Linking Developing & Developed Country Education Jacek Gajewski, Sebastian Małek Faculty of Physics Warsaw University (CEENet, ISOC) April 2004

An Dear Dr Gajewski,.....My name is Saodat Rakhmankulova, I am 17 years old and I live in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. I want to study politics and become a diplomat......Can you help me?... A miracle: in 2001 UNDP sent me to UZ on a consultancy mission,....,from 2003 she studies remotely at Moscow Academy of International Relations, taking additional e-courses from Cambridge.

Observation: -a decreasing spectrum of educational possibilities, currently available in (some) developing countries. Poor quality, expensive, social subjects strongly influenced by politics, religion, etc., scanty in subjects interesting for world wide cooperation. -lack of precise and practical information about (e-)studying abroad and its real (full) cost.

Project idea: a portal (data base) with information related to cross country e- studying + network of local consultants. Why cross country e-studying? -unlimited choise of subjects - easier for financial and family reasons than going abroad, but still offering a foreign diplom, which substantially increases chances on job market -lessens brain-drain

Status: 3-page proposal has been written and sent to Digital Vision Fellowship Programme at Stanford. 10 (out of 140 projects submitted) have been awarded. I was awarded USD grant for a project (technical expenses only), and I was invited to spend 2004/2005 AY at Stanford. Some work has already been done in Poland.

Immediate plans for AY 2004/2005: Collect the information on: quality degree programs, their applicability to DC realities, technical requirements, admission procedures, tuition fees, scholarships, educational foundations, etc. from the serious American educational organizations offering e- studying (Stanford and ISOC recommended). Construct a sustainability model. In the developing countries consultants will be recruited and e-trained as contact persons, asked to review critically the portal content, provide short country-specific information in local languages, etc.. They will act as information brokers, helping potential e-students.

Future plans for 2005+: Collect similar information on e-studies offered in Spanish, Arabic, French, Russian, other ‘linguas-franca’. Mirror sites in local languages and world-wide distributed data base(?). Test/modify the sustainability model – global e-study information clearing house? Brokerage agency? Association (NGO)? Foundation-owned project?

Additional topic for AY 2004/2005: Survey of the US/Canadian universities offering quality degree e-studies (e.g. those offering MSc in social sciences). I will cooperate with a CEE/NIS- based team, collecting information on e-readiness of universities from countries of the region and helping me to focus on e-learning systems most applicable for them. Goal is to answer the question: Which technology and organizational models of e-learning used at Stanford and other leading US/Canadian universities, could be implemented in the universities in the CEE/NIS?

US/Canadian universities and other e-learning institutions would be contacted electronically (the form, the scope and the strategy of this distribution will be determined in Stanford to achieve maximum possible feedback and conclusiveness of results). Universities, willing to enroll foreign e-students with systems closest to options and capacities in the CEE/NIS region, will be explored in the form of personal interviews and/or venue visits to gain more detailed information about their implementation, the possibility of modifying it towards CEE/NIS requirements and the willingness of their staff to cooperate with know-how transfer.

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Thank You for your attention And thank you in advance for any comment, any idea of a possible overlap with TQ and Oracle, any link to (directories of) universities offering quality e-studies Jacek Gajewski,