ABSTRACT
The Internet has made it possible to bring students, teachers, researchers, knowledge and problems together by means of telephone systems and computers. This is the basis for a virtual university. The economic advantages are enormous. Already there are hundreds of first generation virtual universities on the Internet. The majority are conventional universities, seeking with varying success to adapt their existing courses to the Internet in search of bigger markets, and open universities switching from correspondence courses to ecourses. Some seek commercial advantage by forming consortia. Some are degree mills. Some target diaspora cultures like the Celts, the Tamils and the Maori. None of them, however, has attempted to radically rethink the very nature of a university if it is to
address the needs of a new episteme hallmarked by information technology and globalisation. This has been our aim in writing this book.
