Currently, the development of digital technologies has changed the approach to learning and quality of the education. With the accelerated development of distance education in the world, universities are moving into a virtual or meta-space – i.e. a web platform that offers students and organizations a platform with virtual immersion capabilities for gaining and sharing knowledge to
achieve interdisciplinary academic goals. In this way, educational institutions come together to offer students the opportunity to access learning resources from any university/library they need, and students studying at one educational institution can take courses at other universities and colleges. All this makes education more accessible, perfect and independent.
The relevance and advantages of creating a specialized virtual university are as follows:
• high-quality presentation of lectures due to the support of multimedia and interactive;
• low cost of education;
• Providing an opportunity to enrol in higher education institutions for all who experience difficulties in a traditional university;
• the opportunity to enter prestigious universities, regardless of the location of the university;
• easy access to libraries and educational resources;
• time savings due to the absence of the need to attend a traditional university;
• Ensuring social justice through equal access to technology;
• the students control the path of academic learning, as learning in virtual classrooms is carried out in accordance with their request;
• creative teaching method;
• Creating an environment of real human presence in laboratories through meta-space
Also with the benefits, the most important reasons hindering the spread of virtual
universities in developing countries should also be noted:
• the virtual university is not yet popular all over the world;
• popular distrust in the level of the educational system of the virtual university;
• conservatism of the state policy of higher education;
• the traditional generation rejects the idea of modern teaching methods,
including virtual universities;
• continuous learning and technical support should be available to teachers and students of the virtual university.
The International Information Technologies University is the leading university in Central Asia in the training of IT specialists.The development of educational programs that consider immersive technologies, the creation of virtual laboratories and work on scientific projects funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan and international organizations such as UNICEF, led to the creation of a university meta-space. And the next stage of the university’s strategic development was the creation of a Meta-University. IITU defines a Meta-University as a new culture of learning in a virtual community
Of course, in order to create a meta-university, higher education institutions must have a reserve: a bank of technologies used, the presence of a digital university, a base of its own scientific knowledge, qualified personnel and scientists, a laboratory of immersive technologies that will
create digital twins, virtual objects, requires large financial investments and the availability of high-tech equipment.
Meta-education can provide a hybrid, formal and informal active approach to learning. In virtual 3D buildings, students are users of virtual spaces with their own individual curricula. Full immersion lets the learner know about unknown circumstances and events in remote locations.
Thus, IITU is developing its own concept and implementation of the META-university, which consists in the training of qualified personnel who can use immersive technologies, and the university itself teaches on the principle of “immersive learning”. We must be ready for future professions now and start working in the virtual space of various sectors of the economy.