Inspiration from an Analysis of the British and American Quality Assurance System of Distance Higher Education

This paper addresses the significantly importance of quality assurance system in the distance higher education. The quality assurance system for distance higher education has long been set up and perfected in U.S. and U.K focusing on quality accreditation and learning supportive services. By means of comparison, this paper points out some problems of distance higher education in China such as: low recognition of learning quality, poor management system, dislocation of evaluation bodies, inexplicit standards of quality assurance and weak learning supportive services. The paper suggests that the higher educational institutions in China should be more open to the world and join in the international quality accreditation, based on the learner-centered teaching model, to establish a distance quality assurance system that is suitable to China.