lifelong learning and distance higher education - Asia Pacific Region

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higher education, including virtual education. The third aim was to capitalise on ICTfor effective, user-friendly advisory, guidance, learning material, administrative andeducational services.The plan is in line with the Bologna Declaration of 19 June, 1999, a joint declarationof the European ministers of education, which aims at establishing a European area ofhigher education by 2010. The process is co-ordinated by the Bologna Follow-up Group(www.bologna-bergen2005.no/). This area is intended to promote the mobility of people,the transparency and recognition of qualifications, the quality and European dimension ofhigher education, and the attractiveness of European institutions to third country students.The FVU is one means of facilitating virtual mobility. Finland has ratified the Conventionon Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region,drawn up by the Council of Europe and UNESCO in April 1997.Organisation and funding of the Finnish Virtual UniversityThe Finnish Virtual University (FVU) is a consortium of all the Finnish universities.In addition to the 20 universities in the Ministry of Education sector, the Consortiumincludes the National Defence College, administered by the Ministry of Defence. TheConsortium Agreement was signed on 18 January, 2001.The decision-making body in the FVU is the Consortium Assembly, which is composedof one representative from each member university and one from the Ministry ofEducation. The universities are mostly represented by rectors or vice rectors. TheConsortium has one or two meetings per year. The agendas are drawn up by the FVUSteering Group, which also exercises authority between meetings. The Steering Groupcomprises five members nominated by the Consortium Assembly, one nominated by theMinistry of Education, and the director of the FVU Service Unit. There are also expertmembers, including representatives of Centre for Scientific Computing, the NationalUnion of Students in Finland and the National Electronic Library. Besides participating innational collaboration, each member university has a special unit to promote and supportonline learning and teaching locally.The financing allocated by the Ministry of Education to universities during the three-yearagreement period provides the actual core funding, which amounts to some 87 per cent ofthe operational expenditure. The remaining 13 per cent constitutes financing of nationaltasks and programmes. The national programmes covering several years, initiated by theMinistry of Education, derive from the government programme, the Development Planfor Education and Research or the Ministry’s own resolutions. The Virtual University isone of the national priority programmes in the period 2000-2006.The funding of Virtual University activities is determined in the performance agreementsseparately concluded between the Ministry of Education and each university. TheMinistry of Education has financed virtual university projects since 2001, when the totalannual volume of the funding was €8.4 million. In 2005, the total is €9 million. Half ofthe funding is given to universities in proportion to their size for virtual teaching projectsprioritised by each university and for staff-development training. The other half is givento the Virtual University networks.Operational ideaThe operational idea of the Finnish Virtual University is that the universities provideservices that enable students to find flexible ways to study and help the university staff110
to make the best use of new educational technologies. New technologies are also used topromote nation-wide networking among subject fields and projects of common interest.Another factor facilitating student mobility is an agreement on flexible study rights.In 2004 all the Finnish universities signed a Flexible Study Rights (FSR) Agreementin order to enlarge study opportunities, increase study options and promote progressin studies. This agreement enables undergraduate and postgraduate students to includestudies offered by other universities in their degrees and avail themselves of the expertsand specialities on offer in other universities. Before students start their FSR studies,their own university must approve the studies and the target university has to admit thestudent to the course. The student must be registered as being present at his or her homeuniversity. The target university describes the assessment scale and the home universityadjusts the grade to its own scale. FSR studies are free of charge for the student, but thehome university pays for the studies to the target university. If for some reason the homeuniversity does not do so, the student can take the course as a non-degree student. Thenon-degree study system is also open to those who are not enrolled at any university. Afee is charged for non-degree studies.The FVU offers courses “owned” and organised by the universities themselves or by thenetworks, which are consortiums of several universities or faculties. For virtual studies,the student has to be enrolled in one of the member universities. The FVU itself does notaward degrees or diplomas; this is always done by the member universities.FVU NETWORKSThere are three kinds of networks in the Finnish Virtual University. One form is anacademic network serving a specific discipline or a multidisciplinary field, whichproduces and offers courses in its field for undergraduate students and some of them alsofor postgraduate students. The second form is a regional network that produces onlinestudies and teaching geared to a given region and develops innovative regional conceptsin the use of ICT in local universities. The third type of network produces supportservices both for internal use in universities and for shared use among the universitiesthroughout the country. These services are developed by the support networks and madeavailable by the FVU Service Unit in the FVU portal.The academic and regional networks also organise joint courses, which are primarilyintended for the students of the member universities but also open to other students. Theuniversities offer many courses for students who are not enrolled in a university, such asupper secondary school students and open university students. Studies are free of chargefor regular undergraduate students, but the open university system charges fees.Academic networksAn example of an academic network is the University Network for CommunicationSciences. It is a national partnership between the relevant departments in ten highereducation institutions and has its own organisation for internal decision-making.The purpose of the network is to facilitate scientific co-operation and knowledge transferin the field of communication, to enhance basic studies in the field, especially with thehelp of ICT, to support doctoral and postdoctoral studies and to plan new programmes.In the academic year 2004-2005, it focuses on shared online courses, the ProfessionalLicentiate Programme in Digital Communication and joint postgraduate education.111
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PERSPECTIVES ONDISTANCE EDUCATIONLi
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The Commonwealth of Learning (COL)
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSIn addition to the
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These are some of the issues that a
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What are the trends and issues in l
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of policy implications relating to
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evince important differences that c
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inequitable regulations governing t
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associations and groups of countrie
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THE CONTRIBUTORChristopher McIntosh
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INTRODUCTIONIn his 1996 report to U
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Lastly, our analysis of the situati
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diploma or similar certificates of
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force of the undertaking. Here agai
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RELEVANT INTERNET SITESUNESCO Task
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Notes1. This phrasing has been used
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goals (Daniel, 1996). Lifelong lear
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eported that group activity had red
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NEW AREAS FOR DISTANCE EDUCATION:WO
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targets systematically for the use
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Rausch, A.S. (2003). A case study o
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correspondence teaching systems tha
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significant differences between syn
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In distance flexible- and blended-e
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STATE-FUNDED DUAL-MODE SYSTEMS ATUN
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Table 4.2: Fundable elements in dis
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sciences in 21 countries of the reg
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How a system is funded depends in p
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Litto, Fredric M. (2004). Digital l
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CHAPTER 5LIFELONG LEARNING IN THE A
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education, which was initiated by C
Page 63 and 64: So the virtual classroom acted as a
Page 65 and 66: In June 2002, when the course came
Page 67 and 68: RELEVANT INTERNET SITESFORCIIR proj
Page 69 and 70: 11. The approximate rate for 1€ w
Page 71 and 72: The term modern distance education
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Page 75 and 76: important resource for undeveloped
Page 77 and 78: standards have been proposed for th
Page 79 and 80: The development of e-learning withi
Page 81 and 82: RELEVANT INTERNET SITESCCRTVU Onlin
Page 83 and 84: MoE (2004b) The Notice on Running N
Page 85 and 86: CHAPTER 7QUALITY ASSURANCE SURVEYOF
Page 87 and 88: (Paris, France, 28-29 June 2004) in
Page 89 and 90: Examples of elaborated QA policies:
Page 91 and 92: plans and produces its conventional
Page 93 and 94: SHTVU (China)• Teaching• Teachi
Page 95 and 96: offers its programmes to Turkish ci
Page 97 and 98: mega universities apply a set of st
Page 99 and 100: RELEVANT INTERNET SITESThe Commonwe
Page 101 and 102: 2. QA initiatives or publications b
Page 103 and 104: assurance of ODL. This DST will be
Page 105 and 106: Educational Planning has been respo
Page 107 and 108: A system of weighting of the key qu
Page 109 and 110: RELEVANT INTERNET SITESHigher Educa
Page 111 and 112: CHAPTER 9THE FINNISH VIRTUAL UNIVER
Page 113: foreign providers. In Finland, the
Page 117 and 118: The foremost task for the Service U
Page 119 and 120: part of quality management. The aim
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Page 123 and 124: polytechnics, research institutions
Page 125 and 126: CHAPTER 10PROMOTING CROSS-BORDERREC
Page 127 and 128: The Bologna Declaration was followe
Page 129 and 130: indicators currently being used for
Page 131 and 132: the qualification resulting from th
Page 133 and 134: Table 9.1: Outline of the portfolio
Page 135 and 136: • Make sure that incoming student
Page 137 and 138: CHAPTER 11CHARTING THE EVOLUTIONOF
Page 139 and 140: Another common characteristic was t
Page 141 and 142: the current capacity of the educati
Page 143 and 144: conditions for success. Conditions
Page 145 and 146: Cultural and ethical issues in inte
Page 147 and 148: the cost and maintenance of learnin
Page 149 and 150: Research can be a useful tool for c
Page 151 and 152: REFERENCESBates, A. (1995). Technol
Page 153 and 154: Twigg, C. (2001). Quality Assurance
Page 155 and 156: y, for example, entering into partn
Page 157 and 158: and even greater steps, and the dec
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