Shifting the Boundaries: The University of Melbourne 1975-2015 by Carolyn Rasmussen

Author:Carolyn Rasmussen [Rasmussen, Carolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780522872453
Google: hscPtAEACAAJ
Publisher: Melbourne University Publishing
Published: 2018-01-15T01:05:41.477000+00:00

The collaborative advantages of this new body remain deeply valuable, but Gilbert was particularly excited at this moment by the commercial possibilities inherent in the international marketing of the University’s brand by means of the development and implementation of various e-learning services. Gilbert was so excited by this that in mid-2000 he took six months’ leave of absence to work full-time on the venture. The Council agreed to this, apparently also convinced that the proposed arrangement, firstly with global media company News Corporation and then, when that fell through, with Thomson Learning—a huge educational publishing entity, pushing aggressively into electronic delivery of information—was sufficiently promising for the University of Melbourne to contribute US$6 million to the deal.43 This investment was delivered to support Universitas 21 Global in providing a range of online courses in the belief—certainly it was Gilbert’s belief—that e-learning represented a prodigious money-making opportunity. He told Cain and Hewitt in 2001 that had he not so committed himself to this project he would have been guilty of ‘gross negligence’.44

Gilbert was not alone in his enthusiastic assessment of the massive potential uptake of online learning and the huge profits that might be made from it, even though start-up costs were high. This was, after all, the era now known as ‘the dotcom bubble’ (1997–2001), when stock markets in the industrialised world rose rapidly on speculation that internet-based companies would soon turn huge profits, and many experienced investors overlooked traditional metrics in assessing their investments. A big story on ‘Webucation’ run by the London Guardian in late November 2000 had the ‘fast-talking’, ‘evangelical’ Gilbert estimating that the number of students in the global market would reach 160 million by 2025. Even a small slice of this market would deliver ‘handsome financial returns’ for universities. This was necessary because

Universities are probably under the most severe threat in their 900-year history because there is a threat to their monopoly. For the first time non-universities are saying: ‘We will offer awards and not bother with being accredited’ and are competing with universities in the education market. They are able to do so because demand is greatly outstripping supply. Traditional universities are misguided if they are complacent.45

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