This paper explores the potential for conducting collaborative and critical research in higher education which problematises the role and practices of the academy in maintaining exclusion. It begins with a brief discussion of UK government discourse on widening participation, and contrasts this with the research literature which indicates the persistence of exclusionary practices in higher education, particularly in relation to social class. It then utilises a retrospective account of a small-scale participatory research study undertaken between 1996 and 2003 with a group of adult students from working class and minority ethnic backgrounds, to explore the possibilities for research which seeks the collaboration of those who, in other traditions, are constituted as research "objects." The paper discusses some of the lessons from the research process and explores the challenges for academics conducting research within the academy--challenges arising from their social positioning and their location in the academic field, but also from the "scholarly gaze" which they "cast upon the social world." The paper advocates research which shifts the focus from deficit discourses around students, turns a critical and reflexive gaze towards academia and academics, and directs its efforts towards challenging existing power structures within higher education.