Europe has a long tradition of distance study programmes for local and international students. The UK and especially London have a wide range of different universities with dedicated online departments. One of the most famous and renowned universities of the UK and globally is the London School of Economics (LSE). If you're on Twitter, you've probably noticed their ads. They're quite active advertising their distance study B.Sc. (Bachelor of Science) and other majors.

While the university itself is hugely successful, their VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) isn't. But let's start at the beginning:

The UK offers 100% distance study degrees. This is a huge benefit for anybody who want's to get a good degree from a reputable English-speaking country while living in their home country.

By UK law, all distance study students anywhere in the world are equal to local students. That's why you get a digital student ID card. You theoretically could use the ID card to enter the university libraries in London. In addition, the degree you get from a UK based university via distance study must be equal to any other degree in the UK, again by UK law.

Finance

Universities in the UK are government funded with additional help through study fees. But here's the catch: If you want to study locally, the study fees would go into the tens of thousands per academic year. The distance study programmes only cost a fraction of this money.

In general, UK based distance study degrees are not cheap, but vastly cheaper than any other comparable degree programme.

Admission

In most cases you will need two things:

1. High School Diploma with grades (certified copy via an embassy)
2. For non US/UK citizens English Level Certificate (certified language level test like Toefl)

For math related degrees, there are additional country specific requirements for your math GPA in your high school diploma.

Study Mode

One of the biggest weaknesses of UK based distance study programmes is the study mode. There are courses with an 3-hour assessment and course material which consists of one 200 page long study guide and one 900 page essential book to read, that's it. There is zero support from a professor or any other teaching staff. Often you can only ask questions in a small forum, where postdocs or even grad students are responsible.

Most likely you will never talk to any professor within your time as a student.

Structure

Because UK based universities chose the route of scaling up their distance study programmes, the structure is focused on scale.

• The academic year has only 1 assessment period (compared to 2 for local students)
• You will have 4 assessments every May-June for 3 years
• You will get a degree if you pass 12 assessments
• There isn't a Bachelor Thesis
• There isn't any form of discussion or group work
• There is not a single online "homework" or other online assignments
• Only the 3-hour assessments count towards your degree

What you don't get

Before I started a distance study Bachelor, I already graduated from another university with a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) as a local student.

Quite frankly, I don't understand why UK based universities don't offer courses to their distance study students for academic writing, citation, research etc. These are mandatory for local students. After you graduated from let's say the LSE, you will have no idea what a citation is. You will have no idea how to write a research paper or properly articulate a theory in an abstract.

Nobody tells you, nobody cares. It's one of the greatest weaknesses of theses types of degree programmes, they don't do the "online learning" part properly. They have too many students to care about the quality of their seminars. And because of that, their only mechanism to control quality is through the difficulty of their assessment.

It's not unusual for students to fail the first 4 assessments. Each assessment will cost you around £ 300-400, which is wasted money if you fail.