The new university and the knowledge society

Abstract

The main contribution of the present article is to identify and interrelate the main elements that should be taken into account to restructure and update both virtual and conventional universities so that they can constitute key factors in the development of society toward the ideal of the knowledge society. This article briefly places Iberoamerican universities in context, defines the stages of distance education and outlines the so-called telematic information paradigm. In addition, the most important conceptual features for the complex process of the transformation of universities are highlighted and the functions of “evaluation” and “accreditation” within these features are discussed.