Research On Evolvement And Development Trend Of Distance And Open Universities

The origin and development of distance and open universities have historicalheritage and root into the specific social context. The research has exploredthe trace of distance and open universities historically from the perspectiveof Asia and China.Methods of historical analysis, SWOT analysis, comparative research, casestudy are applied to retrospect the origin, evolvement and transformation ofdistance and open universities to illuminate the evolvement logic anddevelopment nature inside. The research has showed the external impetusmechanism of distance and open universities has determined the fourdevelopment modality:original, variable, accumulative and mutative, whichmean that only when the domestic higher education is close to masseducation can distance and open universities come into being; while beyondthe popularization phase, distance and open universities would lose thefoundation, thus distance and open universities have showed diversity trend:original type would develop into highly autonomous distance and openuniversities; variable type has the flexibility and possibility to evolve intodual mode universities; accumulative type would decompose more federalautonomous distance and open universities decentrally.The outcome of trend analysis has proven that the trend of distance and openuniversities is to come close to the appropriate scale. Only between the range of appropriate scale, can distance and open universities can getsustainable development. Both the development status and the developmentphase which would give proper guidance on future development of distanceand open universities.On the basis of comparing the overall development model of distance andopen universities in Asia, the research deduces that Radio&TV Universitiesare so compatible with the general trend curve of distance and openuniversities, that they should evolve into autonomous distance and openuniversities.