International Success for Danish e-learning

60 participants from 25 countries make up the first group of students at the University of Copenhagen who study via the Internet to qualify as climate experts. Their teachers include members of the UN Climate Panel and train experts who may offer advice to politicians and other decision makers.

– The international success of the Climate Change course at the University of Copenhagen is a fine and much appreciated encouragement to Danish e-learning, which has found it difficult to gain popularity on a scale similar to e-business, says Helge Sander, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation.

– In the first place, we need to train climate experts who may take charge of the challenges all over the globe. And secondly, I hope that other Danish universities might be inspired by this success, offering research-based and educational Internet courses with international appeal.

The courses are supported by the development pool of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation for promoting e-learning at the universities. The participants come from a number of African and Asian countries, from Australia, Russia and Ukraine and from North America, Scandinavia and other European countries.

Only online instruction

Internationally, the multi-disciplinary online course on climate changes is a pathbreaking initiative. "Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation" is offered by the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen.

The course focuses on how we may prevent and reduce climate changes and how we can best adapt to future climate changes and a new climate. Instruction is given exclusively online. As a consequence, it is of no importance where in the world students and teachers are located when taking part in the course. The only requirement is that they should have access to the Internet.

For further comments by Science Minister Helge Sander, please contact Information Manager Allan Boldt, tel.: +45 33 92 97 39, abo@vtu.dk.

For further comments on the climate expert education, please contact the University of Copenhagen, either Assistant Professor Christian Bugge Henriksen, tel.: +45 22 45 23 29, cbh@life.ku.dkor Professor John R. Porter, tel.: +45 26 52 14 84, jrp@life.ku.dk.

For further information on the Science Ministry's development pool for e-learning projects at the universities, please contact the National IT and Telecom Agency, Niels Andreasen, Head of Section, tel.: +45 35 45 02 08, na@itst.dk.