This brief viewpoint piece depicts educational (dis)engagements apparent in researching and (re)designing higher education in and through "Accessions". "Accessions", a collaborative research-design project, probed at how cultures, climates and conditions of higher education may be reproducing or reshaping social inequalities and divisions. Here, questions are asked about how these might be challenged within and potentially beyond the specific locale of one university campus. This research-design project hopes to enable a critical perspective on issues of "participation", "impact", "engagement" and "internationalisation", where regulations and measures may be resisted and disrupted. (Contains 1 figure.)