English higher education suffers from an ¡°unfortunate bifurcation¡± that means that equality policies don¡¯t end up being implemented by those on the ¡°front line¡±, according to the country¡¯s access tsar.

Attempts at change are often frustrated in the final stages, said John Blake, director for fair access and participation at the Office for Students, who gave the example of institutions spending an ¡°enormous amount of time¡± working out reasonable adjustments for students during the Covid period ¡°and then seeing them not implemented by academics¡±.

While he stressed that many institutions do get it right, Blake said in ¡°too many places, there is still a bifurcation between those who are dealing with the questions of equality within institutions and those who are actually teaching on the front line¡±.

¡°It¡¯s not complete, it¡¯s not coherent, and often it frustrates the changes that need to happen,¡± he told a conference on access and geopolitics hosted by the Centre for 51³Ô¹Ï Higher Education.

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Blake said it wasn¡¯t that academics did not care but they ¡°feel they don¡¯t have the time, or the expertise or the experience to do those things¡±.

He?added that the English education system was prone to ¡°high-level systematic changes¡± but whether these achieve the intended impact ¡°depends enormously on what goes on in tens of thousands of interactions within the institutions concerned¡±.

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The underlined the importance of ¡°bottom-up implementation of meaningful change¡± and securing buy-in from those involved in the doing, Blake said.?

England was bad generally,?he added, at learning from other countries on what works in higher education policy, not even routinely engaging with?governments in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland and?paying ¡°almost no attention¡± to what goes on in Ireland.?

But he?said there was also a risk in?¡°policy shopping¡±?and?trying to apply polices that work elsewhere in an entirely different system with little analysis of how it fits within the wider social culture.

Blake said although it was part of his job to ¡°hold institutions accountable in ways that are often unfamiliar, frequently uncomfortable, and pose real challenges¡±, the state had to be ¡°extraordinarily cautious¡± about intruding into autonomous institutions.

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That ¡°doesn¡¯t mean it can¡¯t be justified where it happens, and it doesn¡¯t mean that it can¡¯t be helpful where it happens, but it does need to be cautiously thought through,¡± he said, pointing to the situations in the US and India that underline what can happen when this autonomy comes under threat.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com