Lemmens The Virtual Challenge to International Cooperation in Higher Education Bernd Wächter (ed.) Aca papers on International Cooperation in Education The V irtual Challenge to International Cooperation in Higher Education

Virtual education and physical mobility:
The Asia-Pacific experience
Before I start, I would like to express to ACA and SIU my heartfelt apprecia-
tion and gratitude for the kind invitation to be a presenter at this distinguished
conference.
Definitions
In this paper, the term “virtual educational institutions” refers to two types of
institutions. First, those which are fully internet-based, i.e. which use the
Internet for the whole cycle of instruction, from registration of students and
course delivery, through to evaluation and certification. Second, institutions
which operate in a dual or combined-mode system, where the virtual part is
either a complement (mandatory) or a supplement (not compulsory). It also
includes those institutions using multimedia and other communication means
in distance/borderless education delivery.
The definition of “Asia-Pacific” follows the geographical delineation of UNES-
CO and therefore includes Iran, the Eastern parts of the former Soviet Union,
the countries of the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal,
Bhutan), the countries of East Asia (China, Japan, Korea) and of South-East
Asia (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), as well as Australia, New Zealand and
the Pacific Islands.
Features of Asia-Pacific and their implications in virtual education and
physical mobility
If there is one word that adequately describes the region, it is “diversity”. The
region consists of massive landmasses, mountain ranges, flat territory,
deserts, forests, archipels, volcanoes (“ring of fire”), typhoon belts, and
modern cities. This diverse topography makes it difficult to “wire” the region.
In many rural areas, there are still problems of access to telephone lines,
and there are no decent means of transportation. Thus, physical mobility
may be difficult even within one and the same country, and much more so
between countries.
There is also great heterogeneity in racial origins of the people and hence an
equally variable culture, value system, way of life and languages. Although
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there seems to be a unanimous acknowledgement of the value of education
in improving the quality of life, there is still a preference for males to be edu-
cated first, and the older child getting priority over the younger ones.
There are hundreds of languages and dialects in the region. English is there-
fore the only common foreign language used, but at different levels of com-
petency.
The region has been colonised by many European powers and by the United
States of America. Thus, there are still remnants of this colonisation to be
found in the education systems of most of the countries. For example, the
dominance of private education institutions in the Philippines can be traced
to the pioneering work of Spanish religious orders who educated the native
population, while the Indian continent and Malaysia as well as Brunei follow
the British system.
Due to varying degrees of socio-economic development of the nations in the
region (agriculture-based, semi-industrialised and highly industrialised socie-
ties; megalopolises, impoverished rural areas and urban slums), there are
also varying degrees of sophistication of educational facilities and of attain-
ment of basic education for all. In many cases, only a small number of those
who started the elementary grades can proceed to the university. Many of
the higher education institutions are state-owned. The other extreme, already
mentioned earlier, is the case of the Philippines, where 85% of all education
institutions are privately owned. Parallel to these differences in ownership
and control, there is of course also no single policy for the use of modern
technology, such as the Internet, in teaching. Availability of and access to
even basic communication systems (such as telephone lines) is also not the
same everywhere; some rural areas do not even have a dependable supply
of electricity.
The region is also characterised by varying degrees of political stability. In
some countries, the budgetary allocations for defence are higher than those
for education.
Obviously, all of these conditions contribute to very varying degrees in the
provision of virtual education.