Logo of Linköpings Universitet
Chapter 17
Linköpings University

The Distance education activities of Linköpings University

Category : Distance education provision from a university

Country : Sweden

Location : Linköping

Language of instruction : Swedish

Official status

The University of Linköping is a national Swedish university situated at Linköping in Southern Sweden, 100 km south-west of Stockholm. The university was first founded as an independent college and in 1975 officially became what it is today with the three faculties: Linköping University is notably the youngest of Sweden´s six universities. The university has developed several unique educational programmes that transcend traditional academic borders. This approach was manifested in the creation of Sweden's first MSc programme in Industrial Management and Engineering. Many similar ventures have followed, such as the two new programmes: Cognitive Science and Information Technology. Combining humanities and social studies with computer science, these programmes aim at a holistic view of information technology. It follows the Swedish concept of providing distance education courses from conventional universities of which there are more than 50 when one includes institutes of technology, schools of education, university colleges of health sciences. All faculties are involved. The University currently offers some 50 separate distance taught courses and a few study programmes.

Linköping University is a member of the Swedish Consortium for Distance Education. The other members are the Universities of Lund, Umeä, Uppsala, the Royal Institute of Technology and the University of Vaxjo.

Certification and courses

All the faculties of Linköping offer distance education courses. The tendency in Sweden in general is that courses are usually comparatively short with a duration of the equivalent of five weeks full-time study to one-semester courses. The courses usually have small enrolment numbers: 15 to 30 per course. Often the courses consist of face-to-face lectures with periods of self study in between without many guiding materials.

At Linköping Distance education has been an integrated part of undergraduate education since the distance courses started in the early 1970s. All faculties are involved. The University currently offers some 50 separate distance taught courses and a few study programmes.

Distance learning initiatives fit in the general mission of the University to be a competitive and leading university with recruitment of students from the whole country and from other countries, and with emphasis on advanced further and continuing education.

The amount of courses run in English is most impressive and displays a willingness to embrace distance education. The University does in addition pride itself on the growing and already large numbers of foreign students studying at the campus.

Linköping university offers some 300 single-subject courses and 40 educational study programmes. The study programmes follow a fixed course of study and lead to either a Bachelor´s degree, a Master´s degree or a university Diploma. Within most programmes both compulsory and optional courses are included.

Courses can be combined for a Bachelor´s (3 years) or a Master´s (4 to 4,5 years) degree.

Materials

The principal teaching medium is printed material such as study guides, written assignments, reading instructions, study or review questions. Other media include television, videoconferencing, video and audio cassettes, the use of computer and e-mail, local study centres for full tutorial support. Internet is becoming more popular as a medium for course distribution and communication.

Many distance courses require meetings for lectures, tutoring and laboratory sessions.

Technology at Linköping

The University has established a special unit, U-LINK, Centre for Continuing and Distance Education, equipped with television and videoconferencing facilities to be responsible for the internal development and distribution of distance education courses. U-LINK will also benefit from the IT excellence of Linköping University.

U-link

Linköping University is the only university in Sweden that offers distance education by means of the terrestrial television broadcasting network. Since their programmes are coded and the course participants must decode the signal, they are working on a so called 'narrowcasting' mode. The education and the transmissions are handled by U-LINK, Centre for Continuing and Distance Education, at Linköping University. Their distance education programmes are live transmissions and the participants can take part in the lectures interactively by phone, fax or on a computer conference system. The participants have the opportunity to use facilities for asking questions or commenting on the content of the lecture since the teacher and the participants take part in a live transmission. This interactivity is very important and has a psychological impact on the participant. The educational situation is very close to a classroom situation where the teacher and the student can interact with each other during the lecture.

U-LINK is allowed to lease the network when the Swedish television broadcasting company doesn't have any transmissions of its own, which means that they normally can produce distance education programmes during the morning hours and the early afternoons (from 8.00 am to 3.00 pm). This kind of distance education is very time efficient since the participants can follow the courses directly at their working places or in their houses. They do not need any time for transportation to a study centre or to another gathering spot. Since the participants can tape the programmes if they are unable to take part in the live transmissions a student never risks missing any information or lecture.

Finances

All regular Swedish university education, including distance education, is free of charge.

Statistics

General statistics
Departments  20 
Students 15,500
Research Students 2,600
Staff & Faculty 1,100 
Teachers and researchers 1,700 
Full professors 137
Gross operating income 1,500 MSEK 
Distance education statistics
Students enrolled in distance education courses  2000
Annual full time equivalent 600