Universities must ‘pull their weight’ on school improvement

OfS director wants universities to “put their shoulder to the wheel” to boost local education

The Office for Students’ new director for fair access and participation has urged universities to “put their shoulder to the wheel” to help drive up attainment in schools and improve their local communities.

John Blake—who became England’s access tsar at the start of January—said that in order to address concerns about equality of opportunity in accessing higher education “we must be concerned with improving attainment much, much earlier in life”.