TELEVERSITY/ˈtɛlɪvɜːsɪtɪ/
A blend of telecommunications and university, the word televersity describes a new type of further education not yet achieved anywhere, though experiments are taking place at various sites. One proposal is that Suffolk College in Britain should become a university without a campus, teaching students using the resources of information technology, especially Internet communications and multimedia. This is in effect a high-tech update of the existing Open University concept, in which its proponents argue the new university would become something like a knowledge broker, supplying learning materials on demand both to its own students and to students registered at other universities in Britain and Europe. A related scheme is the European Televersity Project, which sees the value of reaching remote communities which could otherwise not gain access to higher education, as well as individuals prevented because of their work, disability or social disadvantage. Another name used for various versions of this concept is virtual university.
Page created 7 Feb. 1998
