This study examined the impact on the lives of mature women of their participation in full-time undergraduate degree programmes at the University of the West Indies, Mona. Factors explored included the women’s stated motives for entering the university; differences in these motives based on specific demographic and biographic characteristics; the impact of this experience on their multiple gender roles; the personal and/or institutional challenges these women faced, and the coping mechanisms they employed in order to persist with their programmes of study.