Elizabeth Meehan completed her undergraduate education at Sussex University and postgraduate education at Oxford. Her first full-time lectureship was at Bath University from where she was granted leave to hold a Hallsworth Fellowship at Manchester University. She was appointed to a Chair in Politics at QUB in 1991, where she also became a Jean Monnet Professor. In 1998–1999, she was Visiting Fellow at The Policy Institute, Trinity College, Dublin. During the 1990s, she chaired the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom and is now an Honorary Vice-President. The Association made her a 'Lifetime Achievement' award in 2005 and, in 2006, the UACES made an award to mark her contribution to European Community studies in Ireland. She now holds honorary positions at the Policy Institute, Trinity College, and in the School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin.