Expanding higher education for sustainable development in Asia: Are the open universities up to the task?

ABSTRACT

Open universities were the most significant development in global higher education in the last third of the 20thcentury. Some grew to be very large in size (over one million students) and collectively they expanded access to higher education substantially, particularly, but not only, in Asia and Africa. Moreover, by making higher education available off campus to people of all ages, many of them studying part-time, they expanded the missions of universities in ways that conventional campus universities have slowly begun to adopt. Forecasts suggest that tens of millions of additional students will want to undertake higher education in the next 20 years. The open universities, of which there are now over 50 worldwide, many of them in Asia, would seem well placed to play a large role in catering to these students. However, at the end of the second decade of the 21stcentury, it appears that many open universities are losing strength and impact. Some have never really got off the ground, others may have become too large to be manageable, most have difficulty in adopting modern educational technologies and some have been savaged by changes in government policy. Yet at the same time, largely because of COVID-19, campus universities are expanding their distance and online offerings as never before. This chapter will review the current state of open universities and suggest how they might better rise to the challenges of the 21stcentury, when the UN Sustainable Development Goals include the expansion of higher education and the improvement of its quality. © 2021 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.