"Higher Ambitions: The future of universities in a knowledge economy" has its own higher ambitions. It is a broad-ranging document, covering access to HE; research and innovation; student expectations and experience; university-business links; and community engagement. It is billed as a framework document, one which should structure thinking about the sector for the foreseeable future. "Higher Ambitions," the Government's new framework for higher education, puts welcome stress on more flexible forms of provision, and looks forward to the abolition of the distinction between full-time and part-time study. But the author argues that there is little recognition of demographic change or of what universities can do for older learners. The author contends that the essential issue on which subsequent resource choices and further policy pronouncements should be judged, is whether this framework will indeed mark the shift to more diverse modes which it promises.