AU and the world's other open universities are the future of higher education present in the here and now. The advancement of distance education has been the most important academic development in the last half of this century and will provide the model for the university of the next century. Demand is exploding worldwide as a tidal wave of young people reach university age and older people take up the habit of lifelong learning. The world now needs one large new campus to open somewhere every week just to keep participation rates in universities at their present levels. The money is simply not there and, even if it were, new residential campuses wouldn't solve the problem .
Distance education is the answer.
Twelve of the world's open universities now enrol over 100,000 students each and over three million students between them. These mega-universities have expanded access, cut cost and improved quality. Athabasca University staff have advised several of the mega-universities and that should make you proud. The technology of distance education is the key to the future. Athabasca University is providing vital answers to that question with the Virtual Teaching and Learning Community that it calls ViTAL .