The Handbook of Open Universities Around the World is the first collection to provide a comprehensive and critical overview of open universities internationally. Over eighty open universities have been established across five continents to provide a distance-orientated, class-inclusive, and high-quality education for learners left behind by existing formal systems for higher and continuing education and lifelong learning. This mission has been continually reshaped by major developments in open education, learning technologies, and online social networking, as well as by the evolution of specific concerns such as the massification of education, employability, financial trends, artificial intelligence, and development agendas on the regional, national, and global levels. This landmark volume analyzes and reflects on the planning, organization, management, pedagogic, skilling and employability, and accreditation dimensions of forty-seven open universities in relation to their national and institutional contexts, the internationalization of education, and the integration of advanced learning technologies. Featuring contributions by internationally recognized scholars, practitioners, and educational administrators, this authoritative resource provides insights into the business model—finances, operations, instructional systems, enrollment patterns, learner supports, quality assurance, professional development, and more—of today’s open universities. Through historical trajectories, institutional profiles, case studies, lessons learned, and best practices, this book provides rich analytical perspectives on the status and challenges of single-mode distance learning universities as an educational phenomenon while unpacking the premise of “openness” itself. This handbook is primarily written for: · planners, managers, administrators, instructional designers, and teaching faculty at single-mode distance teaching universities who are seeking to sustain their institutions in a period of rapid change; · government policymakers, training organizations, technology providers, and education think tanks who are in need of authentic and research-based information on technology-enabled learning modelled by open universities around the world; and · graduate students, teaching faculty, and scholars who are affiliated with online and distance education, learning design and technology, higher education planning and management, adult education and lifelong learning, and education policy and futures studies.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Section I: General Overviews 1. Futures of Open Universities 2. Open Universities: an uncertain future? 3. Innovation for survival: Are the “four-open” principles still relevant to open universities in the twenty-first century? 4. Tracing the Legacy of Open Universities: The Evolution of Openness and the Continuous Transformation of Open Universities Section II: Open Universities in the Africa and Arab countries 5. Africa Regional Overview 6. Botswana Open University 7. National Open University of Nigeria 8. Open University of Kenya 9. Open University of Mauritius 10. Open University of Tanzania 11. University of South Africa 12. Zimbabwe Open University 13. Open University of Israel Section III: Open Universities in the Americas 14. Regional Overview: Open Universities in the Americas 15. Athabasca University 16. Universidade Aberta do Brasil 17. Universidad Estatal a Distancia 18. Université TÉLUQ Section IV: Open Universities in the Asian countries 19. Open Universities in Asia: An Overview 20. Regional Overview: Open is Open as it Gets 21. Asia e University 22. Bangladesh Open University 23. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University 24. Guangdong Open University 25. Hanoi Open University 26. Ho Chi Minh City Open University 27. Indira Gandhi National Open University 28. Jiangsu Open University 29. Korea National Open University 30. Krishna Kanta Handiqui State Open University 31. Madhya Pradesh Bhoj (Open) University 32. Nepal Open University 33. Netaji Subhas Open University 34. Open University Malaysia 35. Open University of China 36. The Open University of Japan 37. The Open University of Sri Lanka 38. Shanghai Open University 39. Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University 40. Tamil Nadu Open University 41. Universitas Terbuka 42. University of the Philippines Open University 43. Uttarakhand Open University 44. Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tandon Open University 45. Wawasan Open University 46. Yashwantrao Chavan Maharashtra Open University Section V: Open Universities in the Europe 47. Open Universities: New Roles and New Opportunities for Innovation and Market Differentiation in Europe 48. Anadolu University 49. FernUniversität in Hagen 50. Open University of Cyprus 51. Open University of the Netherlands 52. The Open University 53. Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (UNIR) 54. Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) 55. Universidade Aberta 56. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya Section VI: Concluding Overview 57. Open Universities: Quo vadis?