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

Physical mobility
Most mobility in the region takes place in the form of bilateral university
exchanges, based on partnership agreements. The only scheme promoting
mobility on a larger scale, and on a multilateral basis, is UMAP, the “Universi-
ty Mobility in Asia and the Pacific” programme. Membership in UMAP is open
to higher education institutions and consortia of such, not to individuals. At
present, 27 organisations and institutions take part.
The principles of UMAP student exchange are the following: students on
UMAP must undertake formal study at the host institution, of a minimum of
one and a maximum of two semesters; tuition fees are waived; credits ear-
ned at the foreign university are accepted by the home university; the
exchange is open to both undergraduate and graduate students.
The programme is organised through a central secretariat at the University
of Tokyo, and the international relations offices of the participating institu-
tions. Each institution pays a membership fee to the secretariat.
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Conclusion
Virtual education and academic mobility in the Asia-pacific region are in their
early developmental stages, with different levels of development in line with
the socio-economic, political and technological development stage reached
by individual countries. The realistic option for the near future is that virtual
education can complement, but not substitute, the face-to-face mode of deli-
very. The social aspects of “real” person-to-person interaction are deemed as
very important for the complete development of the student.
One of the strategies to speed up the use of IT in education is through net-
working, i.e. the creation of working groups which share resources, expertise
and technology. This way, the digital divide between the “haves” and the
“have nots” can hopefully be reduced.
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Peggy Blumenthal,
Vice President for Educational Services
Institute of International Education, NYC, USA