"mega-distance education universities"

According to <http://www.studysa.co.za/uni/unisa.html>, "The University of South Africa (Unisa) is one of ten mega-distance education universities in the world."

Assuming the obvious is meant by "mega-distance education universities," what are the other nine?

 

I think the Open University in the UK has got to be another one. Cerainly one of the biggest.

 

The term "megauniversity" was coined by Sir John Daniel, then VC of the UK Open University, to refer to universities with more than 100,000 students.

Daniel listed Anadolu University (Turkey), China TV University (China), Universitas Terbuka (Indonesia), Indira Gandhi National Open University (India), Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (Thailand), Korean National Open University (Korea), National Center for Distance Learning (France), Open University (U.K.), Unisa (South Africa), Payame Noor University (Iran), National Center for Distance Learning (Spain).

 

University of Phoenix, with more than a quarter of a million students, about half of them online.

 

Madjurai Kamaraj University with 130,000 students.
Jack

 

Ramkhamhaeng University (Thailand) claims 600,000 students.

 

Bejing Uni or something like that has a huge number of internet and correspondance students who still study by radio.

 

Mega-Universities (continued)

Most of the mega-universities conduct instruction, naturally enough, in their respective national languages. With respect to those who use English, UNISA has been the subject of numerous posts on this forum but I rarely see UK Open University mentioned. Do they still restrict enrollment to citizens of EU countries? If so, why would UK Open University have such a restriction in place when the other UK universities offering DL have no such restriction. Additionally, what is the academic reputation of UK Open University versus UNISA?

 

Re: Mega-Universities (continued)

As far as I know, this resriction remains, essentially unchanged. I had heard that there was an IT program available to US residents but because it's not an area of interest for me I never looked into it. As for reputation, I couldn't really say. If all other things were equal (by which I primarily mean the cost) I'd probably go with the UK university. This is just an off the cuff assessment on my part, based on very little information and almost no research.
Jack

 

A friend who did his master's at Cambridge says that the UKOU has an excellent academic reputation. I've heard similar from other people.

My sense is that more people have heard of it than have heard of UNISA, and in general those who know it regard it highly.

 

Re: Mega-Universities (continued)

Currently, only some of the comp sci, pedagogy and technology-related programmes are available outside the EU.

Having had two close friends working for the OU in the past, I have asked them more than once why the programmes remain restricted to the EU. Whilst they're not high enough up in the decision making process to give a definitive answer, my impression is that the OU is particularly concerned about the scaling of its tuition model outside the EU.

The OU has a very tutor-centred system of teaching. In addition to the distance learning materials you receive, unless you're on one of the online courses, you'll also be allocated a tutor who lives in your local area and will also mark some of your papers. This is not a system that scales well beyond the EU.

One would also add that the OU's system is also very European. They still function on year-long courses that run once a year.

Um. I'm not certain about UNISA, but I do know where the OU stands in the UK, and it's definitely above the ex-polys and quite possibly above a number of the pre-1992 universities. In a few subjects, such as earth sciences and vulcanology it's world class.

Angela