Higher Education: Why Dons Won't Be Logging on ; Today, the Association of University Teachers Is Voting to Boycott Online Courses Run by an Elite Group of Universities around the World. LUCY HODGES Reports

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Remember when virtual universities were the latest fad? Only two years ago David Blunkett, the former Education Secretary, announced Britain's e-university, a world first, to great fanfare. Universities were exhorted to get wired and to enter global alliances. We were told people wanted to learn at the flick of the switch, and that if Britain didn't climb on the bandwagon it would get left behind.

Well, that was before the dot.com bubble burst. No one is talking quite like that any more. Britain's pride and joy, the Open University, has had to make a humiliating withdrawal from the United States. Under Sir John Daniel, its former vice chancellor, it had invested pounds …