Michael Scholar

Sir Michael Charles Scholar, KCB (born 3 January 1942) is a British civil servant and former President of St John's College, Oxford.

Education He was educated at St Olave's Grammar School and St John's College, Cambridge (BA Classics and Moral Sciences 1964, MA, PhD, Research Fellow, Honorary Fellow 1999) and held positions at Harvard University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Leicester.

Civil Service career

He joined HM Treasury in 1969 and was appointed Assistant Principal in 1970. He was Private Secretary to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury 1974–76. From 1979 to 1981 he worked for Barclays Bank. He was then Private Secretary to the Prime Minister (1981–83), Under Secretary HM Treasury (1983–87), and Deputy Secretary (1987–93).

Oxford Master

He served as President of St John's College, Oxford from 1 August 2001 to 2012. He was also a Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Chairman of the Conference of Colleges, and Chairman of the Oxford University Careers Service, and a member of the Audit Committee. The board oversees the Office for National Statistics, following the "independence" which it obtained from ministers in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. It also has a duty to assess all UK government statistics from other departments.

Following Gordon Brown's announcement of new constitutional arrangements for public appointments, Sir Michael became, on 18 July 2007, the first such nominee to appear for vetting before the House of Commons Treasury Committee and to have his nomination subject to confirmation by the House. Sir Michael officially resigned from the post on 31 March 2012; he was succeeded by Sir Andrew Dilnot, CBE.

Family Scholar's eldest son, Thomas Scholar, also become a civil servant, rising to become Permanent Secretary to the Treasury, before being sacked by the then-new Prime Minister Liz Truss in 2022.

Two younger sons are Richard and John, the latter being a lecturer in English Literature at the University of Reading who also worked at the Treasury.