ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a review of three scenarios in which support for small groups of research students is provided collaboratively by video-conferencing, formal networks and information and communications technology (ICT). These scenarios are drawn from projects commissioned by the European Union and have the additional challenge of collaboration across cultural and linguistic barriers, something that Web-based online learning initiatives need to address. All scenarios offered their courses in the transnational environment of a university network. EuroPACE and its project partners developed some scenarios for the purpose. The joint research scenario is the most research oriented. With specialization of science and technology, a model of PhD education that relies only on the research for a doctoral dissertation is becoming outdated and to a certain extent also inefficient. Some lecturers reported being inhibited by the technology while teaching, and others reported that the technology inhibited the establishment of human contacts.
