Space and Place and the Virtual University

Significant transformations are occurring in the nature and role of the university as a consequence of broader social, technological and economic change. Three important developments are: the transition from elite to mass higher education; changes in the production of knowledge; and developments in information and communications technologies (ICTs). These changes all have implications for the geographical organisation of higher education - that is, questions of space and place. In particular, virtual technologies are seen as permitting greater flexibility in the location of educational institutions, at different geographical scales - a disembedding of universities from particular places and communities. Taken together, these changes are seen to imply a major transformation in the role of the university, perhaps even its reinvention. One attempt to capture and channel these changes has been the idea of the "virtual university" and it is this idea that provides a focus for the research.

This project was completed with colleagues from the University of Newcastle (Kevin Robins, David Charles, James Cornford and John Goddard) and Frank Webster (then University of Birmingham).