CORPORATE UNIVERSITIES - Ten years ago there were about 400 corporate universities - today that number has grown to 1,600. Several of them, such as the Arthur D. Little School in Boston, have formal degree-granting powers and many have forged alliances with nearby colleges and universities to enable students taking their courses to receive credits that count toward external degrees. But the relationship appears to be crumbling, as corporate universities increasingly are under pressure from their companies to become self-supporting. That puts the corporate schools in direct competition with conventional universities in the fundraising arena. A recent survey of 100 corporate universities showed that 10% planned to be self-funded by 2000. As the funding model changes to be more self-funded, these universities are going to brand what they are doing and use their significant resources to go to the external market. At that point they are a significant threat.
(Financial Times 18 Jun 98)

ACADEMIC ONLINE PUBLISHING - A group of influential academics wants to introduce online peer review and publishing of scholarly works as an alternative to high-price journals (some cost as much as $15,000 a year.) The group, with academic officers from the University of Rochester, Columbia University and the California Institute of Technology, wants universities to recognize online posting as "publishing". "We are calling for neither a lessening of the importance of research in the criteria for promotion and tenure, nor a turning away from peer review," says an Association of American Universities and the Association of Research Libraries paper. "We seek an alternate means of achieving those ends." Under the proposed plan the papers, once posted online, would be peer-reviewed by a panel of experts, just as is now the case with print-published papers. The panels, established by scholarly groups, would give each article a grade or a stamp of approval. Response to date is lukewarm.
(Chronicle of Higher Education 26 Jun 98)

NET TRUST - A recent United Press International poll found that computer users put more confidence in information that they find online than that gleaned from more conventional sources, such as newspapers and television. Forty-three percent of those polled said they trusted the accuracy of online information versus 35% for other media; 59% of their computer time is spent doing work versus 41% of time spent on recreational activities.
(Information Week 1 Jun 98)