Ireland’s first all-island prison education toolkit launched

• University College Cork, Cork Prison, Queen’s University Belfast and Hydebank Wood Secure College launch prison education toolkit to break barriers across higher education and justice systems.
• The toolkit aims to challenge stigma associated with the criminal justice system while promoting more inclusive pathways to education, learning and social justice.
• Lived experience of criminal justice and injustice is central to the toolkit, ensuring perspectives that have historically been excluded from policy, practice and public discourse are valued.

A new all-island resource aims to strengthen university-prison education partnerships and expand access to higher education. Ireland’s first prison education toolkit challenges stigma, supports more inclusive pathways into higher education, and recognises the role of education in creating more just, democratic and inclusive societies.

University College Cork (UCC), in partnership with Cork ETB Education Unit in Cork Prison, and Queen’s University Belfast, in partnership with Hydebank Wood Secure College, have launched the North South Together Toolkit, a resource designed to support the establishment of meaningful collaborations between higher education institutions and prison learning spaces across the island of Ireland.

The toolkit is shaped by two pioneering university-prison education classrooms in Cork and Belfast, where prison-based and university-based students learn and study side by side over a full academic semester, exploring social justice, social inequalities and intersecting structural harms.

Established in 2019, the UCC/Cork Prison and Queen’s/Hydebank Wood Secure College partnerships were the first university-prison partnership classrooms of their kind on the island of Ireland. Students and educators alike have consistently reported transformative learning experiences, marked by deep empathy, mutual respect, and a clear recognition of the value, dignity and lived experience that each participant contributes to the classroom.

By strengthening connections between prisons, prison education units and universities, the NORTH SOUTH TOGETHER aims to build a sustained community of learning and collaboration, while also supporting more students to progress from prison education pathways into universities.

Developed in collaboration with students, the North South Together Toolkit is grounded in students’ voices and diverse perspectives on their experiences of studying in prison-based university classrooms.

Caron McCaffrey, Director General, Irish Prison Service said: “I am proud to see this toolkit emerge from the real experiences of students learning together in Cork Prison and Hydebank Wood. Education in our prisons is not just about qualifications; it is about hope, confidence and the belief that people can build a different future. This partnership shows what is possible when we treat every learner with dignity and when we open our classrooms to new voices and new perspectives. I want to thank our staff and our partners for creating the conditions where this kind of transformative learning can happen.”

Dr Katharina Swirak, UCC School of Society, Politics and Ethics and co-facilitator of the UCC and Cork Prison Inside-Out programme, said: “This toolkit is designed to inspire and support new university-prison education partnerships. It is not a rigid instruction manual; every prison-university partnership is unique. This toolkit shares lessons, experiences and insights that can be adapted to local communities and student needs.”

“The most powerful learning in prison education often happens in the intangible moments of connection, trust, laughter and shared understanding; experiences that are difficult to measure, but central to meaningful education. This toolkit is built from those real classroom experiences in Cork and Belfast, capturing the human side of learning that traditional evidence often misses,” Professor Katharina Swirak said.

Dr Gillian McNaull, previously co-facilitator of the Queen’s and Hydebank Wood Secure College Learning Together project, said: “The toolkit is structured around key building blocks, offering practical exercises, reflective prompts and ideas to help educators and institutions develop or strengthen their own prison education programmes. The goal is not replication, but adaptation, encouraging institutions to take inspiration from the toolkit while creating models that work best for their own students, prisons and communities,”

Dr McNaull is currently Co-Director of the Ulster Prison Project and Programme Director of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Ulster University. “The toolkit is already helping to shape new initiatives as part our work with the Ulster Prison Project, a cross-disciplinary prison-university education partnership in Magilligan Prison. This work is creating practical momentum for new collaborations that expand access to higher education, challenge stigma, and strengthen connections,” Dr McNaull said.

The toolkit includes practices including education for liberation, social change, diaologue and hope; convivial classrooms and learning atmospheres of joy and laughters; curating an anti-oppressive syllabus; and lived-experience learnings.

The toolkit was officially launched at the Inside-Out graduation ceremony in Cork Prison on Wednesday, 29 April 2026, which celebrated the graduation of students based in University College Cork and students based in Cork Prison who completed the course. 

About university-prison education 

At UCC, the programme ‘From Criminal Justice to Social Justice’ is delivered by UCC Department of Sociology and Criminology as part of the BA Criminology degree. The course supports students in exploring justice, inequality and social change through collaborative learning.

At Queen’s, the programme ‘Reintegration After Prison’ is delivered by QUB School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work as part of the BA in Criminology. The module is affiliated with the UK-based Learning Together model and focuses on reintegration, justice and social inclusion.

The two classrooms came together through the Higher Education Authority (HEA) North South Programme-funded project TOGETHER – Beyond Prison Walls and Borders (2022–2025), with the aim of documenting and sharing the rich and transformative learning taking place in these spaces.