Available from UMI in association with The British Library.
The purpose of this study is to examine critically the demand and opportunity for higher education in the developing countries in general and the Sudan in particular, and to see to what extent expansion in the system could be achieved. The study then goes beyond that and attempts to justify a national institution of distance and open learning at university level in terms of needs, purposes, and in terms of the possibility in practice in the Sudan.
The study adopts a qualitative methodology in which three methods are used: (1) Documents and literature reviews of: (a) The reasons for higher education demand. (b) Higher education system. (c) Distance and open learning system; and (d) Open universities. In addition, literature and administrative reports on general and higher education in the Sudan are analysed. (2) Interviews with the leading figures in education in the Sudan and related organisations, into the possibility of higher education expansion and the formation of an open learning institution; and (3) Case studies from both developing countries with similar context of the Sudan and case studies from Sudan especially the case of In-service Educational Training Institute (ISETI), which adopts a distance learning approach. From this part of the study emerges generalisations concerning the appropriateness of distance learning in the Sudan.
The finding of the study shows that the needs and demand for higher education are beyond the capacity of the existing higher education institutions. There is a real need for a distance and open learning institution to extend and expand the opportunities for study so as to provide a flexible way of dealing with the variety of needs in education and training in the Sudan.
The study suggests that since there is already an institution working at national level and using a distance learning approach (the ISETI), then, the proposed national distance learning institution at university level is feasible. The study further went on to examine and propose a structure of the national distance learning institution in which different alternatives and models have been examined. These include: the teaching and learning arrangements, student support services, the organisational structure, financial perspectives as well as some of the problems which could face its implementation. These are outlined and discussed in the final chapters of the thesis.
