sustainability
Article
Comparison of Two Models of Distance Education for Lifelong
Learning in China
Liping Chen 1 , Huimin Chen 2,3, * and Kaifu Zeng 2
Citation: Chen, L.; Chen, H.; Zeng, K.
Comparison of Two Models of
Distance Education for Lifelong
Learning in China. Sustainability 2024,
16, 669. https://doi.org/10.3390/
su16020669
Academic Editors: Marko Vinceković
and Hao-Chiang Koong Lin
Received: 21 November 2023
Revised: 25 December 2023
Accepted: 29 December 2023
Published: 12 January 2024
Copyright: © 2024 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article
distributed under the terms and
conditions of the Creative Commons
Attribution (CC BY) license (https://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/
4.0/).
Sustainability 2024, 16, 669. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020669
1 Institute of Education, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; clp15@tsinghua.org.cn
2 College of Humanities and Law, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China;
zengkf@buct.edu.cn
3 Institute of “Belt & Road” Global Cooperation, Beijing University of Chemical Technology,
Beijing 100029, China
* Correspondence: chenhuimin@buct.edu.cn
Abstract: Distance education has an important role in advancing lifelong learning. In China, there
are two types of providers for distance education, open universities (OUs) and Institutes of Distance
Education affiliated to regular universities (IDEs). IDEs are increasing because of technology develop-
ment. This study compared OUs and IDEs in China from three aspects, including development goals,
decision making on enrollment, and learning experience. Through corpus analysis and interviews,
this study found that although the policy orientation of OUs and IDEs is different, their actual
functions are the same. This is a phenomenon of institutional isomorphism, and government plays
an important role in this convergence.
Keywords: distance education; comparison; development goals; decision making; learning experience
1. Introduction
The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 is to ensure inclusive and equi-
table quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, which enjoins
countries to expand access to quality education [1]. Lifelong learning is rooted in the
integration of learning and living and comprises learning activities for people of all ages in
all life-wide contexts, which needs to meet various learning needs and demands [2]. Thus,
lifelong learning opportunities must be flexible and readily available in terms of time and
place and consider the needs of learners from different contexts [3]. Digital technologies
represent a sustainable and effective way to increase the availability of lifelong learning to
people anytime and everywhere, which can be used to create and deliver content tailored
to each individuals’ needs [4]. Distance education is education using information and
communication technologies that can provide individuals with different levels and readi-
ness in accordance with various goals and purposes [5]. The distinctive feature of distance
education is that the learner and the teacher are separated in time or space [6]. Distance
education has featured largely in professional continuing education and other forms of
lifelong learning. Distance education has an important role in society’s lifelong learning
expectation. In China, distance education has made a great contribution towards advancing
the process of popularization of higher education by providing learning opportunities for
people who failed the Gaokao (College entrance exam in China) and therefore did not
benefit from higher education [7]. According to the Ministry of Education’s report for the
year 2020, there are 2.779 million students enrolled in distance education institutions, and
8.465 million students are learning at distance education institutions. Moreover, in 2020,
China had more than 890 million people in the working-age population, i.e., those aged
18 to 59. Among these populations, approximately 620 million people have not received
higher education. Providing distance education opportunities for this group is significantly
important for China to advance the SDG4 [8].
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Sustainability 2024, 16, 669 2 of 12

Distance education has undergone three main stages of development. The division
of these three stages is related to the development of information technology [9]. The first
stage is correspondence study based on printing technology and postal communications.
This is the beginning of distance education for mankind [10]. The second stage is open
education based on mass media and audio–visual technology. In the second stage, many
open universities were built around the world, and the founding of the Open University
is considered to be the major milestone in the historical development of distance educa-
tion [11]. The third stage is online education based on computers and the Internet. In this
stage, the institutions that provide distance education are gradually diversifying. Virtual
universities have emerged in addition to the Open University. At the same time, many
traditional universities have begun to offer distance education courses and programs to
address the diverse educational needs of students and stay up-to-date with advancing
technology [12]. Today, online education launched by traditional universities, such as
MOOCs, SPOC, and EdX, has had an important impact on education.
The various providers of distance education can be classified into two models, which
are referred to as single-mode and dual-mode institutions [13]. Single-mode institutions
only offer conventional distance education, for example, the Open University UK (OUUK)
and the Open University of China (OUC). Dual-mode institutions are those that offer both
traditional on-campus and distance education, which is the result of traditional universities
having to embrace modern information technology. Open Universities (OUs) and Institutes
of Distance Education affiliated to regular universities (IDEs) have coexisted around the
world for a long time. In international distance education academia, an important theoreti-
cal and practical issue is the comparison between these two types of institutions. In the
1980s, Greville Rumble proposed the famous question in the field of distance education [14].
For OUs and IDEs, which one has competitive advantages? Since then, the superiority and
inferiority of these two models have been discussed by many researchers [15]. Initially,
researchers thought that compared with dual-mode universities, single-mode universities
such as OUs have competitive advantages. For example, single-model universities can
achieve economies of scale and reduce costs. Distance education students face widespread
discrimination at dual-mode universities. To avoid this kind of discrimination, it is best to
establish specialized distance education institutions, i.e., OUs [14,16]. Some researchers
pointed out that traditional universities once ignored, refused, and even slandered distance
education, but later gradually began to embrace it [17]. In recent years, with the rapid de-
velopment of information and communication technologies, the number of campus-based
tertiary institutions which enter distance learning is increasing. They usually target the
part-time adult learner market, which was formerly the preserve of single-mode distance
learning providers [18]. Bates noted a rapid growth in online distance learning in higher
education, with an accompanying dramatic decrease in open and distance teaching univer-
sities’ enrollments in Canada and the UK in 2018 [19]. In the United States, research shows
that eight Ivy League universities all provide distance education, including Brown Uni-
versity, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University,
Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University [20].
The development of single-mode and dual-mode institutions is increasingly showing
a homogenization characteristic. In the last three decades, many of the innovative charac-
teristics pioneered by open universities have been adopted by campus universities. The
emergence of digital technologies blurred the boundaries between distance and campus
universities [21–24]. As neo-institutional theory points out, organizations usually imitate
one another, which is called mimetic isomorphism [25,26]. Institutional isomorphism leads
to an identity crisis for some single-mode OUs, eroding the unique status of open universi-
ties in many national jurisdictions. The sustainable development of open universities is
experiencing a critical risk. Though open universities, as specialized distance education
institutions are an important component of the higher education ecosystem and contribute
to the diversification of higher education institutions, very few governments protect the
unique status of open universities as sole providers of distance education [27]. However,
Sustainability 2024, 16, 669 3 of 12

open universities’ unique status is protected by the Chinese government. China has a very
large distance education system [28]. In China, the Radio and TV Universities Network
that was established in 1979 was the sole distance education provider in China for twenty
years. From 1999 onwards, 68 online colleges in campus-based universities were authorized
by the Chinese Ministry of Education to offer online/distance degrees and professional
diplomas. In 2014, the Chinese Central Government abolished the regulation that new
online/distance education programs must be authorized by the government and enabled
any Chinese university to offer online/distance degrees and diplomas. However, online
distance education enrollment in regular universities completely stopped in 2022, which is
a big change in China’s higher distance education policy that will end the coexistence of
the two models [29]. Since institutional isomorphism is a common phenomenon in global
higher education, countries are trying to establish a standardized and universal university.
The imitation of higher education in different universities and countries has led to the
isomorphism of universities [30]. Then, why does Chinese distance education policy go in
the opposite direction to the global distance education policy? Do OUs have advantages
to provide better distance education than IDEs in China? Research on the comparison of
the two models in China is limited. The comparison of these two models in China can
contribute to understanding the policy of ending distance education enrollment in regular
universities in 2022 in China and its impact on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality
education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.
According to the theory of institutional isomorphism, organizations prefer to adopt
the same development goals and strategies and provide the same services to consumers.
Thus, in order to answer this question and fill the research gap, this study compared the
two models of distance education for lifelong learning in China from three aspects, includ-
ing the development goals of the two models, learners’ decision making on enrollment of
the two models, and learning experience of the two models. We assume that institutional
isomorphism exists between the two types of institutions providing distance education in
China. Then, this research proposes three hypotheses:

H1. There is no significant difference between the development goals of the two models.

H2. There is no significant difference between learners’ decision making on enrollment of the
two models.

H3. There is no significant difference between learners‘ learning experience of the two models.

2. Materials and Methods

This study is based on corpus and semi-structured interviews. Corpus analysis will
extract highly repeated words, word clusters, etc., from texts and use them as examples to
identify the ideas implicit in the discourse [31]. Moreover, with the help of corpora, we can
also discover new ideas beyond the scope of existing research results, thereby helping to
find new perspectives and new entry points for research [32]. Corpus analysis is considered
able to break the boundaries between quantitative and qualitative research [33]. Corpus
analysis in this study aims to test H1, which is “there is no significant difference between the
development goals of the two models”. Analysis of the content of the mission statements
of open universities and other distance education institutions is helpful for understanding
the purpose of these institutions [34]. In China, development goals are often shown in the
introductory texts on the official websites of these institutions. Therefore, this study builds
corpora by retrieving introductory texts from the official homepages of OUs and IDEs. We
collected data from September 2022 to June 2023. After excluding institutions that have no
self-introduction or invalid network links, a total of 44 OUs above the provincial level and
59 IDEs remained as the research objects of this article. The OU corpus has 45,000 words,
and the IDE corpus has 59,000 words.
Sustainability 2024, 16, 669 4 of 12

The main goal of the interviews in this study was to test H2 and H3, which are “there
are no significant difference between the two models on learners ‘decision making on
enrollment and learning experience”. Previous studies indicate that factors which influence
whether students choose an OU or IDE include time cost, economic cost, social reputation,
and advertisement [35–38]. Distance education in China usually includes two parts of
online leaning independently and campus-based leaning on weekends. Therefore, learners’
learning experience in this study includes online and offline learning experiences. Based
on previous studies and the characteristic of distance education in China, we developed
the interview protocol and completed a pilot study made up of 5 interviews to improve
the protocol. With the help of teachers from institutions such as the School of Online
Education at Beijing Foreign Studies University and the Aopeng Learning Center, we
interviewed 7 staff and 45 learners in total. All interviewees voluntarily participated in this
study and signed informed consent forms. The details of the interviewees can be found in
Appendices A and B. The interviews with staff focused on the following questions: What
are the differences in the goals of OUs and IDEs? What are the characteristics of market
share? What are the characteristics of learners’ choices for enrollment? How do learners’
learning experiences differ? Do you have any suggestions for the development of distance
education? The interviews with learners focused on these questions: What are the reasons
for choosing to study at an OU or IDE? What are your learning experiences at the OU or
IDE? Do you have any suggestions for the development of distance education?

3. Results
3.1. Results of Corpus Analysis
3.1.1. Statistics of Highly Repeated Words
The statistics of the top 40 highly repeated words in the introductory texts of OUs
and IDEs are shown in Table 1. After the 40th highly repeated word, the same ranking
corresponding to multiple words will no longer be significant. Therefore, Table 1 just shows
the top 40 highly repeated words.

Table 1. The top 40 highly repeated words.

Ranking OU-Word Frequency IDE-Word Frequency

1 education 535 education 670
2 open 264 college 364
3 learning 212 continue 242
4 running school 201 development 242
5 university 182 Internet 238
6 development 162 learning 223
7 construction 160 training 201
8 college 124 running school 193
9 community 114 service 188
10 service 112 construction 171
11 major 112 management 170
12 country 107 society 167
13 society 104 distance education 161
14 system 99 students 156
15 modern 81 whole country 150
16 teaching 80 major 141
17 continue 78 modern 137
18 management 73 teaching 129
19 center 72 adults 114
20 training 69 special 113
21 Internet 66 Ministry of education 112
22 distance education 64 country 107
23 diploma education 63 center 106
24 system 63 technology 105
Sustainability 2024, 16, 669 5 of 12

Table 1. Cont.

Ranking OU-Word Frequency IDE-Word Frequency

25 non-diploma education 62 higher education 95
26 lifelong learning 61 university 94
27 fostering 60 non-diploma education 91
28 lifelong 59 fostering 89
29 platform 58 build 86
30 whole country 55 distance 85
31 technology 50 curriculum 83
32 campus 49 resource 82
33 resource 48 college 82
34 teacher 48 quality 77
35 guidance 47 exam 77
36 distance 47 diploma education 76
37 special 44 China 74
38 province level 44 advantages 71
39 TV university 44 system 68
40 learning 43 teacher 67
OU-Word refers to the word from OU corpus. IDE-word refers to the word from IDE corpus.

We also identified the common places and differences in the highly repeated words
(see Table 2). The Spearman correlation coefficient of the words which appeared in both
introductory texts of the two modes of distance education institutions is 0.7395 (p = 0.0000).
It can be seen that they are significantly related. The correlation between highly repeated
words which appeared in both introductory texts of the two modes indicates significant
consistency in the self-introductory texts of OUs and IDEs. Most of the highly repeated
words are related to students, learning, and teaching. Both OUs and IDEs take teaching
as their main function. The words “open” and “community” are highly repeated words
in the OU corpus, but they did not appear in the top 40 highly repeated words of the IDE
corpus. This reflects the difference in the educational philosophy of the two models of
distance education. The word “student” is a highly repeated word that only appeared in
the IDE corpus. Searching for the context of the word “student” shows that IDEs generally
put forward the educational slogan of “student-centered education”. For example, The
School of Distance Education of Beijing Institute of Technology proposes a school-running
philosophy for all students’ learning and development.

Table 2. The common places and differences in highly repeated words.

Words Appeared in Both Words Only Appeared in OU Words Only Appeared in IDE
education, learning,
development, university,
construction, college, service, students, adults, higher
open, community, lifelong
major, country, modern, education, curriculum, quality,
learning, platform
management, training, exam
Internet, distance education,
resource
Words appeared in both refers to the words which appeared in both introductory texts of the two models of
distance institutions. Words only appeared in OU refers to the words which only appeared in the introductory
texts of the OUs. Words only appeared in IDE refers to the words which only appeared in the introductory texts
of IDEs.

3.1.2. Statistics of Word Clusters

Since the highly repeated word with the highest frequency in both corpora is “edu-
cation”, we analyzed the word cluster based on the word “education” (see Table 3). The
word cluster formed by OUs’ use of “education” is much richer. This reflects the flexibility
of OUs in running schools. The educational and teaching activities carried out by OUs
are more extensive, including not only academic education but also extensive develop-
Sustainability 2024, 16, 669 6 of 12

ment of vocational education, community education, lifelong learning, adult education,

elderly education, disability education, etc. Especially in community education, IDEs are
not involved.

Table 3. The word cluster based on the word “education”.

Ranking OU Frequency IDE Frequency

1 open education 95 continue education 221
2 continue education 76 Internet education 130
3 community education 67 adults’ education 68
4 lifelong learning 61 lifelong learning 38
5 learning society 43 learning society 28
6 vocational education 29 vocational education 19
7 adults’ education 18 teacher education 19
8 Internet education 17 international education 17
9 elderly education 16 primary education 8
10 disability education 9 open education 5
OU refers to the word cluster from OU corpus. IDE refers to the word cluster from IDE corpus.

3.2. Results of Interviews

3.2.1. Learners’ Decision Making on Enrollment
The interviews with staff and students showed that many factors influence whether
students choose an OU or IDE. These specifically include time cost, economic cost, social
reputation, and advertisement.
Learners participating in distance education often face conflicts between work and
study. Therefore, time convenience becomes an important factor in their decision making
on enrollment. The convenience of examination time is also considered to be an important
factor in the popularity of OUs. Examinations on admissions and studies are considered
to be time-consuming; after all, it takes more time to prepare for exams. Whether there is
an entrance exam often becomes an important consideration for students when making
their choice. Often, the difficulty of the exams is low, or there are even no exams. This is an
important reason why many students choose to study at OUs.
“OUs usually organize a one-day exam in the company. The leaders of the company often
support this exam. However, IDEs usually organize online exams and the online exam
often lasts a long time, so employees have to ask for leave from their leaders.” (js03)
“The absence of entrance exams at the undergraduate level of open universities often
becomes the primary consideration for students.” (js02)
“The exam at my OU is very simple. However, the exams at IDEs are very difficult. I
prefer to recommend OUs.” (Xs03)
Economic cost refers to tuition fees. This is an important consideration for learners
when choosing distance education institutions. Tuition fees at OUs are relatively cheap.
“The cost is definitely an important reason for students to choose, and the tuition fees of
open universities are relatively cheaper.” (js01)
“The tuition of IDEs in Hefei is about 6000 yuan per year. However, in Anhui OU,
the tuition is about 4000 yuan per year. Moreover, OUs has preferential policies, such
as participating in the ‘One Village, One University Student’ plan, etc., and there are
discounts and exemptions when you actually register at Anhui OU. The actual tuition
fee may be less than 4000 yuan per year.” (js03)
With the same economic cost, learners will choose to enroll in an institution with a
more valuable degree and better social reputation. In the enrollment market, the biggest
advantage of IDEs over OUs is social reputation.
Sustainability 2024, 16, 669 7 of 12

“The academic qualifications from the OUs are definitely not as valuable as IDEs. There
will be pheasant universities in the market, which are too difficult to identify. Regular
universities will be better (than the OU) in this regard.” (Xs01)
“For the enrollment market, The biggest advantage of IDEs compared to OUs is their
brand: Open universities are known as adult education at first glance and adult education
doesn’t recognized by the public which is the disadvantage of open universities. Those who
choose open universities do not care about the school brand, as long as they successfully
obtain their graduation certificate. For those who choose IDEs, they pay much attention to
the reputation of the university they graduate from, which will facilitate future promotion
and career choices, and have higher aspirations.” (js02)
Based on the interviews, advertisement was also shown to influence learners’ decision
making on enrollment. Learners know little about the institutions of distance education,
and they will be affected by the propaganda and guidance of admission staff. The effect of
advertising investment on enrollment is also significant.
“In Anhui, there is an IDE which was chosen by most learners before 2019. After
2019, Anhui OU invested heavily in advertising. Now learners prefer to choose Anhui
OU.” (js01)

3.2.2. Learning Experience

The learning experience of distance education includes online learning experience and
offline learning experience. All the learners who participated in this study are generally
satisfied with their online learning experience at OUs and IDEs. The interviews show
that there is no difference between the two models in terms of the aspects of educational
resources, course design, and technical facilities. Compared to learners’ online learning
experience, they prefer to talk more about their offline learning experience, and they think
that offline learning is more valuable. Offline learning offers them the opportunity to
enter their dream university campus and experience university life for real. Meanwhile,
instructors are the key factor that influence learners’ online and offline learning experience.
“The online learning platform is quite convenient and very easy to use. Offline classes
are more interesting than online learning, as offline learning allow discussions with
classmates or group interactions.” (Xs02)
“There are many learning materials on the platform and the slides are very good for self
study.” (Xs23)
“The technology is quite good. But the facial recognition technology in online exams is
too bad. Anyway, I am very happy for having this learning opportunity.” (Xs28)
“I cherish the opportunity to attend lectures on campus. You can learn online at any
time. However, the motivation of learning offline is much stronger. After all, you haven’t
had the opportunity to study for a long time after graduation. It is rare to sit in the
classroom and study again. Moreover, you can interact with the teacher face to face and
the questions could be solved in time.” (Xs25)
“I feel that the instructors are quite responsible. They distributed many learning materials
in the WeChat group and they are very patient to answer our questions.” (Xs15)
“The teachers are all from prestigious universities, and it is very exciting to listen classes
fromf well- known professors.” (Xs32)

4. Discussion
As providers of distance education, the sustainable development of OUs and IDEs is
important to expand higher education in developing countries [39] and ensure inclusive
and equitable quality lifelong learning opportunities for all. This study found that OUs
and IDEs have similar actual functions based on corpus analysis and interviews, which is
a phenomenon of institutional isomorphism. A large number of studies have found that
Sustainability 2024, 16, 669 8 of 12

almost all organizations such as governments, enterprises, and educational institutions

will experience institutional isomorphism due to legitimacy pressure [40]. The “legitimacy”
question about an OU lies in whether it is a “university”, and the “legitimacy” question
about an IDE lies in whether its distance education is “professional”. Therefore, OUs try
to seek clear definitions of their educational attributes in terms of policy, and IDEs try to
imitate OUs at the technical level, which is a process of strengthening its “legitimacy”. OUs’
self-introduction generally emphasizes that their academic degrees are “recognized by the
state” and that they are “higher education institutions”. IDEs emphasize this less. This is
because an OU has been criticized as “not a university”, while an IDE, often seen as the
secondary college of an ordinary university, is considered to be naturally “a university”.
Therefore, an OU would claim in its promotional texts that its “university” status is no
different from that of ordinary universities. Meanwhile, government plays an important
role in institutional isomorphism. Departmental adjustment, university mergers, higher
education institution upgrades, university integration, etc., led by government, as well as
university evaluation standards and resource allocation mechanisms, are all mandatory
forces that lead to institutional isomorphism.
Though the actual functions of the two modes are similar, there are some differences
in their official targeted development goals and learners’ decision making on enrollment.
The corpus analysis shows that differences exist between the two models in terms of their
development goals. OUs mainly serve for lifelong learning and community education. They
are more flexible and diversified in terms of enrollment. For IDEs, they always target the
higher education-appropriate population and organize teaching on traditional university
campuses, which is similar to full-time higher education. The interviews show that OUs
have advantages in terms of time cost and economic cost. Learners prefer to choose OUs
because time arrangements are more convenient and tuition fees can be subsidized. IDEs
usually have a good reputation because of the prestigious universities they are affiliated
with. This is the most important reason why learners choose IDEs. However, all the learners
who participated in this study were generally satisfied with their learning experience at
OUs and IDEs. The interviews indicate that there is no difference between the two models
in terms of the aspects of educational resources, course design, and technical facilities.
Learners’ outcomes in terms of knowledge and ability acquisition are similar. However,
learners prefer to learn offline, and IDEs can provide better offline learning experiences
compared to OUs. These small differences do not conceal the nature of organizational
convergence between the two modes.
Institutional isomorphism challenged the sustainable development of the two modes of
institutions and had negative impacts on the diversification of higher education institutions.
It blurs the boundaries between the two models, gradually losing their uniqueness and
inevitably leading to a crisis in organizational sustainability. With the expansion of online
education colleges in the field of distance education, the unique position of open universities
is threatened, and open universities are facing a sustainable survival crisis. Globally, there
are few governments that protect the unique status of open universities, but in China, the
sustainable development of open universities has been protected by the government.
Recently, the policy of distance education in China has made significant adjustments.
According to the new policy introduced by the Ministry of Education in China, IDEs will
gradually restrict enrollment and eventually terminate undergraduate distance education.
The policy orientation of OUs is to serve for lifelong learning, and the OUs of China are
directly affiliated with the Ministry of Education. However, IDEs are affiliated with regular
universities, where general higher education is focused on and distance education occupies
a marginal position. Due to policy support, OUs have increased investment in advertising,
and their visibility continues to increase. In the future, OUs will have advantages in terms
of recruiting students. Due to different policy orientations and administrative affiliations,
OUs have broader development prospects. Therefore, it is obvious that OUs will monopo-
lize the market of distance education in China in the coming years. These adjustments in
policy are related to the entire higher education system in China. In 1999, China initiated
Sustainability 2024, 16, 669 9 of 12

experimental reform in distance education. The Open University of China (OUC) and more
than 60 regular universities, most of which were famous universities governed directly
by the Ministry of Education, were permitted to develop distance education. At the same
time, these famous regular universities were encouraged to build world-class universities.
Degrees for distance education were believed to degrade these famous universities and
harm the building of world-class universities. So, most prestigious “985-Project” univer-
sities terminated their distance undergraduate education, including Tsinghua University,
Peking Universities, Hunan University, FuDan University, Zhejiang University, University
of Science and Technology of China, Southeast University, Sun Yat-sen University, Harbin
Institute of Technology, Wuhan University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology,
and Central South University. However, the opinion that undergraduate distance education
will harm world-class universities is not confirmed by the international experience. Top
universities such as Ivy League University in the USA and Oxford University in the UK
offer distance education and award academic degrees, but their academic reputations
have not been negatively affected. Therefore, the purpose of this policy adjustment is to
enable two different modes of educational institutions to focus on their respective tasks in
their professional fields, get back to their policy-oriented roles, concentrate resources and
efforts to promote lifelong learning and world-class university construction, and ensure the
diversity of the higher education system. It is necessary to use policy measures to guide
the development of two types of distance education institutions in different directions, as
China is a developing country, and ensuring that every learner has access to high-quality
education remains a huge challenge. The differentiated and specialized development of
two types of higher education institutions is conducive to solving their sustainable devel-
opment crisis, concentrating efforts and resources, leveraging their respective advantages,
and providing high-quality education opportunities for different populations.

5. Conclusions
Developing distance education is necessary for providing more inclusive and equi-
table quality educational opportunities for all, which is important for achieving Sustainable
Development Goal 4. The report of the 19th National Congress of the CPC proposed to suc-
cessfully continue education and online education. Obviously, meeting the diverse distance
education market needs of such a large population is a great challenge. Undoubtedly, in
China, distance education is an important part of higher education. The vitality and health
of the distance education market are highly dependent on a diverse system. Institutional
isomorphism will cause the crisis of institutions’ sustainable development. Differentiated
development is beneficial for the sustainable development of the entire higher education
ecosystem. In the future, open universities will focus on providing high-quality lifelong
learning opportunities and become the only provider of distance education in China. It is
necessary to establish competition and supervision mechanisms within and outside the
entire open universities system. Overall, the advantages and disadvantages of the single
model and dual model of distance education, as well as whether they can coexist, are
some of the controversial issues in the international distance education community. The
answers to these questions are largely related to the policy background and economic and
social development status of specific countries. This article has compared two models
in the Chinese context and provided a reference for the international distance education
community. It must be noted that whether the reform of China’s distance education is
reasonable remains to be tested.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, K.Z. and L.C.; writing—original draft preparation, H.C.;
writing—review and editing, H.C., K.Z. and L.C.; supervision, K.Z. and L.C.; project administration,
H.C., K.Z. and L.C.; funding acquisition, H.C. and K.Z. All authors have read and agreed to the
published version of the manuscript.
Sustainability 2024, 16, 669 10 of 12

Funding: This research was funded by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities,
grant number ZY2331, and Ministry of Education Humanities and Social Sciences Research Youth
Fund Project, grant number 21YJC880004.
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.
Data Availability Statement: All the data included in this study are available from the corresponding
author on reasonable requests.
Acknowledgments: The researchers thank Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Tsinghua
University, and the Ministry of Education.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Appendix A

Table A1. Information of interviewed staff.

NO. Institution Title

Js01 OU of China Staff of admission
Js02 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University Director of the learning center
Js03 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University Director of the learning center
Js04 IDE at Beijing Normal University Staff of examination
Js05 Open Edutainment Staff of university cooperation department
Js06 Open Edutainment Staff of university cooperation department
Js07 China Cyber Learning Staff of university cooperation department

Appendix B

Table A2. Information of interviewed learners.

NO. Institution Admission Time Major

Xs01 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2020 Business management
Xs02 OU of China 2020 Public Administration
Xs03 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2019 International economy and trade
IDE at Beijing University of Posts and
Xs04 2019 Automation
Telecommunications
Xs05 Shanghai OU 2021 Business management
Xs06 IDE at Renmin University 2018 Business management
Xs07 Anhui OU 2020 Marketing
Xs08 Guangdong OU 2020 Chinese language and literature
Xs09 Guangdong OU 2019 Business management
Xs10 Guangdong OU 2020 Pharmacy
Xs11 Guangdong OU 2019 Computer science
Xs12 Guangdong OU 2020 Advertising
Xs13 Shanghai OU 2018 Computer science
Xs14 Shanghai OU 2017 Accounting
Xs15 Shanghai OU 2018 Law
Xs16 Shanghai OU 2020 Arts
Xs17 Xinjiang OU 2018 English
Xs18 Xinjiang OU 2019 Primary education
Xs19 Xinjiang OU 2019 Primary education
Xs20 Xinjiang OU 2018 Chinese language and literature
Xs21 Xinjiang OU 2019 Law
Xs22 IDE at Beijing Normal University 2021 Psychology
Xs23 IDE at Beijing Normal University 2019 Psychology
Xs24 IDE at Beijing Normal University 2017 Early child education
Xs25 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2021 Computer science
Sustainability 2024, 16, 669 11 of 12

Table A2. Cont.

NO. Institution Admission Time Major

Xs26 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2020 Business management
Xs27 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2019 English
Xs28 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2018 Accounting
Xs29 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2018 Business management
Xs30 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2018 Business management
Xs31 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2017 International economy and trade
Xs32 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2019 Computer science
Xs33 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2019 Business management
Xs34 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2016 English
Xs35 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2016 English
Xs36 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2019 Business management
Xs37 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2020 Computer science
Xs38 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2019 International economy and trade
Xs39 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2019 English
Xs40 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2019 Accounting
Xs41 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2020 English
Xs42 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2020 English
Xs43 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2020 English
Xs44 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2020 English
Xs45 IDE at Beijing Foreign Studies University 2020 English

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