Share this article on...
Contact Us
- Report errors or inaccuracies topmba@qsnetwork.com
- Contribute articles contribute@qsnetwork.com
- Advertise advertise@qsnetwork.com
Access all areas: distance learning graduate education
Whether a career path or lack of financial means prevents you from travelling overseas for your graduate education all is not lost. With increasing numbers of graduate programs offered at a distance and quality assurance mechanisms keeping pace with such new developments, perhaps transnational programs will help you meet your educational goals?
The complexity of our everyday lives makes finding time to study for a graduate qualification increasingly difficult. Though many seek graduate opportunities immediately on completion of their first degree, it is now common for students to enter the workplace and return to study some time later. However, with conflicting pressures of a career, personal and family life, returning to study fulltime can often be very problematic indeed and in many situations almost impossible. With universities wishing to support life long learning and continuing professional development, more academic programs are being offered on a flexible basis to encourage potential graduate students to study while they work.
Distance learning degrees on the increase
Distance learning or transnational education is also on the increase. The desire to study for high quality, internationally recognized programs is certainly growing at an almost exponential rate all over the world. Transnational programs enable students to seek qualifications offered by international education providers, though delivered locally. In countries such as Hong Kong and Malaysia, the popularity of such programs means that in some cases, as many local students follow international qualifications delivered locally as travel for their graduate degree. The way in which these academic programs operate varies from country to country and university to university, but can combine online elements such as streaming video lectures and tutorial chat rooms, with local classes, teleconferencing, televised lectures or experiments and many other forms of assessment. Mixed mode methods of teaching on transnational programs are amongst the most popular and help students tackle their course of study through a range of teaching strategies.
Types of distance learning programs
Three types of educational institutions currently offer different varieties of transnational education. The first type consists of those institutions that are considered to be online or virtual universities that offer flexible forms of academic programs at the graduate level, often certificate or diploma type courses, through an almost exclusive online delivery. The University of Phoenix and DeVry University are both examples of this type of institution and demonstrate the sheer popularity of this style of learning, especially amongst those that are unable to commit themselves to a period of fulltime study away from home, because of personal circumstances.
The second type of institution is the dedicated transnational education provider, such as the Open University in the UK, UNISA in South Africa or the Indira Gandhi National Open University in India. These institutions have developed unique expertise in the delivery of high quality academic programs, all of which are designed for distance learning delivery so that students can gain qualifications that benefit from the latest research and theoretical frameworks without ever having to leave their own country. Because these programs are designed specifically for remote teaching, academic material is directed towards supporting the distance learner and students are supported through the study process in an extremely effective way.
The third type of institution offering transnational programs is the normal university institution. Aware that more and more students do not have either the financial wherewithal or the time to travel for Masters and research degrees, universities have successful adapted their existing graduate programs to a different kind of delivery so that all or part of the course can be delivered at a local site, close to where the student lives and works. Universities combine a range of delivery methods to ensure that the content of the programs are taught in such a way that the remoteness of a student’s location is no obstacle to the academic and learning experience.
These programs are particularly popular in the more vocational areas of education, such as business, engineering, management and teacher education.
