Education Solidarity Network » Universitas 21

Further developments in U21G as Manipal takes control

ucu campaigns — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:35:59 +0000

The NTEU in Australia have drawn our attention to the latest developments in the troubled online learning Joint Venture U21Global. According to a report in The Australian, the Indian education company has now taken a controlling 75% share in the joint venture as U21Global is restructured with only ten universities from the Universitas 21 Group across the world still contributing equity and only four remaining active partners by lending their names and quality assurance to the programmes. This is significantly down from the 17 original partners. According to the Australian report, the four active partners are the Universities of Melbourne in Australia, Virginia in the US and Nottingham and Birmingham in the UK. As we reported before, with the government in the UK pushing for more such joint ventures, and univeristies cutting jobs across the board, the struggles of this enterprise are instructive. UCU will be continuing to press the UK partners to clarify exactly the extent of their involvement in U21Global and to consider their future links with the company.

You can read the report here: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/manipal-to-control-u21global/story-e6frgcjx-1225823749309

U21 Global: Will UK Universities rethink in wake of Melbourne’s withdrawal?

ucu campaigns — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:17:46 +0000

Thanks to the CAUT for posting the news that Melbourne University has decided to stop funding the U21 Joint Venture. This comes on the back of another poor year for the struggling enterprise. Back in October, the Times Higher Education Magazine reported on UCU’s concerns about Universities investing in the online education joint venture. The Times Higher reported that Nottingham, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow universities between them sank £5.5 million into the project for a return of a mere £40,000. U21 Global was established as a joint venture between 16 members of the Univeristas 21 consortium and the private education company Thomson Learning. Since then, the troubled project has consistently under-recruited, four universities have backed out and Thomson Learning quit in 2007, to be replaced by a Mauritius-based company called Manipal.

Back in June 2009, we reported our concerns and UCU branches wrote to their managements asking whether they intended to continue investing in the joint venture.

In addition, the UK government announcing that it will “support the new task force led by Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library to help UK higher education remain a world leader in online learning and grow its market share by 2015. The task force will identify opportunities for investment and innovation within and between universities and colleges and with the private sector in the development of online learning, including the building of critical mass. Through HEFCE we will be prepared to provide seedcorn funding on a competitive basis for university-private sector partnerships which will strengthen our market position.”

It’s clear to us that the lessons of the U21 joint venture must be learned by the universities involved and by the sector in general and we will be applying new pressure to rethink or at the very least tightly regulate these joint ventures and partnerships.

To read the Times Higher story, click here: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=408445&c=1

For our own report, click here: http://www.ucu.org.uk/stopprivatisation

Another blow to U21 Global

caut — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:00:19 +0000

Universitas 21, the international consortium of universities that launched a for-profit on-line program in 2001, is reassessing its future after another institution has left.

This week, the University of Melbourne announced it would stop funding the troubled U21 Global virtual operation after yet another year of lackluster performance.

In response, Universitas 21 announced it was handing its controlling interest in U21 Global to the Manipal Group, an Indian company that specializes in financial services, manufacturing, and health care.

Manipal says it plans to shift the focus of U21 Global to “corporate education” — something that Melbourne spokeswoman Christina Buckridge described to Inside Higher Ed as “short, non-award courses, sometimes tailored to a big corporate’s particular needs.”

It’s quite a fall from grace for the ambitious venture that once boasted it would attract half a million on-line students and generate nine-figure profit margins. Dazzled by the prospect of reaping new revenue streams, many public universities were quick to jump on board, pumping untold millions into the joint venture that never made a profit.

All in all, the story of U21 Global is a sorry tale that ends with a clear warning about the dangers of joint ventures in higher education. Let’s hope the lesson has been learned.