MPs prepare report on the failure of the UKeU

Computing, 27 May). MPs have spent the last few months grilling the parties and last week Dr Kim Howells, higher education minister and representative of the department for education and skills (DfES), was questioned by the Education and Skills Committee, as part of the Commons continuing investigation into the failure of UKeU. Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) awarded the government money that made UKeU possible. Hefce chairman David Young appeared before the Committee in June. And at the end of July, UKeU chairman Sir Anthony Cleaver and chief executive John Beaumont attempted to defend the troubled project's record. Last week the third Select Committee sat to discuss the project's failures and the future of elearning in the UK. At all three Committee meetings, MPs have concentrated on a number of key areas - the areas that Computing has identified over the last year and a half as UKeU's key failings. They include the organisation multi-million pound learning platform, the bonuses for UKeUs' executive staff and the future of elearning in the UK. Computing summarises the responses of the three main parties from the three Select Committee meetings and examines the future of elearning post UKeU. UKeU executive bonuses At the start of the investigation, we revealed (Computing, June 30) that basic salaries for all UKeU executive directors in 2002/3 totalled £428,625. Performance-related bonuses amounted to £101,770, or 23.7 per cent of executive directors' basic wages. Of UKeU's 75 workers, 31 were eligible for bonuses of between 10 and 50 per cent. Hefce chairman David Young told the inquiry that the bonus scheme was not what he would have chosen to put into place. 'The performance-related targets are rather loose,' he said. 'The bonuses had to be paid on legal advice and are rather unusual.' Hefce chief executive Sir Howard Newby told MPs he was unaware of the bonus scheme and was not 'comfortable' with it. UKeU had a director-led remuneration committee that made recommendations to its board for executive pay. It was subsequently revealed at June's meeting, with UKeU bosses Cleaver and Beaumont, that UKeU's bonuses were awarded against defined criteria, agreed by the organisation's remuneration committee. Barry Sheerman, chairman of the Committee, said the level of bonuses 'looked bad' given the level of success at the organisation, which cost £50m and attracted just 900 students. 'It's a very serious salary and my constituents would want to know why you are getting these bonuses,' Sheerman said. UKeU chief executive John Beaumont, whose entitlement for 2002/03 was up to 30 per cent of his annual £180,000 salary, said his criteria included delivering a 'fit-for-purpose' platform. Beaumont received a bonus of £44,914 in 2002/03. The learning platform Computing revealed earlier this year (22 July) how there had been 'expressions of interest' in UKeU's learning platform, but these were not pursued because the platform would have required additional investment from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce). The platform, which cost £9.9m to develop, is likely to be scrapped after creditors failed to find a buyer. UKeU executives Cleaver and Beaumont told the inquiry a further £4m a year would have been needed to help maintain and complete UKeU's £9.9m online learning platform. 'I would not pretend for a moment that what existed on the day we resigned was a satisfactory ultimate product,' said Cleaver. Beaumont said it would have taken about £2m a year to keep the platform operating, plus a further £2m for additional development work. The UKeU executives said the online learning organisation provided a 'fit-for-purpose' platform release in 2003 - and continued to modify this platform through the final twelve months of its existence. Beaumont said it was now unlikely that the massive investment in the platform was salvageable - and he blamed this failure on the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce's) approach to the wind-up of UKeU. Last week, higher education minister Kim Howells revealed that some interested parties did bid for the scrapped £9m elearning platform, but would have wanted to be paid to take the infrastructure on. Howells said the direction of platform and content development work was misguided. 'A lot of money was put into constructing a platform and not enough into content - and there was a lot of ignorance about courses,' he said. The people in charge of UKeU did evaluate other off-the-shelf systems but decided to plough ahead with a bespoke application, Howells said. 'Hefce was aware of the systems that were out there - but it was felt a big bang approach required a new creature,' he said. The future of elearning in the UK Kim Howells concluded that the multi-million pound e-university was 'a risky experiment'. 'The people in charge should have been much more sensitive to the needs of students around the world,' Howells said. Committee chairman Barry Sheerman said MPs were supportive of elearning but feared UKeU could poison the entrepreneurial atmosphere. 'I wouldn't go as far as to call it a disaster - we tried and failed. We can't make government risk averse,' said Howells. Howells revealed that the £12m residue from the initiative - the money remaining from the original £62m UKeU funding - would be available for higher education elearning projects. 'We've got to ask for - and receive - proposals, but the last thing we need is an open chequebook. We've got to be very careful after UKeU,' he said. 'They've got £12m to experiment with and I'd have to see very good plans before I gave any more.' Howells, however, believed elearning would continue to grow in importance. 'Elearning is certainly important,' he said 'I'm still unclear about UKeU. Whether we'll be world players, I'm not clear. Maybe the original idea was too ambitious. There was great enthusiasm.' Box-out: What was UKeU? At last week's meeting, the Committee was keen to establish the origins of the UKeU concept - and Kim Howells revealed the online university was included in the Higher Education Council for England's (Hefce) 1999 spending review bid. It was suggested the concept originated from earlier discussions between Hefce and UK vice chancellors. UKeU was eventually launched in 2000, by the then secretary of state for education and employment David Blunkett. It aimed to attract overseas students to study online with UK universities with £62m of public funding. However, the project lacked focus in planning and management - and no provision was made for private sector funding. And a Computing investigation revealed the project, which eventually cost £50m, attracted just 900 students, subsidising distance learning to the tune of £56,000 per student.

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