ABSTRACT
Access is a word which has achieved a high profile among administrators and academics over the last ten years. A very wide constituency of educationalists, from those in the most elite institutions of higher education, to those involved in community-based outreach work, are prepared to vouch for access as a ‘good thing’. It has drawn together those who are concerned with equal opportunities, those who are concerned with skill shortages in the labour force and those who are concerned that a decline in the number of 16-19 year olds in the population will threaten the power base of the major institutions of further and higher education. It is not surprising that this unholy alliance has led to the term ‘access’ being constituted into a number of different meanings, and its implications for practitioners interpreted in a number of different ways.
