Don’t rush to dismiss the Office for Students | Letters

In my role as the first chair of the Office for Students, I am glad to be able to establish a diverse and talented board and to be joined by Nicola Dandridge as chief executive. It is my responsibility to ensure the Office for Students sets a bold, path-breaking agenda, with the student interest at its heart.

There are few people in public life I admire more than Andrew Adonis, a friend and former colleague from our time together in No 10. But his suggestion (I put up tuition fees, 8 July) that the Office for Students has been captured by the existing provider interest because our new chief executive used to work for Universities UK (the organisation of vice-chancellors) is not just premature; it also misjudges our steely intent to set a transformative agenda. My message is simple, judge us on the difference we make, and not on where we used to work.

This is not a time for despair. The challenges of the future call for fresh optimistic thinking, not a retreat to old orthodoxies. There are significant risks ahead, but none so great as risk aversion. Great opportunities lie ahead of our sector. If we seize them, the contribution higher education can make to our country’s future is immense. Above all, we can make an incalculable contribution to students’ chances of living fulfilled and productive lives. Golden ages don’t have to be in the past.
Michael Barber
London

• Your editorial (Abolishing student fees may be easier to say than to do, 10 July 2017), which describes tuition fees as a “so-called debt”, beggars belief. Please state what someone earning £21,001 a year, with a debt of £50,000, has to pay every month just to offset the interest on their loan. And that’s not a debt? The Guardian is on the wrong side of history. Tuition fees are the next big mis-selling scandal.
Neil Gammack
Newcastle upon Tyne

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