Access under siege: Are the gains of open education keeping pace with the growing barriers to university access?

Abstract

Traditional and affordable access to a university education is under siege from all sides. National realpolitiks and global economic downturns have driven open education into the mainstream to stand against educational elitism, the growing digital divide, and to support the core values that give education its fundamental credence as a human right. Indeed, open is good—open with measurable impacts is even better. In the final analysis, the future of open education is at a crossroads that must be driven by those core values that define education as an essential human right with a commitment to expanding access and strengthening academic quality.

Keywords

• open education
• access
• distance learning
• quality assurance
• oers
• human rights