Thursday, September 20, 2001

Sweden Will Create a Virtual Institution by Compiling Universities' Online Offerings By BURTON BOLLAG The Swedish government has submitted a bill to Parliament that would create a nationwide virtual university out of online courses offered by many state universities. The bill, which is expected to pass easily by the end of the year, would allocate $20-million to start the project in 2002. The Net University, as it will be known, is expected to open next fall, and will initially have places for 2,350 degree-seeking students. The university will allow students to choose courses from any institution taking part. Most of Sweden's 39 state universities already offer some courses online, but each will decide on its own whether to participate in the new network. Helene Lindstrand, press secretary of the Ministry of Education and Science, said she expects that almost all will do so. Participating institutions must agree to recognize completely the course work students do at all other institutions in the network. Like conventional education at state institutions, enrollment in the Net University will be free. But the government's per-student payment for online courses will be higher than the payment for traditional courses. "The reason is that it is more expensive to organize Net-based courses," says Ms. Lindstrand. She says the project "is aimed at making the universities more open to new groups of students" -- especially those who traditionally have had limited access to higher education. These include people who live in isolated areas in Sweden's arctic north, as well as people who want to study without giving up their jobs. In recent years Sweden and the other Nordic countries have emphasized lifelong learning as a way of keeping their workers competitive in an increasingly global economy. Besides catering to online students, the Net University will allow conventional students at state institutions to enroll over the Internet in courses offered by universities other than their own. "They can combine courses from difference universities for their own particular study program," Ms. Lindstrand says. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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