The OER Universitas (OERu) is a consortium of more than 30 higher education institutions on five continents. It was founded in 2011 to provide learners everywhere with learning opportunities and pathways to official recognition or credit. The OERu maintains a very economical base with very low expenses. It supports a sustainable learning…

At the University of Rhode Island (URI), the URI Open Access Fund Committee met in early 2024 to advise the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs on the continuation of the URI Open Access Fund. The URI Open Access Fund was created in 2013 to reimburse URI authors for Article Processing Charges when they published in qualifying…

VITAL faculty, also known as non-tenure-track instructors at colleges and universities in the United States, play critical roles in educating students but are often excluded from professional development and community-building opportunities that support their growth and development as instructors. In this article, we describe how we addressed…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an example of best practice towards enhancing employability in the cross-sectoral labour market for doctorate-holders. This was achieved through an Erasmus+ KA2 (Strategic Partnership) skills development project which created a training programme (TRANSPEER) involving a multi-disciplinary cohort of…

From 2016 to 2020, ten smaller schools in one regional library consortium participated in a user needs assessment project. This article documents the process for implementing a collaborative user needs assessment by utilizing the shared interest and enthusiasm of a team of librarians to create a consortial toolkit. The toolkit supplied direction…

Ethics and ethical behaviour are the fundamental pillars of a civilised society. The focus on ethical behaviour is indispensable in certain fields such as medicine, finance, or law. In fact, ethics gets precedence with anything that would include, affect, transform, or influence upon individuals, communities or any living creatures. Many…

This essay tries to trace the most important steps of Italian e-learning between 1995 and 2005, a crucial time for the success of the Distance Learning in Italy. From the first degree course entirely in e-learning (by the Politecnico di Milano) some excellence e-learning centers of research and experimentation were born until the…

This paper offers insights into the establishment of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Chair of Open Distance Learning (ODL) at the University of South Africa (UNISA). The aim of the UNESCO Chair is to stimulate ODL research at UNISA. The paper briefly describes UNISA, which is the largest dedicated…

Before COVID-19 entered our lives, colleges and universities were already facing enormous pressures on their bottom lines. Sixty percent of higher education institutions (HEIs) missed their fall 2019 enrollment goals, according to a recent "Chronicle of Higher Education" story. Changing demographics and drops in international enrollments…

At "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi, a novel concept has been implemented by creating the University Regional Research Consortium for Environmental Monitoring and Protection, to improve environmental monitoring and education applicability. The Eco-Consortium has implemented several projects which involved teachers, students, and…

The financial challenges facing college students in the U.S. are daunting. The majority of these students are incurring substantial debt during their studies. For many this likely debt level is sufficient to cause them to forgo college, while for others it leads them to drop out before completing a degree. This financial strain places a premium on…

The competition of civilizations forced the European universities to adapt to the competition with the Chinese and American universities. European integration cannot advance without the collaboration between European universities. An answer to these challenges is the CIVICA project, the European University of Social Sciences, a consortium of the…

The Mississippi Public Universities "Research Catalog" is mandated by the State through the University Research Center Act of 1988 (§ 37-141-17). The publication lists the funding amounts by the sources of funding and by the university disciplines receiving the funding. It is designed for use by state policy makers, the educational…

Correspondence courses have been offered in Brazil since the late 19th century; in the 20th century, instructional media such as radio and television were successfully used long before the introduction of the Internet. However, distance education (DE) was officially established in Brazil only in 1996 by the National Educational Law of Policies and…

The Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Success initiative at the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) is dedicated to strengthening the capacity of Tennessee's seven historically Black colleges and universities to provide the highest quality education; increasing opportunities for these institutions to participate in and…