The World's Largest University

According to the World Bank (1998), Anadolu University in Turkey with more than 500,000 students is the world's largest university. Anadolu University uses government radio and television to broadcasts prerecorded lectures along with other instructional technologies: from mass mailing, distributing lectures on videocassettes or via the Internet and videoconferencing. Students also have the opportunity to meet the local adjunct professors. Anadolu University reaches students all around Turkey including the remote rural areas.

This distance education university was established in 1981 during reorganization of Turkey's higher education system and is referred as the "open education" university. The most popular fields are economics and business administration. The university also offers accounting, banking and insurance, nursing, office management, public relations, sales management, tourism and hotel management, and prepares teachers. Most students enrolled in Anadolu University have lower scores on the national entrance examination. While prestigious state universities require 220 on the exam, Anadolu University accepts students with only 105 score. This creates difficulties for the graduates to find jobs since employers don't believe in the quality of education through distance education. Although Anadolu University graduates are more accepted now than 10-15 years ago, their diplomas still do not mention that degrees were earned by distance education and many graduates don't indicate that they received their degrees from Anadolu University.

Read more about Anadolu University at http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/cronicle.htm
and http://www.anadolu.edu.tr/en/.

Image:
http://www.anadolu.edu.tr/en/