ability to develop quickly a comprehensive and sophisticated technical knowledge and understanding of the areas in which the OfS regulates individual providers

Shortlisting will be carried out using criteria 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8 within the Person specification. Applicants should ensure they address these points fully in their application.

Person specification – desirable criteria

1. Experience in the higher education sector, or of leading assessment, investigation or inspection processes
2. Experience of developing evidence-based policy and/or the mechanisms to support implementation of new and evolving policy

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £99,412, Office for Students contributes £28,799 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

Working for us

The OfS regulates the higher education sector on behalf of all students. We value diversity and the wealth of perspectives, experience and ideas that it brings to our work, and we strive to embed equality of opportunity in everything we do.

We recruit based on fair and open competition and welcome applications from candidates regardless of age, disability, race and ethnicity, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

Flexibility is important to the OfS, as we recognise that it can enable people to work more effectively. A set of organisation-wide principles shape our approach to flexible and hybrid working, which our teams then use as guidance on how they deliver their business goals. This would usually mean working from the office for two to three days in a typical week.

To attract the widest possible field of qualified applicants, flexible working, for example job share and part time working, apply to this role.

To find more about the OfS and our work, visit Home - Office for Students

We are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is accessible to everyone. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support you through the application stage, please contact us at recruitmentteam@officeforstudents.org.uk and we will be happy to help.

Closing date for applications: Noon Monday 13 April

Interviews: From 5 May

For information: the OfS does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker Sponsor Licence.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Recruitment Team
• Email : RecruitmentTeam@officeforstudents.org.uk
• Telephone : 0117 931 7444

Recruitment team

• Email : RecruitmentTeam@officeforstudents.org.uk

Further information

Careers - Office for Students

Attachments

Why work for the OfS Feb 2026 Opens in new window (pdf, 425kB)