UKeU was launched in
2000, with high aims:
'We want to create a new partnership between universities and the
private sector, which will develop a novel means of distance learning
and exploit the new information and communication technologies.' David
Blunkett, then Secretary of State for Education.
It is now, after £40 million, up for sale, far short its target
of 5,600 students- 900 were recruited, costing £44,000 each. The
future of the £9 million learning platform, developed with Sun Microsystems,
is unclear. However, the development of the platform is also unclear;
the
site suggests it is fully functional, while others have said it is
behind schedule and has problems.
The report in Computing.co.uk
gives details of a report by PA Consultants, listing an unclear business
strategy, marketing ideas "based more on optimism than on market-led
judgements", costs and an inadequate infrastructure, with insufficient
budgeting for support systems. Others have criticised the high wage bills,
running at over £2 million a year, of which £180,000 was the
chief executive John Beaumont's salary, though he also received a performance-related
bonus of £44,914. The Parliamentary Education and Skills Select
Committee is to investigate what has gone so wrong here and why so much
money has been spent for such a paltry outcome.
The project was criticised for being overambitious in attempting to start-up
from scratch, instead of in partnership with the Open University or a
university like Oxford or Cambridge.
The site is currently offering courses for the coming academic
year, and, according to CETIS,
the aim is to 'anchor' e-learning good practice in the universities themselves.
Given the growth of online course availability, through sites such as
the University of London's Distance
Learning Site, it can be hoped that UKeU is merely an example of a
public project going wrong and not indicative of the future of university
e-learning.
June 11, 2004
