Online campus

Remember when universities were bursting at the seams with students sitting in the aisles, balancing books on their knees?

No more, it seems. E-learning is as likely to stand for empty lecture theatres as for the internet 1, which has greatly increased the 2 and range of course materials available online in the past five years.

"The 3 now is to simply think, 'Everything will be online so I don't need to go to class'," said Dr Kerri-Lee Krause, of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Melbourne. The nation's universities are in the process of opening the doors for the new academic year and, while classes are generally well 4 for the early weeks, it often does not last. "There is concern at the university level about student 5 dropping and why students are not coming to lectures," Dr Krause said.

But lecturers' pride - and 6 competition among universities for students - mean few are willing to acknowledge publicly how poorly attended many classes are.