He attributes overall success of OU to a philosophy that focuses on student needs and a system that leverages the tremendous economies of scale made possible by delivering the same courses to huge student populations while enjoying relatively low overhead for campus facilities. Thus, supported open learning methods thrive with growth while traditional university methods face economic pressure with increased student populations. Expanding classrooms and lecture halls is expensive, and interaction between teacher and student actually declines with larger classes. Although Britain pioneered the supported open learning concept just a few decades ago, Sir Daniel said, it has spread rapidly. There are now 12 distance learning universities around the world, each enrolling more than 100,000 students and have nearly three million students between them.
None are in the United States.
The larger they get, the more the mega-universities thrive, and their economic rewards are passed on to students to lower the cost of education. In the United States there are roughly 3,500 public colleges and universities with an enrollment of 14 million students. The technology of distance education. While OU has begun moving into other areas of the world, including the US, Sir Daniel predicts expansion in the western world will be slow due to long-standing traditions that will be difficult to break. But it's a big paradigm shift, particularly in the United States where classroom teaching is still king.