The Full Picture

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an official mandate and legal position embedded in existing frame-

works of higher education. Therefore it is important to involve

academic institutions and university departments in these activities

rather than only the training branches of professional organizations.

Financial sustainability

– each partner should arrange funding for

their own activities from their own regular resources. The student-

related expenses are jointly pursued from a variety of fellowship and

scholarship programmes.

Partners generally participate in several partnerships which could

in principle be up-scaled into multilateral regional or even global

networks. Within these networks decentralized supply chains for

education services can develop.

Different partners in the network

will have their own competences and fields of expertise; these can be

combined into one educational program or course. Students will visit

these partners for the different educational modules when follow-

ing the programme.

A more relaxed form is possible too, where partnerships are based

on agreements for the transfer of credit points. There is no joint

programme, but students follow educational modules elsewhere as

part of a programme at their home institute. These decentralized

supply chains will make more and more use of distance learning

approaches to reduce travelling costs to students.

The ITC example

The International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth

Observation (ITC) has been involved in CD through educational

partnerships for many decades. As part of the next stage ITC has

developed partnerships with universities and institutes on four differ-

ent continents. These partnerships deliver joint educational

programmes and provide educational services in the countries or

regions where many of the ITC course participants come from. The

effectiveness, flexibility and productivity of the ITC educational

system has thus been improved substantially.

These partnerships have developed into an educational network

called GI-NET, which will ultimately serve as a base for decentral-

ized supply chains for educational services. e-learning tools are

presently used for mutual support of the lecturers at the different

nodes. But these tools are also used for offering short courses through

distance learning and blended learning approaches, and we expect

to offer complete degree courses in due time. The different nodes of

the network will each take their share of the development and

support of such courses. Through the global spread of the network

24/7 support will be possible. The nodes of the network

can also give regional support to the course participants

and alumni by arranging regional seminars and work-

shops

ITC acts as a driving node in this network and guar-

antees its academic sustainability through continuous

impulses for academic and professional upgrading and

innovations of the educational services.

Furthermore

it also stimulates mutual exchange and support between

the other nodes of the network.

The educational programmes at ITC’s home base

provide the experience. In this role, they serve as a

vehicle for permanent educational innovation with

respect to content, educational methods and tools, and

quality assurance. Rapid developments in technology,

as well as in the demand for information, imply the need

for continuous upgrading of professionals through life-

long learning. According to the InterAcademy Council,

2004

: “…all nations, particularly the developing ones,

require an increased level of science and technology

capacity to enhance their ability to adopt new tech-

nologies…. and adapt them to local needs”.

Institutes for higher education must be up to date with

these developments and a strong interaction between

education and research is therefore needed. ITC is

presently developing partnerships for research purposes

with organizations in less developed countries, which

often have no sufficient resources to develop their own

research activities. This research network creates oppor-

tunities for the colleagues of those partner organizations

to participate in the research programmes of ITC and of

other strong research partners.

ITC is active in several other networks besides GI-

NET, including the GIMA programme with three Dutch

universities, an Erasmus Mundus programme with

several European universities and the United Nations

University (UNU) network. These networks are

connected because they have ITC as a common node.

Through this position ITC can transfer experience and

knowledge between networks and also be the gateway

for staff and students to move between networks.

Towards a virtual university for geo-information

science and EO

Networks with decentralised educational service supply

chains, with different types of educational partnerships

and with different concepts for joint courses and joint

degree programmes form an interesting starting posi-

tion for the development of a virtual university for

Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation.

The present partnerships are bilateral. The first stage is

always a memorandum of understanding stating that both

parties have the intention to enter into a partnership.

Based on this, they will generate an agreement which

defines the set up of the joint educational programme,

including the duties, contributions and responsibilities

of both parties, as well as the financial arrangements.

The network structure required for the development

of a virtual university is quite different from a standard

Partners generally participate in several partnerships which could in

principle be up-scaled into multilateral regional or even global networks

Education networks for capacity development

Source: ITC