China has a vision of lifelong learning in which information and communication technologies -based (ICTs) distance education and electronic learning are key components.

China now has three of the world’s mega-universities, institutions in which over 100,000 students use largely distance learning methods. It hopes its strategy for promoting lifelong learning will be adopted worldwide.

A chapter in a joint publication from the Commonwealth of Learning and UNESCO describes how China’s Ministry of Education is actively promoting innovative forms of distance education (DE).

Due to funding constraints only ten percent of school-leavers can be enrolled in colleges or universities and competition for places is intense. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has identified modern distance education (MDE) – the provision of ICTs-based DE using multimedia computer facilities and the Internet – as a fast and cost-effective way to ease the pressure.

This has been made possible by the explosive growth of the Internet and demand for e-commerce, e-publishing, e-advertising and e-entertainment. By the end of 2004 some 94 million people in China were online, almost half of them with broadband access.

By the end of 2003 there were 2.3 million enrolments registered for MDE programmes in 68 pilot universities. China has a network of independent radio and television universities (RTVUs) coordinated by the China Central Radio and Television University. Most e-learning institutions work closely with the private sector.