The participation of some big investors has made distance education a hot area in the educational field in China. More and more educators agree that the "universities without walls" based on modern information technology will become another "pass" for young people to enter famous institutions of higher learning.
In 1999, only six universities—Peking University, Tsinghua University, Beijing Posts and Telecommunications University, Zhejiang University, Hunan University and the Central Radio and Television University—had network universities. During the summer vacation of 2000, nine institutions of higher learning in Beijing, including the People's University of China and the Beijing Foreign Studies University, and 16 others in Heilongjiang, Shandong and Shanghai also established network schools.
Students living in remote areas and other regions with underdeveloped education are the principal beneficiaries of network universities. Network universities have also provided unsuccessful candidates of college entrance examinations and people on the job with opportunities of receiving life-long education.
The gradual extension of broadband technology has promoted the development of network education. By the end of 2001, the China Education and Research Network (CERNET) had set up a 20,000-km high-speed transmission network with 28 international and local channels, covering major cities in China. About 70 percent of institutions of higher learning throughout the country have set up their own campus networks, and a project constructing a campus computer network of universities in the west has been started. The satellite broadband multi-media transmission platform of China Education TV, opened in 2000, is capable of broadcasting eight TV channels, eight radio channels and more than 20 IP data broadcast channels, forming with CERNET a modern distance education network.
