Models for a multi-national university

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to the UN as part of a group of experts considering a proposal to develop a UN online university in STEM for Least Developed Countries (LDCs). I’m not sure how I got invited, and I didn’t attend physically, because, well, because it meant travelling to the US (an aside, I’m not sure the UN can continue to function with it’s HQ in New York, even if it is notionally sited on it’s own territory).

This is a non-commercial venture, with the collaboration and input of the countries involved (ie not some white saviour entrepreneur project). It has a lot of merit, and sound intentions, but the devil is always in the detail in such initiatives. There are several models that could be deployed, which were suggested as the following:

1. A complete online offering from outside from a respected international institution, fully supported financially and technically by the UN
2. Collaboration between a local university and the UN
3. A network, comprising universities from various LDCs, supported technically and financially by the UN
4. UN funding to a local university to offer online STEM degrees
5. Another kind of initiative (please describe).

There are advantages and disadvantages to all of these suggestions, so here are my brief thoughts on these.

Option 1, where you could imagine an experienced and respected distance education university (such as the UK Open University) establishing an online offering would provide an immediate model of working, accreditation, tutoring, etc. This enables a UN university to be established fairly quickly. However, it would come with lots of political issues over choice of institution. It would also fall foul of perhaps being seen as a solution being imposed upon countries.

Option 2 allows for a greater sense of ownership. However, this would entail finding one such university for each country. The expertise and required infrastructure may be lacking and the same model may not apply for all countries. There would also be a good deal of administrative overhead dealing with each country separately. One approach would be to start with a single country and develop a template, a franchise model that other universities can essentially bid for. This model is likely to have a much longer start-up time than 1)

Option 3 has some potential, but could get mired in endless discussions between partners and political manoeuvring. It would require strong set of principles and leadership to operate effectively.

Option 4 has some of the problems of Option 2, but does have the advantage of improving local economies. It would lose any sense of overall identity however, and require a strong quality assurance presence.

Of all of these I think a mixture of 1 and 2 might be the best option. A network overseen by a reliable, experienced provider with a strong established model of online education. There is a tension between getting all of the appropriate systems and political buy-in established and a desire to move quickly. These things are rarely quick, but equally the project doesn’t want to get mired in endless meetings so that ten years from now, it’s still at the discussion stage.

It will be interesting to see if the project develops further.

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