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 Institution
There are many types of virtual universities, virtual campuses, virtual organi-
sations and institutions trying to capitalise on the opportunities offered by the
Internet.
One type of the institutions in question is exemplified by the example of the
Catalan Virtual University (UOC), established in 1995 as an institution with-
out a physical campus and traditional faculty, and based on the extensive
use of part-time faculty for courseware development and tutoring. UOC is
based on a central operation model, for courseware development, delivery,
student support and quality assurance – and the educational programmes
are delivered electronically on a virtual campus – with a specific graphic
design, metaphors, ergonomics, functionality, content structure, and student
support tools, amongst others. This type of institution resembles in many
ways traditional distance education or correspondence institutions in the
sense that it practises guided independent learning, through electronic
course delivery and the use of electronic communication tools.
The second type of a virtual university could be a networked institution like
the Norwegian network university 
Nettverksuniversitetet, a loose cooperation
of two major Norwegian universities (University of Bergen and Norwegian
University for Science and Technology) and seven regional colleges spe-
cialised in engineering, teacher training and health care education. The NVU
institutions are dual mode institutions, traditional institutions that collaborate
in the areas of online education through joint marketing of a web-based
learning portal and a common electronic course portfolio on the net
(www.nvu.no).
91
A virtual university could be perceived as an electronic representation of a
higher education institution (or networked HED providers), incorporating
traditional university features and extending these trough electronic deli-
very of learning materials, learning activities, tuition, assessment and
accreditation, incorporating new learning methods and didactical use of
ICT.

---

Third, a virtual university could be an incorporated networked university, like
the Cardean University in the US, a joint venture between Stanford, the Lon-
don School of Economics, Carnegie Mellon and Columbia Business School
and the University of Chicago. This is an independent business entity based
on the reputation, core competency and academic resources of its founding
institutions. Cardean operates in a national and global market, primarily for
business-oriented education.
Corporate universities are a fourth type of virtual universities, usually based
on revamped corporate training divisions which operate as separate busi-
ness entities within major organisations and multinationals, e.g. McDonald
University. Some of these corporate universities see market opportunities
outside their own organisations and could easily develop into competitors for
more traditional education and training organisations, especially in areas of
business-related education and training.
The African Virtual University, to be presented later in this conference, could
be considered a mixture between a loose networked university and indepen-
dent local business units that operate under one brand, and are supported
by a central body in charge of infrastructure, financial support, logistics, com-
missioning, development and marketing of courses to be delivered trough
AVU’s decentralised site structure.
Fifth, virtual universities could be less formal virtual organisations, semi-
stable alliances and temporary task-oriented projects, such as the numerous
“would-be virtual universities” as part of loose thematic projects driven by
individual entrepreneurs, often with weak institutional backing. These entre-
preneurs are usually open-minded and innovative practitioners, in search of
new pedagogy, educational models and learning strategies which use ICT.
But unfortunately, in some cases these entrepreneurs turn out to be “project
riders”, mainly driven by “Euro-tourism” and other non-educational benefits
offered by a project grant.