Students from Perth to Shetland can now study online thanks to the
first fully Web-enabled university
Education minister David Blunkett hit the news last month with his
vision of the e-university. The Minister called for collaboration
between UK colleges to launch Web-based courses across the globe
and compete with corporations and virtual universities emerging in
the US.
It was a shame that Blunkett did not look on his own doorstep,
at the fast-developing University of the Highlands and Islands
(UHI). The University is set to become a fully Web-enabled
institution, delivering academic services electronically over an
area from Perth to Shetland, and the Western Isles.
Brian Duffield is chief executive of the project, which has
brought together 14 colleges on 28 sites across Scotland. He says
the UHI aims to overcome the "tyranny of space" that has
marginalised remote communities.
"It is possible through the technological revolution," says
Duffield, "to break the mould of the historical approach to
educational provision - to move away from a single large campus
university - and through IT to take educational opportunities to
the people deep in the heart of their communities."
UHI application project manager Drew Gregg says, "E-mail is the
lifeblood for the university because it allows students and
lecturers to feel as if they are part of one large campus.
Travelling can be difficult so we also use a lot of video
conferencing to allow students and staff to work together."
The university took four years to develop - two went into
establishing the infrastructure alone, says Gregg. This involved
convincing education authorities to replace existing college
systems and networks with a new broadband wide area network and
upgraded local area networks.
Network, e-mail and video conferencing is based on Novell's
GroupWise and NDS directory service technology, and was implemented
by Metastorm. Cisco Systems provided switches and routers and
designated the UHI a regional knowledge academy, where Cisco
networking skills will be taught. Library systems, managed by the
Web-based OLIB 7 system, allows students to search the catalogue
via the Internet.
Funding has come from the Millennium Commission, which provided
£33m towards the £95m cost, with contributions from the Scottish
Executive and Highland Enterprise.
Technology Suppliers
- Novell
- Cisco System
- Microsoft
- Fretwell Downing Informatics