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Higher Education at a Distance and National Development: Reflections on the Indian experience

Following initial scepticism, the growth and developments within distance education in India have been tremendous. This paper records those developments in one of the largest distance education systems in the world with regard to its contribution to national development. The paper also examines curricular programmes, access and equity, media and technology, funding and costing, quality and accreditation, collaboration and networking, internationalization, and outcomes and benefits. The paper argues that higher education at a distance has significantly contributed to Indian national development on various counts, including innovative programmes for niche markets as well as community development; nation‐wide training programmes for the workforce and community and the empowerment of women; information and communications technology (ICT) networking and sharing of resources; massive human resource development for IT; management; school teaching; and development in new sectors of the workforce. Nevertheless, the areas of quality of instructional processes, access and equity, and effective deployment and use of ICT have been highlighted as accelerators to the system in its future expansion.