England from Re.ViCa

For the latest consolidated information see England

England is the largest one of the four home nations of the United Kingdom:

1. England
2. Wales
3. Scotland
4. Northern Ireland

Details

The population of England is 51 million.

The capital city is London - also the capital of the United Kingdom.

For more details on England see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/England

Virtual Campuses

Since it is considerably larger in population than the others combined it is common for observers to equate England with the United Kingdomn. In the realm of education, this is a mistake - one has to analyse the constituent home nations.

England is the most complex of the home nations with well over 100 institutions which are universities or of university status and in receipt of HEFCE funding. Only one institution is fully private (University of Buckingham) but all universities seek to maximise their income from other than state sources. In addition some 200 colleges also receive some funds from HEFCE for teaching university-level courses and 29 of these belong to the “Mixed Economy Group” of FE-HE colleges.

For this home nation, Paul rrelied for the initial draft of a list of MELIs and NELIs on many years of activity and analysis – including recent (since 2005) involvement in benchmarking and/or enhancement/transformation at over 35 English institutions. In particular the recent Benchmarking Phase 2 final meeting (Bristol, January 24) and Pathfinder Phase 1 Final Meeting (York, February 12-13) were key sources of information – especially in the bar. Having said that, there are changes afoot and some material and institutions needs to be checked, now using Re.ViCa time and resources.

Failed initiatives (FELIs)

The best known example is the UK e-University (UKeU) which is very well documented and will not be described further. This is often said to have lost around £50 million but in fact around £10 million of this was used after it closed to support a number of Academy initiatives including the Pathfinder programme, so that the actual loss was rather less.

A less well-known but actually larger failure is the NHS University (NHSU), which seems to have lost around £90 million and achieved no practical results at all. Until recently there were no reports on this at all except for one strictly confidential and little-known report on technology but one excellent report has recently become available – not quite public but for subscribers of the Observatory for Borderless Higher Education (OBHE). However, the archives of NHSU are closed (as they are for IU but not completely for UKeU) and many technical aspects were not covered in the OBHE report.

Very major initiatives (GELIs)

These are the following:

1. Open University
2. University for Industry (Ufi)
3. London University External Programme

It should be noted that the main focus of Ufi is FE but there is a small amount of HE delivery in the Work-Based Learning area from partner universities via a specialist Ufi subsystem.

Current prima facie MELIs

There are fewer than there were in the heyday of English e-learning during the UKeU era. However, the following are prima facie cases:

1. University of Liverpool – joint venture with Laureate at MSc level
2. University of Derby (a former member of GUA)
3. Staffordshire University

MELIs now faded to NELIs

These include:

1. Middlesex University – Global Campus (downsized after key staff losses)
2. Anglia Ruskin University – Ultraversity and Ultralab (both now closed)

New NELIs some maybe rising to MELIs

These all need investigation but are likely to include:

1. University of Bolton (said to have taken over Ultraversity)
2. Canterbury Christ Church University – arrangement with Hibernia College of Ireland
3. Essex University – joint venture with a commercial provider for Foundation Degree
4. University of Leicester – featured in the MegaTrends report
5. Northumbria University – including operation as an ASP provider.

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