Distance education: Difference between revisions

The [[University of London]] was the first university to offer distance learning degrees, establishing its [[University of London External Programme|External Programme]] in 1858. The background to this innovation lay in the fact that the institution (later known as [[University College London]]) was [[non-denominational]] and the intense religious rivalries at the time led to an outcry against the "godless" university. The issue soon boiled down to which institutions had [[Academic degree|degree]]-granting powers and which institutions did not.<ref name="Rothblatt Article">{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/368852 |jstor=368852 |title=Supply and Demand: The "Two Histories" of English Education |journal=History of Education Quarterly |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=627–44 |year=1988 |last1=Rothblatt |first1=Sheldon |last2=Muller |first2=Detlef K. |last3=Ringer |first3=Fritz |last4=Simon |first4=Brian |last5=Bryant |first5=Margaret |last6=Roach |first6=John |last7=Harte |first7=Negley |last8=Smith |first8=Barbara |last9=Symonds |first9=Richard |s2cid=248820306 }}</ref>

 

The compromise that emerged in 1836 was that the sole authority to conduct the examinations leading to degrees would be given to a new officially recognized entity, the "University of London", which would act as examining body for the University of London colleges, originally University College London and [[King's College London]], and award their students University of London degrees. As [[Sheldon Rothblatt]] states: "Thus arose in nearly archetypal form the famous English distinction between [[teaching]] and [[exam]]ining, here embodied in separate institutions."<ref name="Rothblatt Article" />