Editing Distance education (section)

====United Kingdom====
[[File:SomersetHousebyAnonpublAckermann&Co1836.jpg |thumb|[[Somerset House]], home of the University of London from 1837 to 1870]]
The [[University of London]] was the first university to offer degrees to anyone who could pass their examinations, establishing its External Programme in 1858. It had been established in 1836 as an examining and degree-awarding body for affiliated colleges, originally [[University College London]] and [[King's College London]] but with many others added over the next two decades. The affiliated colleges provided certificates that the student had attended a course. A new charter in 1858 removed this requirement, allowing men (and women from 1878) taking instruction at any institution or pursuing a course of self-directed study to sit the examinations and receive degrees. The External Programme was referred to as the "People's University" by [[Charles Dickens]] as it provided access to [[higher education]] to students from less affluent backgrounds.<ref name="External Programme History">{{cite web |url=http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk/about_us/history.shtml |title="History", University of London External Programme Website |publisher=Londonexternal.ac.uk |date=15 July 2009 |access-date=27 April 2010}}</ref><ref name="Key Facts">{{cite web |url=http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk/about_us/facts.shtml |title="Key Facts", University of London External Programme Website |publisher=Londonexternal.ac.uk |date=15 July 2009 |access-date=27 April 2010}}</ref> Enrollment increased steadily during the late 19th century, and its example was widely copied elsewhere.<ref name="Guardian Article">{{cite web|url=http://www.guardianabroad.co.uk/education/article/283 |author=Tatum Anderson |title=History lessons at the people's university |date=16 May 2007 |publisher=Guardianabroad.co.uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070524102204/http://www.guardianabroad.co.uk/education/article/283 |archive-date=24 May 2007 |access-date=20 September 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref> However, the university only provided examinations, not instructional material, leading academics to state that "the original degree by external study of the UOL was not a form of distance education".<ref>{{cite thesis|url=https://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/9023
|first= Vigneswari |last=Thanapal|title=The social mediation of multinational legal education: A case study of the University of London's undergraduate laws programme for external/international students|publisher=[[Queen Mary, University of London]]|date=January 2015|type=PhD|page=16}}</ref>

The External Programme is now known as the [[University of London Worldwide]], and includes postgraduate and undergraduate degrees created by member institutions of the University of London.<ref name="Key Facts" />