Virtual U Demo

Virtual U simulates running a university or college. It is a powerful, convenient, and user-friendly educational software tool that models the attitudes and behaviors of an academic community.

Players act as president of a university or college and struggle to manage the institution's affairs. The player walks around the campus, visits various buildings such as the Admissions Office, the Athletic Department, and the Student Union, obtains information in each building, and then can make decisions about who gets admitted, who gets financial aid, how the endowment is spent, how large classes are, how much tuition increases and much more.

Players check their progress as time goes by and receive a letter of review from the university board every "year," according to the rate of time passage established by the player.

Players strive for continuous improvement of the university or fulfillment of a unique game scenario such as raising minority enrollment.

Product Fact Sheet

Premise: Virtual U simulates running a university or college. It is a powerful, convenient, and user-friendly software tool that models the attitudes and behaviors of an academic community.

Storyline: Players act as president of a university or college and struggle to manage the institution's affairs. The new president sets, monitors, and modifies a variety of institutional parameters and policies. Players determine tuition cost and allocate resources for all components of the university including teaching, research, financial aid, faculty salaries, facilities, intercollegiate athletics, and fund raising. Players check their progress as time goes by and receive a letter of review from the university board every "year," according to the rate of time passage established by the player.

Objective: Players strive for continuous improvement of the university or fulfillment of a unique game scenario such as raising minority enrollment.

Features: Virtual U is a fun, interactive simulation tool with these key features:

Players have a choice of ten playable scenarios or open-ended, customized play.

Players can adjust all major policies of an academic community including student admission, faculty hiring and early retirement, course mix, research emphasis, athletic competition, endowment investment, student housing, and even parking.

The game is driven by a sophisticated simulation engine that models five broad areas: resource allocation and finance; academic operations; enrollment management; physical plant activities; and performance indicators. Student and faculty moral and institutional prestige are also major factors.

Virtual U is a caricature of real academic life grounded in authentic conceptual structures and data. Data sources include IPEDS, the College Board, and the High School and Beyond survey.

Game includes substantial tutorials and a strategy guide to assist players in grasping its complex features and nuances.

System: Windows 95/98; 16 megabytes of RAM; 50 megabytes of available hard disk space; CD-ROM; sound card optional; Direct X 5.0 with compatible graphics card. Note: product is not compatible with Windows NT 3.5 or 4.0.

Developers: Enlight Software (game; www.enlight.com), the Jackson Hole Higher Education Group (engine), and the Institute for Research on Higher Education at the University of Pennsylvania (data), with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (www.sloan.org), and the Spencer Foundation.

Audience: University administrators, deans, and department chairs; university faculty; educational organizations and associations; educational consultants; business, management, and educational students; higher education writers; student game-players; university alumni.