Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

E-universities scheme axed over poor take-up levels

by Personnel Today 1 Jul 2004
by Personnel Today 1 Jul 2004

Poor student take-up and a lack of private finance were the main reasons for
the failure of the Government-backed UK e-Universities (UKeU) company, which is
currently being wound down and its activities transferred.

When it was established in 2001, the public-private initiative aimed to make
UK higher education available worldwide through online degrees and courses, but
despite the availability of £62m of Government funding, UKeU only managed to
attract 900 students by September 2003, way below its target of 6,500.

"The problem was not one thing but lots of things," said Dr Liz
Beaty, director of learning and teaching at the Higher Education Funding
Council of England. "It was a big stretch for the company to go from
creating learning and development materials, building a platform for delivery,
and then doing all the marketing at the other end. We also didn’t get the
private funding that we’d hoped for. This was partly due to factors such as the
dotcom crash, since money wasn’t being put into e-learning at that time."

Beaty is keen to point out that the demise of the online venture isn’t a
reflection of e-learning’s abilities, but more that changes in the learning
landscape meant UKeU was no longer the right structure to deliver such learning.

"E-learning has changed so much over the past few years," she
said. "Our recent research showed that universities and colleges are now
getting into managed learning environments, but they want to do it in their own
way and build out from their core business rather than have a company do it for
them.

"While it’s been disappointing, the sector [higher education] is
telling us that it doesn’t want people to think it isn’t interested in
e-learning, because that’s just not true. The message is that e-learning is
taking off but in a more blended way, with a campus-based lead, rather than a
big push out to distance learning."

Funding for the UKeU project totalled £50m, which includes a limited and
final sum to facilitate restructuring and transferring its activities. The
balance of the £62m originally provided by the Government, as well as other
funds, will be used to support the development of e-learning in universities
and colleges.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Following the most recent board meeting by HEFCE in June, a number of its activities
are being transferred, including the e-China programme (a Sino-UK e-learning
project), which will be project managed by the University of Cambridge and the
e-Learning Research Centre. This will continue as a partnership between the
Universities of Manchester and Southampton, and the Higher Education Academy.

By Sue Weekes

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Tube workers lose claim for unfair dismissal
next post
Summer’s a slog as holidays lose meaning

You may also like

Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders receive 400% pay rise

4 Jul 2025

FCA to extend misconduct rules beyond banks

2 Jul 2025

‘Decisive action’ needed to boost workers’ pensions

2 Jul 2025

Business leaders’ drop in confidence impacts headcount

2 Jul 2025

Why we need to rethink soft skills in...

1 Jul 2025

Five misconceptions about hiring refugees

20 Jun 2025

Forward features list 2025 – submitting content to...

23 Nov 2024

Features list 2021 – submitting content to Personnel...

1 Sep 2020

Large firms have no plans to bring all...

26 Aug 2020

A typical work-from-home lunch: crisps

24 Aug 2020

  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+