THE British Council has set up the territory's first information centre on distance learning in an effort to protect the public from substandard degree programmes.
The council's Distance Learning Centre (DLC) will be opened tomorrow by Lady Dunn. It will ensure the 20 British courses it promotes meet the standards required.
The courses have to satisfy the rigorous academic criteria drawn up by the council in consultation with the Hong Kong Council for Academic Accreditation. Legislation introduced soon will require that overseas distance learning providers register their programmes in Hong Kong.
It will put under the spotlight such things as entry requirements, examinations, assessment standards, qualifications of teaching staff and the relevance of programmes to the local sphere.
'There are at present some 300 distance learning courses in Hong Kong. What clients need is a point of comparison,' said DLC consultant Ann Houghton.
She said because some local agents lacked experience in conducting examinations the centre would run these when necessary. But it was not necessary if the agent was a local tertiary institution.
