A case study of pathways development at Victoria University of Technology (VUT) examined the relationship among research, policy, and practice. VUT implemented the Personalized Access and Study (PAS) policy to make education available to and meet the learning needs of VUT's students and region. The policy had two components--personalized access and personalized study--linked by pathways. An evaluation in 2000 focused on how pathways were constructed and how students and staff experienced them. The evaluation found the overall demographic profile of VUT's higher education division changed after introduction of its PAS policy with an increasing percentage of students from nontraditional and disadvantaged backgrounds commencing degrees in the higher education sector. While the seamless movement of students from one sector to another was a long-standing government policy objective, the student experience of articulation showed it had not yet been achieved. A policy/practice gap occurred despite a commitment to learning pathways. Findings indicated research, policy, and practice are related and mutually dependent; understanding how each acts upon the other is an essential condition for understanding how research is translated into practice; and, although much research in the vocational education and training sector is research or analysis for policy, analysis of policy must not be neglected. (Contains 16 references.) (YLB)