...while other Member States find funds to develop the information society
Sweden expects to pass a bill by the end of the year which would see the creation of a new national virtual university. Costing over 21 million euro, the Net University would combine the online courses of several existing Swedish universities'. Coursework taken at any institution would be accepted by all other members of the network. Initial estimates of the number of students who could be enrolled at the university run to nearly 2,500 and education will be free, as in existing universities. The concept of a virtual university is one that will benefit all large countries with inaccessible areas and may be taken up by some of Sweden's Scandinavian neighbours. Meanwhile, the Dutch government has signalled that it is looking at investing in increasing the number of digital services that it offers. It aims to have 25 per cent of all its services available online by the end of 2002. It is also investigating the use of digital security cards, based on criteria such as fingerprints and iris identification, for use in future virtual elections.