The role of the academic in interpreting the complex and confused concept of widening participation is central to the practice of widening participation within higher education. These interpretations are bound up within the context of what it means to be an academic, and external constraints on that role. Government policy has insufficiently challenged perceptions of that role to bring about a transformation to academic practice. This research, through the use of semi-structured interviews, illuminates the perspectives of academics, in a range of roles, to the widening participation agenda and outlines the alternative priorities of those academics. Ultimately, the impetus for transformation is not one which will occur internally to the university and it is argued that stakeholders, in the absence of realistic government pressure, must play a part in bringing about a university culture which places teaching and learning and not subject disciplines at the centre of its practice.