Hochschule virtuell – Bildung durch Vernetzung. Studieren mit dem Internet

Taking the Bavarian Vir tual University (Virtuelle Hochschule Bayern) as an example, the author shows that the innovative potential of virtual universities lies in the idea of a cooperation of utterly different universities, with teaching staff from different faculties, schools and backgrounds. Bringing these divergent elements together, notably in the question of a mutual acknowledgement of credits issued by each university, is one of the most ambitious aims of the Virtuelle Hochschule Bayern. Quality assurance is another fruitful field of cooperation. – Whether it will be possible to use virtual university facilities in non-academic further education will depend on the learners’ ability to develop appropriate online learning strategies as well as on the institutions’willingness to meet demands from the non-academic sector.