The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 2 plus 8 letter word IN ABSENTIA
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
I
N
A
B
S
E
N
T
I
A
More clues leading to the result IN ABSENTIA
- Wanting an appearance that confounds innate bias
- Rogue a bit insane not attending court?
- Making merry a bit insane while away!
- While not present at work, a bishop posted one article
- While abroad, say, innate bias erupted
- A bit insane at work while not present
- According to court, missing hip muscle caused back cracking
- Innate bias to be reviewed, when convicted so?
Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "While not present" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case while not present = in absentia.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.