UK officials end virtual university
Filed in archive by mstandaert on June 07, 2004
From Educause ...
The Higher Education Funding council
for England has decided to discontinue a virtual university set up in 2001 due to low numbers of students enrolled. U.K. eUniversities Worldwide (UKeU) had hoped to draw 5,600 students in its first year, but three years later, the program only has 900 students enrolled. The British government had allocated $111 million for the program, of which about $63 million has been spent. Other anticipated sources of funding, including
partnerships with businesses, never materialized at acceptable levels. According to members of the funding council, the crash of the dot-com economy at about the same time as the founding of UKeU led to the lack of interest from most corporations. Others believe that UKeU was flawed in its design, relying on faculty without adequate experience in online education, and that developers of the program spent their resources building an educational platform rather than using tools available on the market.Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 May 2004 (sub. req'd)
The Higher Education Funding council
for England has decided to discontinue a virtual university set up in 2001 due to low numbers of students enrolled. U.K. eUniversities Worldwide (UKeU) had hoped to draw 5,600 students in its first year, but three years later, the program only has 900 students enrolled. The British government had allocated $111 million for the program, of which about $63 million has been spent. Other anticipated sources of funding, includingpartnerships with businesses, never materialized at acceptable levels. According to members of the funding council, the crash of the dot-com economy at about the same time as the founding of UKeU led to the lack of interest from most corporations. Others believe that UKeU was flawed in its design, relying on faculty without adequate experience in online education, and that developers of the program spent their resources building an educational platform rather than using tools available on the market.Chronicle of Higher Education, 6 May 2004 (sub. req'd)
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