Introduction

This project creates a model for an e-university. The model is meant to integrate experiences and results from projects and cases related to this issue. Change is taking place rapidly in the areas involved, so it is necessary to adopt a perspective which is looking forward in time, to be able to assess the value for the target audience of the contributions of the UNIVe. Developments in the field of ICT and the widespread access to these technologies are prerequisites, together with the political developments which are taking place in parallel. So the future of HE will be influenced by peoples' Internet use, the ability of HEI:s to use e-delivery, the Bologna process, the attitudes of the young and the attitudes of the more mature target groups mostly already educated, and more.

Young people of today “don't stay if conditions don't suit them, they vote with their legs” according to the research institute Cairo 's Future. They are not looking for a permanent job under secure conditions, but rather a pleasant job with nice friends around. As students they will not hesitate to look for complementary courses to their degree study at other universities if these are accessible on-line and accreditation is possible. More mature people who may have employment and family, often with previous HE merits, choose additional education if it can be accessed in a flexible mode, according to research on the students of the Swedish Net University .

To predict the behaviour of future students would be valuable in this futuristic perspective on e-universities, and to use this as part of a reference for the evaluation of UNIVe, I will in the next passages analyse parts of the results from an evaluation of the students of the NU, focusing on those who combine university campus studies with NU e-learning and on those who study NU courses only.

Outline

The important qualities of the result of a project are usually spoken of in terms of usefulness for stakeholders/target audiences, sustainability and replicability. These three standard dimensions will be dealt with, and it will be clear that the usefulness dimension is the relevant one that deserves attention in this case. But before going into that systematically, we will start by making an overview of the evaluation research which has recently been carried out about the usefulness of the Swedish Net University . By looking at results of this research we will learn about how different target groups of today's Sweden respond to the dramatic increase in availability of e-learning in Swedish HE which was brought about by the NU. The corresponding target groups in a European country where a consortium based e-university is planned, will most likely be activated in a similar way, so it is highly relevant to look at these research findings.

The evaluation then will have a brief part looking quantitatively at the deliveries with the project proposal as a frame of reference. But the NU research review will give input to the reference frame by which the bulk of the UNIVe project results are going to be evaluated. This will be done for work package by work package, ending with an integrative discussion of the contributions from UNIVe to future prospective e-university initiatives.