The higher education regulator will return to UK become a VC

Anthony McClaran will leave the Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency in March, after nearly five years as CEO. He will become VC of St Mary’s University Twickenham, “a Catholic institution of higher education”, replacing Francis Campbell, who is the new VC of University of Notre Dame, Australia (CMM March 28).

Mr McClaran is well-regarded for rebuilding the HE community’s trust in TEQSA, following the over-reach identified in Kwong Lee Dow and Valerie Braithwaite’s review of the agency, (CMM August 6 2013). He simplified systems, tightened time-lines and stuck to what Lee Dow and Braithwaite called for, oversighting providers on the basis of “necessity, risk and proportionality.”

No one will ever accuse of TEQSA under his leadership of hasty decision making or being relaxed in regulating – and its briefs and rulings will never be set to music. But overall McClaran established the agency as a respected regulator.