There has been a fundamental shift in participation levels in higher education across countries over the last 15 years of the 20th century. Typically characterized as a shift from elite to a mass system, there have been many fundamental changes - not least in the participation levels in many countries reaching some 50 per cent. In an attempt to reconcile demand for higher education, many countries focused on reforming the education system into a system of lifelong learning. This was seen as a system for updating and retraining those who had attended higher education and offering alternative and "second chance" pathways into higher education for "non-traditional" learners. This collection explores the varying interpretations of lifelong learning by experts from ten countries.