Will We Ever See A UK E-University?

Will We Ever See A UK E-University?

John Denham – Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills since 2007 – is expected to propose new plans in regards to online degree courses tomorrow, says guardian.co.uk. So what is the likelihood that we’ll see an all encompassing UK e-university? And what happened when we last tried to take a step towards harnessing the power of e-learning.
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nIn 2000, the Labour government with David Blunkett at its educational helm, launched UK eUniversities Worldwide Limited, not a UK university in its own right, but more of a website that promoted online learning from universities based in the UK. It has since been heralded as a dotcom failure, with its closure in 2006.
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nThere were a number of reported reasons for the failure of UkeU. The first came to light in 2003, when PA, a consultancy firm were brought on board to aid the process. It was reported by The Guardian that despite a recruitment target of 5000 students, only 900 had signed up for study, a consequence that seems to have derived from the ongoing technical problems with the Sun Microsystems delivery platform.
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nIn a subsequent report, PA were critical of the management of UKeU, and doubted whether the company would be able to keep itself afloat by 2008. “We have concerns that the broad spread of UKeU’s business proposition, and the related market opportunities, has led to a lack of focus in their planning and management activities,” the report stated.
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nSo with such an almighty e-failure lurking in the past of the Labour government, what can we see for the future of e-learning. Guardian.co.uk suggests that Denham will call for a “global Open University in the UK”, that is in no way a revival of the UKeU, but at this stage seems distinctly similar. However, it does seem that tomorrow’s plans will aim to take advantage of the established online education services in place at respective universities – such as the University of Essex – with a call for institutions to share with each other in an aim “to exploit e-learning”.
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nIf the plans succeed, then students should certainly benefit, and so should the institutions in question who will be more accessible on an international scale. Additionally, the UK will be seen to be upholding its position as a world class leader in e-learning, as is exemplified by our digital libraries, access management, and the undisputed yearly rise in popularity of distance learning courses.
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Posted Date: 2008-12-19 02:22:19