The Minister for Education, Dr Woods, has said one of his main priorities is to open up the third-level sector to groups who have been grossly under-represented for years. He has promised, in particular, to make it easier for disadvantaged pupils to get to college.
The new report from the action group he appointed in September presents Dr Woods with a range of actions if he wants to make good on his promises.
Announcing the setting-up of the group, the Minister had said: "I am committed to promoting access to higher education not only for compelling social reasons, but also for good economic reasons".
Now the education community will be able to assess his level of commitment.
While some of the recommendations may yet be diluted, we are likely to see a new drive to open up our colleges to everyone and remove the elitist reputation of some institutions.
The flurry of activity is not the result of some heartfelt wish of the Government to wipe away the obvious inequality at the apex of the education system. It has more to do with basic economics.
The supply of skilled labour is drying up fast and the economy needs more skilled students coming out of our colleges.
No longer can the State afford to leave the third-level system in the hands of the affluent. It needs all classes to be involved in third level and more so when the youth population generally is falling away.
Happily for Dr Woods, the report does not recommend anything politically dangerous.
Most of the recommendations are reasonable, common-sense solutions to a problem which has been receiving genuine attention since the colleges started their own access programmes several years ago. While these programmes have opened doors for many poorer school-leavers, the numbers involved are a drop in the ocean and the overall picture is still bleak.
According to the most recent figures from the Higher Education Authority (HEA), students from households headed by semi-skilled or unskilled workers make up 0.49 per cent of third-level students.
The report is hoping to increase this figure relatively quickly and also help mature and disabled students who are also grossly under-represented.
While the report, to be published shortly, is crammed with suggestions for the different education players, all roads lead to the HEA, which will have responsibility for pushing through a new national programme.
The HEA will also be home to a new national office to tackle inequality at third level. It is designed to end the scatter-gun nature of access programmes.
A high-profile business or public service figure is expected to be recruited to the post of director of the new office and the choice of candidate will be vital to its success.
Centralising all activity in the HEA is a good thing, the report says, because it is the only body which deals with third-level colleges in detail on a day-to-day basis.
Its chairman, Dr Don Thornhill, has spoken out strongly about the issue and has said the economic climate provides the sector with a chance to make serious strides.
Dr Thornhill and his staff know the third-level system and they are expected to give the new office plenty of assistance.
The group's suggestion that colleges be paid "incentives" for increasing their intake of poor, mature and disabled students is the most innovative idea put forward. A similar proposal in Britain was described last week as a "naked bribe" by one education group, but the report claims research shows such an approach has real potential.
The use of "incentives" fits in with the general theme of the report, which is to use the carrot and not the stick with the colleges.
For example, it says there should be quotas for the number of poor, mature or disabled students in college, but stresses "that any such quotas would need to be agreed to by institutions rather than imposed on institutions".