Ted Fleming is Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Adult Education at Maynooth University, Ireland. He recently received the Jack Mezirow Living Theory of Transformation Learning Award for 'outstanding contribution to the development of the theory of learning' at Teachers College.

Fergal Finnegan is Director of the Higher Diploma of Further Education course and Lecturer at the Department of Adult and Community Education at Maynooth University, Ireland. He has recently co-edited Student Voices on inequalities in European Higher Education: Challenges for Policy and Practice in a Time of Change and is one of the convenors of the ESREA Network on Active Democratic Citizenship and Adult Learning.

Andrew Loxley is Associate Professor at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He has jointly edited Higher Education in Ireland: Practices, Policies and Possibilities.

Mark Kearns has completed his PhD at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Prior to this,he spent ten years working in adult and community-based education, more recently working with long-term unemployed adults returning to education, including higher education.

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

Critically examines the policies and the practical realities of access to Higher Education

Documents the progress and difficulties encountered in improving Higher Education participation, exploring the impact on Irish society as a whole