Will Distance Learning Create a Global University?

W ith economic globalization and widespread adoption of the World Wide Web, universities have begun competing for enrollees from outside their commuting range—and even beyond their national borders. Although this trend intensifies competition, student concerns remain constant. They care most about the degree they will receive when completing their studies because it will determine their employability. They must also compare the cost of studying at their chosen university with their ability to meet the costs that institution charges. Consequently, many prospective college students eagerly seek high-quality, low-cost universities. To meet these needs, many larger universities have embarked on ambitious programs that focus on building regional campuses that feature distance learning classrooms. In most cases, these institutions restrict their expansion to one state within a feder-ated country: In the US, for example, the University of California system, Carnegie-Mellon, and Purdue all follow this practice. In some cases, however , the expansion crosses national and even continental boundaries. The Instituto Technológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey educational system (www.itesm.com) provides an example of this approach. Established in Monterrey, Mexico, in the mid-1940s, Tec de Monterrey now consists of 32 campuses in Mexico and about 540 remote facilities throughout the country. Santiago de Chile all host remote campuses, while 1,035 remote offices and classrooms have been opened in other parts of Latin America. Finally, remote installations have been opened in cities with a relatively high Spanish-speaking popula-One possible development, for Tec de Monterrey or any university that aspires to spread throughout all of Mexico, is to open either campuses or remote facilities in all 2,445 of the country's municipalities. The next step would be to do the same in all Latin American municipalities. Finally, the same might be done in all Spanish-speaking municipalities, worldwide. Potentially, 100,000 such campuses could exist, each serving between 10,000 and 100,000 people. For most Spanish-speaking universities, opening a campus or office in every municipality of the world is probably unrealistic. Given that English is the most widely used language today, however, a top-ranked English-speaking university would have a more realistic chance of pursuing this goal successfully. One possible commonsense scenario for future distance-learning development might unfold as follows: 1. In the typical large municipality, several distance-education universities open remote offices or campuses. 2. These remote facilities compete with the local, traditional universities. 3. Students compare the price, convenience , quality, and reputation of the competitors. Better-quality universities will …