Residential schools tie up University facilities at times when they could be used for conferences and other academic or community activities. Residential schools add to the workload of staff and reduce time available for research. In order to overcome some of the problems associated with compulsory residential schools, some disciplines have moved to optional schools. However, optional schools create another set of difficulties. Some students claim that employers will only support attendance at a school when it is designated as compulsory.
Numbers are difficult to predict and plan for.
Staff and students question the value of an optional residential school when it is a requirement that students who cannot attend the school must not be disadvantaged - that is, all work covered at the school must be made available in some other form to students who do not attend. Discussion The dilemma for UNE is how to achieve the necessary flexibility in its delivery of distance education without losing what has been seen in the past to be an integral part of maintaining high standards. There is some evidence that times have changed and that some areas of the university and many of our students no longer see residential schools as a 'cornerstone' of UNE's approach to distance education. On the other hand, for at least some disciplines, residential schools will remain, at least for the medium-term, a very important element of offering quality distance education. It should be noted that residential schools do not guarantee quality per se.