The 'university' has been around for centuries, and yet the majority of British Universities have yet to reach their 50th birthdays. The higher education sector has been through extensive change over a relatively short period of time, and will continue to do so as the future requires it. This thesis briefly maps the residual and dominant models of the university before examining the emergent model and drawing out a future model. While much of the history is based in Britain, the emergent and future models draw on examples from all around the world. Essentially the future model of the university will have three core elements. It will be corporate, global, and virtual. Each of these is examined in detail in the thesis, and thought is also given to the potential impact of these developments on academics within universities and potential future students. The models presented here may cause concern and some resistance in the higher education community. It is hoped that they will stimulate debate and action regarding the future, rather than encouraging people to stand their ground and defend the dominant or residual models. The emergent model is already upon us. The future model is there for us to shape.

Research into leadership in the higher education environment has traditionally mirrored business related constructs. Many of the models and instruments that have been developed for the business environment such as the transactional transformational leadership dyad have been transposed to the higher education environment with relatively minor adaptation. On the other hand, there has been relatively little exploration of leadership models for the Virtual Organisation. This research brings together the literatures of virtuality and the virtual organisation, leadership and higher education management to interrogate the effect of virtuality on leadership styles within the volatile global higher education environment caused by the liberalisation of the sector. Through a case study of a higher education institution (HEI) that is developing a virtual campus, the research explores the perceptions of leadership skills, competencies and behaviours within the virtual higher education environment to determine whether a new model or framework can be developed for a virtual and widely distributed environment. The data from interviews, surveys and focus groups carried out in the case study show that virtuality does impact leadership skills in nuanced ways, thus proposing a configuration of behaviours, skills and competencies more relevant to the virtual higher education environment. The proposed framework adds to the literature on leadership in higher education as well as leadership in the virtual environment and contributes to practice in the areas of recruitment and training of leaders and managers in the virtual higher education sector.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the feasibility, practicality and desirability of establishing a virtual university using Internet-based technology in Saudi Arabia. The intention would be to deliver higher education in order to accommodate the rapid growth in the number of secondary school graduates. This is regarded as one of the most important challenges currently facing higher education institutions, particularly universities in the Kingdom. The questionnaire in this study was designed to obtain respondents' views in relation to the proposed model. It was distributed to 996 teaching members (male and female) at three major universities: KSU, IMIU and KAU. The number of questionnaires returned was 538; this represents about 57% of the total sample. The majority of respondents (about 67.7%; N= 364) suggested that establishing a virtual university in Saudi Arabia was appropriate to meet the increasing demand for higher education. Group B represented the highest percentages of agreement at around 92.7%, while Group A represented nearly 60.2%. In contrast, the remaining 32.3% of the total number of respondents believed that there are alternative available solutions that can be utilised in order to overcome this problem. Almost 19.0% stated that they would like the private sector to take its responsibility seriously and begin autonomously, or collaboratively with the Saudi government, to construct more traditional colleges and universities in all regions of the Kingdom. Around 51.1% were in favour of the MI-IE, on behalf of the Saudi government, taking full control of higher education provision, introducing more traditional public colleges and universities throughout the Kingdom. Finally, almost 29.9% appreciated any effort made by the current traditional universities to increase their capacity to absorb more students now and in the future. Interviews were carried out in order to gain respondents' opinions on the overall situation. These interviews were composed of two sets: the first set was conducted with various decision-makers at the HESC, the MMHE, KSU, INIIU, and KAU. The second set was conducted with the Director of IU at KACST, the Manager of Internet Services at STC, and one representative of the ISPs in the Kingdom. The outcomes revealed that, in recent times, the higher education system in general and universities in particular have encountered, in addition to the rising number of secondary school graduates who wish to pursue higher education, other problems such as a lack of equal educational opportunities, a lack of educational quality, increased drop-out rates and a lack of interest in learning by some students, a lack of well-forged and mutual relationships between universities and the private sector, and so on. The application of SSNI, which made use of the results of the questionnaires and interviews, determined and confirmed the improvements needed to surmount these limitations. The proposed system encompasses strategic planning, content, communication technology and relevant systems for central support. Each part of the system was logically built to carry out certain activities that work in harmony with the others in order to achieve the mission of the entire system. The study concluded that a virtual university was both systematically desirable and culturally feasible; therefore, recommendations were made for its implementation.

The development of the web has become an attractive area, with continuously and rapid development in the area it has led to a big change in the way of learning. Learning is a concept with many definitions, but a definition that is many at hand is that learning means that individuals seeking new knowledge and experiences that shape their goals, behavior and environment. With the development of the web a new way of learning emerged, E-learning. E-learning integrates information technology with the traditional learning to offers a flexible way of learning for students where they won't be dependent on time, place or others issues that would prevent their learning.   E-learning takes shape of an application, LMS (Learning Management System). Today LMS are widely used in many universities, but with new technique comes new problems. The constant developments of the LMS have made the decision to use LMS difficult. A student may be faced with many different LMS during their study period which will lead to confusion and issues instead of enhancing their learning.   Another problem is that the professors and staff of the university will also get affected by the LMS, the professors tends to rely and use the traditional ways of teaching rather than embracing the new technique and make use of it. The purpose of this study is to investigate the problem area and propose how the LMS situation in Linnaeus University can improve and lead to an enhanced E-learning for the students of the university.   A survey was made to locate the problem area, LMS situation and what requirements and needs the student have for a LMS. The result was many different LMS is being used by the students, we have therefor based on our findings these 3 pillars that should be considered for an LMS, collaboration, communication and tools and features, together with Rosenberg's list of 11 core features is needed to satisfy the students and lead to an improved LMS and enhanced E-learning. / I och med att webbutvecklingen blivit ett lockande område som oavbrutet utvecklas i hög hastighet förändrar det också samtidigt hur lärande tidigare sett ut.  Lärande är ett begrepp med många definitioner, men en definition som ligger många tillhands är att lärande innebär att individen söker nya kunskaper och erfarenhet som tillslut formar deras mål, beteende och miljö. Tillsammans med webben har en ny form av lärande uppkommit, nämligen e-lärandet. E-lärandet innebär ett utformande av det traditionella lärandet tillsammans med informationsteknologin för att skapa ett flexibelt lärande, där studenterna kan skaffa sig nya kunskaper i egen tid, takt och vartsomhelst.   E-lärandet gestaltas i form av det som kallas LMS (Learning Management systems) eller lärplattformar. I många av dagens universitet är många lärplattformar implementerade, men ett problem har dock varit valet av rätt lärplattform till rätt kurs, eftersom att dessa lärplattformar hela tiden utvecklas och nya tekniker uppstår. Ibland händer det att studenter använder sig utav flera olika lärplattformar under en termin, vilket skapar problem.  Ett annat problem har också varit att många lärare tenderar att förlita sig på gamla metoder hellre än att använda sig utav en plattform. Därför har syftet med detta examensarbete varit att utreda problemområden och föreslå hur lärplattformssituationen vid Linnéuniversitetet kan förbättras samt undersöka om det kunde bidra med ett förbättrat e-lärandet för studenterna på Linneuniversitet.   Via en enkät fick man reda på problemområden, lärplattformssituationen och vilka funktioner och verktyg som saknades på lärplattformarna. Studenterna använde sig utav olika lärplattformar beroende på vilken kurs de läste, men många bland dem var nöjda med de lärplattformar de hade erfarenhet utav.   För att lärplattformssituationen ska förbättras och bidra till ett förbättrat e-lärandet för studenterna har vi därför utifrån studenternas behov och det teoretiska perspektivet tagit upp tre perspektiv, samverkan, kommunikation samt verktyg och funktioner. Dessa perspektiv tillsammans med Rosenbergs elva kärnfunktioner över hur en lärplattform skall utformas anser vi vara tillräckliga för ett förbättrat lärplattform och e-lärandet.

Avec le développement fulgurant des Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication, les méthodes classiques de diffuser, d’accéder et de partager l’information ont été repensées.Actuellement, les TIC dédiées à l’éducation sont en plein essor, permettant à l’être humain des nouvelles manières pour se former en toute autonomie et pour tracer son propre parcours d’apprentissage. L’e-Learning, comme nouvelle forme d’apprentissage facilite, à la fois, l’accès à des ressources pédagogiques et l’échange et la collaboration à distance. Afin de remédier les contraintes liées à l’interopérabilité des dispositifs e-Learning et de garantir la qualité de l’apprentissage, l’application des référentiels normatifs doit toucher tous les aspects d’un dispositif d’apprentissage (les profils des apprenants, les méthodes de suivi et d’évaluation, les outils et les fonctionnalités de communication...). Le travail proposé dans cette thèse a pour but d’examiner l’état d’application de référentiels normatifs dans l’Université Virtuelle de Tunis. A travers une étude de terrain, nous avons étudié d’une part, la réceptivité de l’UVT aux intérêts des référentiels normatifs dédiés à l’éducation, et d’autre part, nous avons repéré les outils de communication intégrés dans la plateforme Moodle permettant au tuteur d’assurer le suivi, l’évaluation et le soutien. / With the significant growth of Information and Communication Technologies, the traditional methods of disseminating, accessing and sharing information have been reshaped.Currently, the ICT dedicated to education are thriving, enabling learner human new ways to train independently and draw their own learning paths. The e-Learning is a new form of learning facilitates both, access to educational resources, sharing and remote collaboration.To overcome the difficulties related to interoperability of e-Learning systems and guarantee the quality of learning, the application of normative references must apply to all aspects of a learning device (learner’s profiles, methods of monitoring and evaluation, communication tools and capabilities ...). The work proposed in this thesis aims to examine the state of reference standards application in the Virtual University of Tunis. Through a case study, we examined on the one hand, the receptivity of the VUT on regarding the interests of normative references dedicated to education, on the other hand; we identified the communication tools integrated in the platform Moodle allowing the tutor to follow up, evaluation and support.