ABSTRACT
Communications and information technology (CIT) and the development of web based virtual, universities have the potential to revolutionise both the delivery and the pedagogy of higher education. For unions the benefits for union members are similar to those for employers – example, wider access in many senses, leading to higher skills and potentially to more satisfying careers and greater job security, through improved personal and company competitiveness. For academics, CIT and virtual learning offers the prospect of enriching on-campus delivery and accessing off-campus learners. Outside the cloistered higher education sector there is a wider appreciation that CIT constitutes nothing less than a revolution in the concept of work and society, on a par with the agricultural and industrial revolutions. In education and training terms a compact for higher education leads to: the policy of lifelong learning for all; and the need to develop new vocational subjects much more quickly, example, E-commerce.
