Interactive University full of eastern promise

Published on Tuesday 28 October 2003 00:00

MORE than 1500 new students are expected to enrol through Scotland’s Interactive University (IU) over the next three years - generating an anticipated £6 million - following a deal with the Nanyang Institute of Management in Singapore.

The deal follows the award of a contract earlier this year to supply business courses to the Long Way College in Harbing, China, and three similar agreements with universities in Beijing, Nanjing and Shanghai, which will be worth more than 5m a year to the Edinburgh-based company.

IU’s chief operating officer, David Farquhar, said the new agreement with Nanyang will enable up to 1500 students from Singapore to study for Scottish undergraduate and post-graduate courses through e-learning.

Nanyang Institute of Management is Singapore’s leading provider of private education.

Mr Farquhar said: "Nanyang has expressed interest in the Heriot-Watt management programme and the MBA in entrepreneurship and business venturing from the University of Stirling."

IU now has a total of 40 local learning partners in 20 countries, serving over 90,000 students, and its main target market is post-compulsory education in the developing world.

Mr Farquhar said: "Students are able to undertake programmes offered through IU everywhere from Trinidad and Tobago through Africa, the Middle East and Asia to Papua New Guinea."

The deal with Nanyang was welcomed by the Enterprise Minister Jim Wallace, who was in Singapore to open Scottish Development International’s new office.

He said: "This deal is excellent news which will deliver real benefits - both for IU, the Nanyang Institute and for Singapore students.

"It reflects the first-class reputation of Scotland’s higher education sector around the world and is an excellent example of Scotland’s outward-looking approach."

Officially set up last October by Heriot-Watt University, IU provides e-learning facilities and employs around 40 people. Earlier this year, the company moved from Heriot-Watt’s Riccarton base to new accommodation at Edinburgh Park.

Mr Farquhar said IU had "only begun to scratch the surface" of the global e-learning market, which is estimated to be worth around 15 billion.

He said: "The IU has proven its business model and managed to make substantial cost savings against its forecasts and plans. Scotland can genuinely lead the way in something here."

And Mr Wallace added: "By making the most of cutting edge technology, IU is exporting Scotland’s skills, knowledge and creativity around the globe. IU’s distributed learning model means that students in Singapore can stay at home while studying internationally recognised degrees."

Mr Farquhar, a technology entrepreneur who founded the mobile software firm Idesta, joined the virtual college venture at the end of last year, after being approached by its chairman Ian Ritchie, a fellow entrepreneur and director of several leading-edge techs, to take on the day-to-day operations role.

IU was backed with 2.3m of Scottish Enterprise funding when it spun out from Heriot-Watt last autumn and, at the time, set itself a target of raising at least 5m in income from student fees within the first three years.