E3S Web of Conferences 258, 07066 (2021) https://doi.org/10.

1051/e3sconf/202125807066
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Overview of European Universities with Open

Distance Learning
Julia Tsarapkina1,*, Elena Lyapunzova2, Alena Anisimova3, and Alexei Mironov4
1Russian State Agrarian University - Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, Timiryazevskaya
49, 127550 Moscow, Russia
2Bauman Moscow State Technical University, 2-ya Baumanskaya st. 5/1, 105005 Moscow, Russia
3Volokolamsk agricultural College «Kholmogorka», 39, 143602 Ivanovskoe, Russia
4Krasnoyarsk state agrarian university, Mira Avenue 90, 660049 Krasnoyarsk, Russia

Abstract. Currently, distance learning is becoming the most attractive for

the implementation of educational programs of open universities. These
educational institutions are becoming the most popular in the context of
continuing education. The article presents a study of European open
universities with distance learning, which are members of the EADTU.
The paper describes the main characteristics of European open education,
describes the characteristics of the universities studied based on data
posted on the websites of these educational organizations. The aim of the
study is to analyze and compare digital educational platforms of open
universities with distance learning. Methods of information search,
comparison and analysis, statistical analysis and rating compilation were
used. The authors used information about site traffic provided by the
service Pr-cy.ru. The article presents an analysis of statistical data on the
attendance of digital educational platforms according to the following
criteria: the number of visitors per day, the average time spent on the site,
the belonging of visitors to a geographical region. Based on the obtained
statistical data, the ratings of open universities with distance learning were
compiled. The paper reveals the main common features inherent in
European universities that are part of the EADTU. The data obtained in the
course of the study can be used to further study the experience of
implementing open distance learning in the context of continuous learning.

1 Introduction
Nowadays, there is a pronounced trend towards widespread use of distance technologies
in the field of higher education. The level of development of information technology allows
us to meet the needs for remote support of the educational process. The issue of
accessibility and quality of education in this context plays an important role, especially in
the field of higher education [1].
The Euro-pean Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU) has been
established in Europe. EADTU consists of 25 European countries represented by online

*
Corresponding author: [email protected]

© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
E3S Web of Conferences 258, 07066 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202125807066
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universities, open and distance learning universities, national university assemblies or

individual universities. This organization was created to support open and distance higher
education, its modernization in European universities. European open distance education
has the following characteristics [2]:
• Studying is focused on students, based on the high quality of the educational digital
environment;
• openness to students through flexible individual and inclusive forms and methods of
teaching, which allow students to receive higher education using information technology.
• networked education and mobility, allowing students to learn regardless of nationality,
industry and institutional boundaries.
The term open university is of English origin, as they call educational organizations
created with the aim of providing wide access to higher professional education [3]. Anyone
can enroll in such a university, regardless of the level of existing education. Education is
carried out remotely, as well as through the contact of students and teachers in a digital
environment [4]. To obtain a diploma on graduation from the university, a student must
master several courses.
EADTU offers its expertise in online education for students and higher education
institutions to ensure that online learning at all European universities meets the highest
quality standards [5].
The adopted concept of lifelong education sets the educational system to modernize and
develop new forms of building the educational process [6]. Distance continuous vocational
education is the most promising form of training and retraining of specialists, which is
characterized by flexibility, dynamism and meets the needs of the economy [7-8]. From this
perspective, an example of the work of open distance universities is interesting.
The aim of our work is to study and compare educational digital platforms of European
open universities with distance learning, members of EADTU.
In accordance with the set goal, we have implemented the following tasks: to
characterize the open universities included in EADTU; analyze and compare statistical data
on the operation of educational digital platforms of the universities in question; compile a
rating of open universities with distance learning based on the data obtained; to reveal the
main common features of European open universities with distance learning;
In our work, we would like to refer to the experience and existing practices of training
specialists in European countries.

2 Methology
In our work, we would like to characterize European universities with open distance
learning based on the analysis of data presented on the websites of these organizations.
The paper also presents a comparative analysis of educational platforms of open
universities with distance learning included in EADTU with the help of Pr-cy.ru. This
service is designed to conduct SEO analysis of sites, display traffic data [10]. Site statistics
are presented in average values. For the analysis we have selected the following indicators:
the number of visitors per day; average time spent on the site; the geographic region of the
visitors.

3 Results
In the course of our work, we researched and analyzed data from the websites of European
open universities that are members of EADTU. Of interest was information on the date of

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creation of universities, the number of students enrolled, the number of online courses
posted on digital educational platforms, directions and levels of training of students.
Characteristics of open universities with distance learning based on the data presented on
the websites of educational institutions:
FernUniversität in Hagen is a state distance university in Germany. Distance learning
has been conducted here since 1974, every year the university issues diplomas of
completion of bachelor's and master's programs to thousands of students from Germany and
other countries. A total of 88 thousand students study at the university. The university
provides training in 4 areas: humanities and social sciences, mathematics and information,
economic sciences, jurisprudence. The platform offers a full set of online courses for
obtaining working specialties free of charge, but the university collects fees of 200-400
euros per semester for administrative and student needs. About 300 new video lectures
appear on the platform every year.
International Telematic University UNINETTUNO - International Telematic University
UNINETTUNO was founded in 2005 in Italy and unites 43 Italian and foreign universities.
The online distance courses are available in Italian, English, Arabic, French and Greek and
include multimedia products, exercises, assessment and self-assessment systems, digital
library resources, and chat and forums. Students can study at 8 faculties: the Faculty of
Communication, Media and Advertising, the Faculty of Economics, the Faculty of
Engineering, the Faculty of Modern Languages, the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of
Literature, the Faculty of Psychology and the Faculty of Professional Education for Adults.
The platform contains about 1000 online courses, distributed by specialties and areas of
training. Training is carried out on a paid basis.
Hellenic Open University –is a Greek open university in Patras. Students study at this
educational institution exclusively in a distance format. Education is carried out in 4
faculties: humanities, social sciences, science and technology, applied arts. Graduates can
study in undergraduate, graduate, postgraduate and MBA programs only on a paid basis.
Online courses are presented in Greek and English.
Open University of Cyprus APKY – is the Open University of Cyprus. It is a public
university that was founded in 2002 to fill a gap in the higher education system in Cyprus.
The platform presents programs for training in the magistracy and a fairly wide range of
areas of postgraduate and doctoral studies. This educational institution offers distance
learning at 3 faculties in 26 specialties. 4000 people study at the university. Also, the
Platform implements short-term distance learning courses in the field of entrepreneurship
and innovation. Education for EU citizens is free. A distinctive feature of this platform is
the group work of students in the process of mastering online courses [11].
The Open University UK is the world's leading provider of flexible and high quality
online distance learning courses. Has triple MBA accreditation. The platform has about 2
million users. 452 online courses on 200 specialties are available for training. The
university was founded in 1969 and is one of the most prestigious universities in the UK.
Currently, the academic institution includes the Faculties of Arts & Social Sciences, the
Faculty of Business and Law, the Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), as well as
the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education, Languages, and Sport. In 2013, OU launched a
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform called Future Learn, which is the UK's
largest provider of free online courses [12].
Open Universiteit Niederland created in the Netherlands in 1984, modeled on the Open
University of Great Britain. This educational institution offers undergraduate and graduate
programs in management, computer science, psychology, law, cultural studies, ecology and
natural sciences. There are 738 online courses on the platform. Training takes place in an
online format, students are provided with access to educational materials, the student must

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independently follow lectures and group meetings in a digital environment. Before

registering for courses, students are invited to pass a self-test in order to determine whether
the distance learning format is suitable for the student or not [13]. Courses are presented in
Dutch and English. The university has about 1000 students.
Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED) -National University of
Distance Education of Spain, founded in 1972. Currently, the university has training centers
in 13 countries in Europe, America and Africa. Currently, about 150 thousand students
study on the platform. The university ranks second in the world in terms of student
enrollment. Education is carried out on a free basis, however, there is a competitive
selection for admission to this educational institution, the progress and quality of the
entrance tests are taken into account. In 2012, the university launched a new online
platform for entrepreneurship learning by building mobile apps using App Inventor [14].
UNX Online Courses are designed to introduce the entire Spanish-speaking world to open
technology and entrepreneurship.
Universidade Aberta (UAb) – The Open University of Portugal, has been engaged in
distance learning since 1988. It prepares students for baccalaureate, master's and doctoral
programs in 33 countries on five continents. The main languages of instruction are
Portuguese and English. More than 10 thousand students are trained on the platform
annually. Since 2008, when all programs are taught in e-learning mode, UAb has become a
European reference institution for advanced e-learning and online learning through
recognition of its exclusive virtual pedagogical model. In 2010 he was awarded the
European Foundation for E-Learning Quality EFAUEL in Higher Education.
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) –The Open University of Catalonia was
founded in 1995 as the world's first online university. Education is conducted in 25
undergraduate programs and 54 graduate programs and 8 doctoral programs. The courses
offered are presented in 7 faculties: Arts and Humanities, Economics and Business,
Medical Sciences, Information and Communication Technologies, Computer Science,
Multimedia and Communication, Law and Political Science, Psychology and Pedagogical
Sciences. 77 thousand people are trained on the platform.
In accordance with the tasks set in the study, based on the data obtained, we analyzed
the digital educational platforms of the universities under study. Table 1 presents data on
site traffic collected using the Pr-cy.ru service.
The first place in the ranking by the number of website visitors per day is taken by The
Open University UK. According to the statistics of attendance, 59.1% of students from the
UK, 40.9% of students from the United States study on the digital platform of the
university. On average, students spend 10 minutes on the digital education platform. The
Open University of Cyprus APKY website has the lowest daily attendance rate - 3800
people. Almost all students studying on the platform - 98.1% - represent Cyprus.
The first place in the ranking in terms of the breadth of the geographical coverage of
students belongs to the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). According to website
traffic statistics, 50.7% of the students of the open university are from Spain, 11.3% and
11.2% of students, respectively, are from Mexico and India, the remaining 26.8% of
students are from various European countries.
Table 1. Statistical data of the analysis of websites of open universities with distance learning
Name of the open university with Number of Belonging to a Time spent
distance learning, website visitors per geographic on the site
day region
The Open University UK 197000 59.1 % 10 min.
http://www.open.ac.uk/
Universidad Nacional de Educación a 192000 67.6 % 7 min.
Distancia (UNED)

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https://www.uned.es/
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) 125000 50.7 % 22 min.
https://www.uoc.edu/
Hellenic Open University 39100 97.7 % 8 min.
https://www.eap.gr/
Fern Universität in Hagen 38100 80.8 % 11 min.
https://www.fernuni-hagen.de/
Open Universiteit Niederland 15700 7 min.
https://www.ou.nl/
International Telematic University 10700 99.8 % 6 min.
UNINETTUNO
https://www.uninettunouniversity.net/
Universidade Aberta (UAb) 4010 76.3% 3 min.
https://portal.uab.pt/
Open University of Cyprus APKY 3800 98.1 % 6 min.
https://www.ouc.ac.cy/
The Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) also ranks first in the ranking in terms of
the amount of time spent by visitors on the platform. On average, visitors spend up to 22
minutes on the site per session, more than double the time that visitors spend on other
educational digital platforms we are looking at. Visitors to Universidade Aberta (UAb)
spend the least time on the site - 3 minutes.
The average number of website visitors per day for the EADTU Open Distance
Learning Universities is 69,490. On average, students spend about 9 minutes on digital
educational platforms of these educational organizations.

4 Discussion
Social orientation is one of the basic principles of education in Europe. In all EU countries,
open distance universities are supported by the state, while training in most cases is free.
Universities with open distance learning take care of their reputation and carefully select
and validate content posted on online education platforms. If an online course is not in
demand in the student environment, or less than 10% complete it, then such a course is
usually removed [15].
In most European countries, training is usually conducted in English, online courses can
also be presented in the native language.

5 Conclusions
The system of professional training of students in open distance universities is costantly
being improved both in the content part and in issues of updating the forms of organizing
the educational process: the development of e-learning using distance technologies,
electronic teaching aids, the development of innovative digital solutions, the use of forms
mobile learning [16].
The results obtained during the work and the analysis of the data obtained can be used
to further study the experience of European open universities with distance learning and
improve the quality and efficiency of open distance learning in Russia in the context of
lifelong education.

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