Gareth Parry is a leading UK expert on the interface of Further and Higher Education. His comments on this relationship in the UK have implications for the relationship between the VET and Higher Education sectors in Australia. He was interviewed during a recent visit to GU earlier this year. Gareth joined the School of Education at the University of Sheffield in April 2001 having worked previously at Surrey, Warwick and City Universities and the University of London Institute of Education. His research and teaching interests are in higher and further education, lifelong learning and the education of adults, access education, policy histories and processes in post-secondary education, and the politics of research.