lifelong learning and distance higher education - Asia Pacific Region

foreign providers. In Finland, the principle of equal opportunity underpins all education.The target set in the Development Plan is that by the end of the present decade 8000polytechnic students and 6000 university students will annually carry out part of theirdegree studies abroad and that a corresponding number of exchange students will studyin Finland. Polytechnics and universities are to increase the number of foreign students tothe extent that in 2008 there will be a total of 12,000 foreign degree students in Finland.To this end, the higher education institutions will arrange foreign-language programmesand courses according to their own specific profiles. Virtual education will play a majorrole in the provision. (Ministry of Education, 2004a)The second national strategy, Education, Training and Research in the InformationSociety 2000−2004, described changes in the Finnish operational environment andoutlined the overall development of an information society in Finland. It envisioned that“Finnish society will develop and utilise the opportunities inherent in [an] informationsociety to improve quality of life, knowledge, international competitiveness andinteraction in an exemplary, versatile and sustainable way”. (Ministry of Education,1999). The implementation plan consists of projects like the Virtual University, theVirtual School, Research and Development in Learning Environments, and InformationSociety Structures. (Ministry of Education, 2000)The National Information Strategy 2000-2004 has significantly promoted the use ofICT in education and research. This in turn has generated new demands for developinginformation security and the protection of personal data and privacy, enhancing thequality of and open access to virtual education and materials, and developing copyrightlegislation to meet the requirements of the information society. These were some of thereasons for updating the strategy by means of a new programme that will support andguide future developments in the Ministry of Education sector. The Information SocietyProgramme for Education, Training and Research 2004−2006 contains major prioritiesand actions for boosting information society development. (Ministry of Education,2004b)FINNISH VIRTUAL UNIVERSITYTowards the end of the 1990s, the idea of a national Virtual University was raised bytwo stakeholders: the universities themselves and the Ministry of Education. At thetime, the discussion began to focus on the globalisation of the educational markets andon a European higher education area. The Minister of Education suggested that thecommittee preparing the Information Strategy for Education and Research should includea proposal for a virtual university in it. According to the strategy, “A multidisciplinaryvirtual university will be established to produce and transmit high-quality educationalservices and facilitate network-oriented research. The network will include the servicesoffered by the virtual open university”. The virtual university was to offer undergraduate,postgraduate, open university and continuing professional education.In the summer of 1999, an organisation for implementing the strategy was set up; thisincluded a working group on the virtual university. The working group prepared animplementation plan, and subsequently a development unit was established in 2000 to coordinatethe start-up of the virtual university in collaboration with universities.According to the implementation plan, the aim of the virtual university was to create ahigh-standard, internationally recognised virtual university to offer flexible net-basededucational services as a joint venture between universities, research institutes andbusiness enterprises. The aim was also to expand and diversify research which supports109