ISSUE 43: SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER 2006

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UNU joins Opencourseware Consortium

Making good on a commitment to promote an "information society open to all", UN University has joined the OpenCourseWare Consortium, an international partnership of higher education institutions and associated organisations creating a large body of open educational material using a shared digital model.

UNU officially signed the OpenCourseWare (OCW) Consortium's memorandum of cooperation on May 24 and committed to developing a pilot OCW website comprising at least 10 courses in a form consistent with the OCW model.

"At the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis last November, I committed the UNU to the promotion of an 'Information Society Open to All'," said UNU Rector Hans van Ginkel. "Since then, we have made a lot of progress in promoting open source software and open standards especially at UNU-MERIT and UNU-IIST.

"In joining the OCW Consortium, UNU is taking an important step forward in sharing knowledge on topics of pressing global importance. Through this initiative, our stake holders will see that the courses offered by UNU are of the same high quality as those found at the best universities in the world. The main objective of the OCW Consortium fits closely with the mandate of the UNU by encouraging universities to work together to advance education and empower people." 

The Consortium includes about 100 universities and educational institutions from Austria, China, France, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Portugal, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States of America, Venezuela and Vietnam. Affiliated institutions include the Africa Virtual University, Universia and National Institute of Multimedia Education (Japan). The new Global OpenCourseWare Consortium website is facilitated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The Consortium works to:

• Extend the reach and impact of opencourseware by encouraging the adoption and adaptation of open educational materials around the world.
• Foster the development of additional opencourseware projects.
• Ensure the long-term sustainability of opencourseware projects by identifying ways to improve effectiveness and reduce costs. 

The UNU OCW website is expected to come online next April.

UNU-MERIT ADOPTS OPENCOURSEWARE STRATEGY FOR NEW PH.D PROGRAMME

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