OfS: ‘hidden hierarchies’ blocking school-university partnerships

“Hidden hierarchies” have prevented English universities forming the sorts of meaningful partnerships with schools needed to raise attainment and improve access to higher education, the director of fair access will say today.

In a speech in London, John Blake, the new director for fair access and participation at the Office for Students, is expected to call for “artificial barriers” to access to be torn down, adding that the country should be “ashamed too many young people cannot access the fundamentals of learning that are their right.”

He will say that the reality of education is that “one piece of learning builds on that which has gone before”, but the country’s education system has been built in a way that does not recognise this common purpose.

“We have too many hidden hierarchies, between educational phases and within educational sectors, which have militated against systematically building the sort of meaningful partnerships between the different institutions of education which we need,” he will add.

Mr Blake is also expected to emphasise the importance of ensuring that young people from disadvantaged backgrounds receive support to ensure they are well prepared for higher education when they get there, adding that there need to be “honest conversations” about how to ensure every student “is in the best position to get every benefit they can from their one shot at state-subsidised undergraduate education”.

The speech at an OfS Insight event comes as the regulator releases a briefing on how universities can form closer partnerships with schools, which emphasises that all higher education providers are going to be expected to play a greater role in raising aspirations and standards, and closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.

The OfS has told universities they will soon have to revise their access and participation plans to demonstrate the work they are doing, and plan to do in the future, to support such partnerships and comply with the regulator’s recently announced priorities.

Several actions already being undertaken are highlighted in the report as good practice, including institutions that run summer school programmes, provide teacher training and appoint “influencers” to speak to pupils.

Universities are also being encouraged to think about doing more to provide flexible programmes and courses beyond the traditional three-year degree programme.

The OfS said that it wants to see more robust evidence of what works and in what context – and will require evaluation findings to be published to help support more impactful school-university partnerships across the sector.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com