TENDENCIES OF GAINING MASTER’S DEGREE BY DISTANCE IN BRITISH UNIVERSITIES

The article deals with the peculiarities of British universities providing master’s degree by distance. Namely, it analyses such features as their edgeless character, highly flexible study options, quality assurance, quality of courses in regard to every stakeholder, entry requirements, usage of VLE and MOOCs. Due to the fact that technology is at the heart of institutional change, in the UK universities become edgeless geographically and functionally as they start to provide education outside the UK and providing new ways to access and use ideas and knowledge. Besides, universities offer a wide range of cutting-edge courses and highly flexible study options in terms of time and place of studying and course content to provide the students with the skills to further enhance their career prospects and demonstrate real expertise in their chosen field. Other modern characteristics of British universities providing master’s degree by distance are as follows: obligatory usage of the proper virtual learning environment to full extend; the due respect to quality and quality assurance; the right organization of distance courses in respect to every stakeholder it refers, that is to course designers, the funders, the programme managers, students and even future employers; rather high entry requirements; being a member of the community of MOOCs. The latter provides availability of the best courses from the best universities for everyone in the world for free on the one hand, and on the other hand it encourages cooperation between institutions.