This paper explores two related questions:

·    What work does the concept of the knowledge-based economy do in the reform of Irish higher education?; and

·    What are the implications for widening participation?

In January 2011 the Irish government published the long awaited ‘National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030’ (the Hunt Report) (GOI 2011).  The strategy set out a number of specific recommendations to do with the rationalisation of the relationship between the university and non-university higher education sectors; a reduction in central funding and a shift towards diversified revenue streams, including the introduction of student fees; and a consolidation of the role of the Higher Education Authority as the overall co-ordinator of Irish higher education (HE).  However, the main thrust of the strategy concerned the reconfiguration of HE in the service of a knowledge-based economy (KBE).  Many of the recommendations and the role of HE in the construction of the KBE were anticipated in the earlier OECD report on Irish HE.  The National Strategy for Higher Education is part of a wider narrative of recovery including two economic strategy documents:  Building Ireland’s Smart Economy: A Framework for Sustainable Economic Renewal; and The National Recovery Plan 2011-2030.  The reform of HE therefore takes on a patriotic character, conveying a sense of urgency and necessity.  As the Irish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education and Skills remarked ‘The document is not a discussion paper’.

This paper begins by detailing what the three strategy documents say, with specific attention paid to how they define policy ‘problems’ and policy ‘solutions’ (Gale 2001 & 2002).  This section illuminates the particular construction of the KBE and the nature of HE, drawing on cultural political economy (Jessop et al 2008) and post-structural (Ollsen and Peters 2005) analyses.  The second part of the paper identifies the key discursive elements in this policy ensemble and discusses how they are articulated (Lacleau and Mouffe 2001) in such a way as to produce a coherent and persuasive argument (Fischer 2003).  This is followed in the third section by an overview of the field of Irish HE drawing on Bourdieu’s analytical approach (Bourdieu 1988), discussing the particularities of the structure of the field and the patterns of access and participation during the Celtic Tiger years (Clancy 1997; Clancy and Goastellec 2007; O’Connell et al 2006).  This section discusses the dominant narrative that argued that economic growth associated with the Celtic Tiger was based upon the increased stock of educated adults, and specifically those with degrees.  The final section (see Conclusion below) makes the argument that the discourse of KBE articulated through the strategy for reforming Irish HE, in relation to the dominant hegemonic narrative, because it fails to take account of the role of a stratified HE system in a dual economy, is likely to reinforce social distinctions.  

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