Online Education To The Rescue …Again
Jan 13th, 2006
How would you like to attend university in another country …without ever leaving your home?
Online education has broken another barrier: the high cost of native colleges and universities that may keep students from attending.
CRI Online reports:
In a couple of years, UK students shopping around for best-value degrees might apply to study at a Chinese university. The idea is not as far fetched as it sounds. Faced with higher top-up fees, UK school-leavers are already beating a path to the door of US universities, many of which offer attractive bursaries to tempt academic high flyers. So why not study a degree course taught in English at one of China's top universities? Or online?
"Chinese universities are throwing open their doors to attract international students," says Helen Spencer-Oatey of Cambridge University's language centre.
She coordinates a project called e-China, the result of collaboration between the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), the Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc) and the Chinese Ministry of Education.
The aim is to develop a common platform for online distance learning and links with Chinese universities that will end centuries of academic isolation. While UK universities see distance learning as a vehicle for widening participation, and making the campus and its many offerings accessible to external and, in some cases, special needs students, in China distance learning is designed to attract students over far greater distances. The Chinese see online courses as mimicking the experience of attending a lecture theatre.
Is it possible to get through a day without discovering at least one fascinating tidbit from the world of online education?
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