After graduating in English, Bill Jones joined the Adult Continuing Education Department at Southampton University, where he became Director, before appointment in 1998 as Professor of Lifelong Learning at Newcastle University. From 2003-2008 he was head of Higher Education for the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE).

He is now a consultant in lifelong learning. He holds an Honorary Chair in Lifelong Learning at the University of Leicester. His research interests include the history, policy and practice of adult education, and interdisciplinary links with his other research field of English literature especially of the eighteenth century.

He has published widely in both these fields, including a history of rural adult education, a definitive edition of the poetical works of William Falconer, and a comparative study of widening participation policy and practice in South Africa. His latest publication is a history of university lifelong learning, 1981-2006.