This book explores the access and participation issues present within Higher Education in Ireland. It examines policy, pedagogy and practices in relation to widening participation and documents the progress and challenges encountered in furthering the ¿access agendä over the past two decades. Access has become an integral part of how Higher Education understands itself and how it explains the value of what it does for society as a whole. Improving access to education strengthens social cohesion, lessens inequality, guarantees the future vitality of tertiary institutions and ensures economic competitiveness and flexibility in the era of the ¿Knowledge Based Economy¿. Offering a coherent, critical account of recent developments in Irish Higher Education and the implications for Irish society as a whole, this book is essential for those involved both in researching the field and in Higher Education itself.

Offers the first comprehensive, systematic and in-depth analysis of access and participation issues in Irish Higher Education

PART I. Introduction.- Chapter 1. Key trends in Irish Higher Education and the Emergence and Development of Access.- Chapter 2. Access and Widening Participation: Stories from the Policy Domain.- Chapter 3. Routes in: Access Categories, Mechanisms and Processes.- Chapter 4. The Purpose of Access: Equality, Social Mobility and the Knowledge Economy.- PART II. Research and Policy on Access Students: Experiences, Intersections and Gaps.- Chapter 5. Working Class Access to Higher Education: Structures, Experiences and Categories.- Chapter 6. Moving to Higher Education: Opportunities and Barriers Experienced by People with Disabilities; Michael Shevlin, Conor Mc Guckin, Sheena Bell and Cristina Devecchi.- Chapter 7. Mature Students in Irish HE; Mark Kearns.- Chapter 8. The Gender Experiences of Non-Traditional Students in Irish Higher Education; Bernie Grummell and Rose Ryan.- Chapter 9. Part-time and Flexible Learning in Irish Higher Education; Nuala Hunt.- PART III. Introduction.- Chapter 10. Learning and Teaching and Non-Traditional Students in HE.- Chapter 11. Retention in Ireland's Higher Education Institutions.- Chapter 12. Towards a Conclusion.