In the course of 2001, the International Association of Universities (IAU), in cooperation with the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP), proceeded to A Survey on the Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in its Member Institutions. The aim of this Survey is to publish, on the Web, a collection of ICTs good practice cases in universities worldwide, which would be of assistance to university managers and staff looking for examples of what to implement in matters of new technologies in their establishments.

A Preliminary Questionnaire was sent to IAU Member Universities in order to identify ICTs best practices cases in their institution. 120 responses were received, meaning nearly one-fifth of IAU’s institutional Constituency.

Out of these 120 universities, ten responses came from universities in Latin America, eleven from Central and Eastern Europe, forty-three from Western Europe, eleven from North America, fifteen from Asia, six from Oceania, twenty-two from Arab countries and five from African countries. Fifty-four different countries were represented in the Survey.

Only thirteen institutions reported not to have an Intranet network, but they have either another system or, in any case, access to Internet.

In 70% of the universities which replied, all or nearly all teachers and administrative staff have access to the Institution’s Intranet network (in 10% of the institutions more than half of the teachers and staff have access to it) while students only have full access in 60% of the cases.

In close to 80% of the institutions, all or nearly all teachers and administrative staff have E-mail addresses, while this falls to 55% as far as students are concerned (in another 15% of the institutions, at least half of the students have E-mails). It is to be noted, however, that many universities either were not fully aware of the number of students having E-mails in their establishment or reported that they did not have this information at all. <

Some 100 universities (out of 120) reported having an ICT Expert Unit for the whole institution (particularly for the administration), while eighty-four had (an) expert(s) for ICTs in teaching and learning, eighty-four for libraries, seventy-eight for student services and sixty-nine for computer-aided learning material.

Sixty-seven universities, that is more than 50%, mentioned that they had a Central Strategy concerning ICT activities within the institution and that, most of the time, this is available on-line or as a document you can obtain by E-mail.

The figures above have to be manipulated with precaution, however, as we believe it are mostly the universities with experience in ICTs, which tended to respond to our Questionnaire.

As far as successful ICT projects/experiences are concerned, six different areas had been identified by the International Association of Universities, namely: Teaching & Learning; Research; Student Affairs and Services; Administration; Libraries and Open & Distance Learning (ODL).

In the replies, a total of sixty-eight projects were cited and/or described in the area of Teaching & Learning; sixty in Student Affairs & Services; fifty-seven in Administration; fifty-four in Libraries; forty-eight in Open & Distance Learning and forty-five in Research. Some universities mentioned special projects such as "Virtual Reality & Multimedia", others a webpage project. The University of Pennsylvania referred to a project called "Technology vision for the multimedia decade". The University of Birzeit reported on its "Across Borders Project, Connecting Palestinians living in refugee camps throughout the Arab World by utilising Information Systems and specifically the Internet".

Projects range from integrated systems for the whole institution (for example, the University of South Australia with its "UniSAnet and Learning Connection UniSAnet: an online teaching and learning environment") to specific and/or limited projects in the different areas described above.