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

East and South-East Asia
Cyber populations: According to one statistical source, 150 million people
are connected to the Internet worldwide. 23.9 million, or 16%, of these, are
from Asia, and 60% of those from Japan. It is expected that this number will
rise, though. However, even if Japan has the highest number of users in the
region, the Japanese are not the top users in the particular field of educa-
tion. This may be partly explained with a conservatism of the education
system, and also with problems with the mastery of the English language.
The number of education-specific users of the Internet in Malaysia and Sin-
gapore is higher, which can be explained by their superior knowledge of the
English language. It appears anyway that the degree of the use of the Inter-
net for educational purposes is closely linked to a good English language
competency. China and Japan still have some problems in standardising
their characters in the computer. Other Asian languages are hardly used.
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Competition with foreign universities: Some local universities partner with
foreign universities, especially from neighbouring countries such as Australia
and New Zealand, for the provision of virtual or dual-mode education. In
some cases, the foreign universities compete with local ones and are by-
passing local education regulations.
Regional efforts at collaboration: A number of regional organisations have
formed consortia of various kinds, which provide virtual courses or dual-
mode education. The South-East Asian Ministers of Education Organisation
(SAMEO), which runs several training centres, is now developing modules
for online delivery. There is a move to create an Asian Virtual University for
Science and Technology (AVUST) under the sponsorship of ASEAN and
UNESCO. A feasibility study is underway to assess the practicality of estab-
lishing a virtual university for the greater Mekong subregion. The Association
of Universities of Asia and the Pacific (AUAP) runs a network project called
APDMEN (Asia Pacific Distance and Multimedia Education Network). The