Tuesday, April 23, 2002

Commonwealth Nations Back a Plan for a Virtual University to Serve Smaller States By DANIEL DEL CASTILLO The 54 member nations of the Commonwealth are discussing a plan to create a virtual university designed to benefit the organization's smaller states. Higher-education experts from Commonwealth nations met last week in Vancouver, British Columbia, to continue their work on the proposal. At a meeting in November 2000, Commonwealth education ministers recommended establishing the virtual university, which would serve about 30 of the member states -- those with populations of less than 1.5 million people. The Commonwealth comprises 1.7 billion people in nations that were formerly part of Great Britain's colonial empire and that share a common heritage in language, culture, and education. The proposal for a virtual Commonwealth university is the work of the Commonwealth of Learning, an intergovernmental organization based in Vancouver whose mission is to encourage the development and sharing of distance-education and information technology. The impetus for creating a virtual university serving members states on different continents with different needs and resources comes in response to growing concerns about the "digital divide" and a host of other threats to smaller member states. Weak economies, geographic isolation, exposure to civil conflict, and natural and human disasters have severely constrained the ability of many states to deliver adequate higher education that is widely accessible. "Small nations have unique challenges in terms of human capacities, and this university will principally address those needs," said Gajaraj Dhanarajan, the Commonwealth of Learning's president. But the wheels of bureaucracy cycle slowly, and with more than 50 nations involved, it's likely that several more years will pass before the virtual university begins delivering its courses. "Optimistically, I would say 2004," Mr. Dhanarajan said. "The Commonwealth has cautioned that this is not a trivial pursuit." On the other hand, there seems to be no opposition to the project. "We've not heard anything against the establishment of a virtual university," said Mr. Dhanarajan. Although Mr. Dhanarajan says that "it's too premature to describe the particulars of the entity," the Commonwealth university would be collaborative in design, and would use many of the same features of the most successful virtual universities in the United States. Additional recommendations are to be presented at the next meeting of Commonwealth ministers of education, in Edinburgh in September 2003. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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