The formal economy is incapable of offering employment opportunities to all the inhabitants. Demands from the community were well organised, and this resulted in the fact that on 2 December 1993, the previous regional government in Qwaqwa was forced to grant official permission to the Technikon Free State to commence classes in Qwaqwa from 1994. However, as is the case in many developing African countries, the contemporary higher education scene is much distorted. A needs-driven research programme is thus necessary for technikon distance education. The Technikon Free State applies a merger within the second generation, i.e. a merger of limited lecturing with study guides and textbooks.
Distance education exists in two principal forms.
Qwaqwa learners may be distant from the main campus in Bloemfontein, but they are not isolated. They still have a part-time lecturer nearby from whom they receive contact teaching and whom they can phone or consult after hours. The ideal is thus to try to counterbalance the large learner numbers of the Qwaqwa facility with low unit costs. Convergent systems thus enhance the quality of teaching and learning. As such it reflects a convergence between distance and conventional education.