Distance Education degree programs

Students and employees can register to receive a study grant to finance a university education at a distance.

The Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie, which this year celebrates 50 years, offers scholarships each year 2000 through its mobility program. The agency awards stipends to enable candidates to enroll in one of the 75 courses offered. These courses are open to levels of distances (Medicine), Bachelor and Master 1 and 2.

These degree programs are offered by European universities and institutions of Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Madagascar, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia and Vietnam.

The university offers courses AUF
The Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie has a rich catalog of degree programs, accessible to students and employees in continuing education. The courses are taught at a distance, they are followed in the home country and employees may continue working during their studies. However, it is advisable in this case, release of weekly hours and realize the extra work to investing.


The four levels of study offered in the training catalog AUF
The differing levels of study allows better access to training, depending on the current level of training of the candidate:

University Diploma (DU) in medicine,
Licence (L3)
Master (M1)
Master (M2).
University courses covering five disciplines
Without cover all topics, the choice is structured into five themes, for a total of 75 offers university courses.

Law, Economics and Political Science (10),
Science Society, (11)
Sciences and Engineering (29),
Life sciences and earth, (20)
Humanities (5).
Geographical location of the awarding institution
The distribution of the awarding institution is:

40 degrees offered by European universities,
39 licenses and remote masters are offered by institutions in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Madagascar, Morocco, Senegal, Tunisia and Vietnam.
Financing of university fees and educational expenses
Successful candidates are awarded a stipend by the AUF, which allows them to finance:


a large proportion of educational costs,
the university fees.
Generally, it remains a contribution to the candidate listed in the "Application form and conditions" of the proposed curriculum.

Conditions for obtaining benefits of distance education funded by the AUF
AUF grants a certain number of allocations for each course. The conditions attached to the application are indicated for each panel.

Depending on the degree sought, access to training will be conditioned to a degree. Nevertheless, it is possible to envisage a VAE (Validation of Acquired Experience) or VAPP (Validation of professional and personal skills).

Generally, the allocation of an allowance for distance learning by the AUF is intended for candidates residing in a Francophone country in the South, sometimes in the East. However, he must remain for the duration of training in this country (unless exceptional).

There is no mention of the nationality of the candidate, but the place of residence.

Registration procedure for the allocation of distance learning
Each course has an application form and conditions. Therefore, according to them, should consider both the various offers and conditions.

Dedicated website ,
Access to Training Catalog by education levels or by the awarding institutions,
Once considered the curriculum selected, the "Conditions and Application Form", offers the opportunity to file his candidacy.
Agenda calls for nominations of the AUF for year 2011-2012
The deadline for submitting applications is June 10, 2011 for courses starting in September / October 2011.
The deadline is increased to 10 September 2011 for training starting in January 2012.
Back on the nominations, 2010, origins of female candidates and Disparity
In 2010, the AUF has received 12,614 nominations from 63 different countries for the 75 degrees reached by ODL (*) presented. The Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie welcomes this figure, the highest since 2004.

As in the previous four years, they are Cameroonians and the Burkinabé who most answered. Despite a willingness to include women in the program with a priority given to female candidates (with equal scientific quality), they represent only 20%, a figure down for three years.

Each year, the AUF provides the opportunity for young students, employees follow a university course to choose from a diverse catalog of courses in both subjects in grades. The modality chosen, namely ODL, enables candidates to follow their training from home, access to top universities, via the Internet.

Pros Cons of Online Education

The Internet has provided an incredible opportunity for education easy through online programs, but not a real alternative to the traditional academic environment.

There is growing interest in the field of online education, as it has some obvious advantages, but also has some serious disadvantages, which are usually ignored. In fact, online education is an opportunity for some people who have some limitations, but generally can not replace traditional education, in all circumstances.

The advantages of online education 
Flexibility: The first interesting feature of online education is its flexibility. "And very ideal for workers who have limited time for study, and you can easily manage your program.

Cost: With the cost of education is an important issue for most students. Thus, low-cost training online is a great advantage over traditional training.  ( Debate on Universities act )

Accessibility: online training is, in fact, a part of globalization, and offers educational opportunities without geographic boundaries and distance. This represents a real opportunity for everyone to participate in online classes from anywhere in the world. This is a golden opportunity for students from developing countries wishing to study in universities in developed countries.

The disadvantages of online education
Cost: Yes, even if the cost is considered as an advantage to online training, is also a disadvantage for the following reasons:

Most students get a classical education system support the various funds from different sources (eg, scholarships, university, government, etc), but there are only a few sources of online students.
A significant portion of the costs of education are related to the classical student life (housing, for example) and online students can pay some extra charges (which are not part of the study or daily life), and high-speed Internet speed, software, postage, etc.

Campus Life: Another objective of higher education is to live in an academic environment, and this helps students to experience new life in polite society (and education dedicated to the study.) In fact, students do not participate in technique classes, but also actively participate in social activities in the community. Even from the technical point of view of education, informal discussions outside the classroom contribute significantly to improving their ability to solve problems. ( Online Education Guide )

Social Issues: By online education, people need to spend much time on the computer and have less to do with the company (not only academic society, but also the public company).

Controversial issues in an online degree
There are also some controversial opinions about online education. For example, accreditation of academic online degree is an important issue in the subject, and indeed the main obstacle to the development of online education. Contrary to common belief that accreditation is an ongoing problem related to the nature of online education, many problems are due to the fact that online universities are very young. Several older universities have launched the Online Campus can offer according to their accreditation as traditional degrees.

On the other hand, the implementation of an online campus is not difficult and expensive: therefore, many online universities without qualified education systems were established in recent years. In addition, some of them, this is a type of business to make money and not for purposes of education. The existence of examples of this type had a bad reputation in the public sector (as some employers do not accept online degrees.)

The main objective of this paper is to stress that online education is not to replace the classical education, in all circumstances, as traditional universities have some essential services that can not fail in the areas of education. Moreover, some serious limitations of online learning, can not be used for all disciplines.

Ideally, online education is an opportunity for those who need that service, especially to get a degree. If someone wants to learn a discipline or to enjoy all aspects of education, there is an appropriate way. When someone is working, do not have enough time to attend traditional classes, and the need for a degree with a general knowledge of the regulation, then online education can be a perfect solution.