Percentage of 2- and 4-year postsecondary institutions offering any distance education courses, and among those, the percentage that had college-level degree or certificate programs designed to be completed through distance education, by level and type of institution: 1997–98 and 2000

Contexts of Postsecondary Education: Tables

Distance Education at Postsecondary Institutions

Table 32-2. Percentage of 2- and 4-year postsecondary institutions offering any distance education courses, and among those, the percentage that had college-level degree or certificate programs designed to be completed through distance education, by level and type of institution: 1997–98 and 2000–01

		Programs designed to be completed totally through distance education
		Any degree or certificate programs	Degree programs			Certificate programs
Type of institution	Offered any distance education courses¹	Institutions with distance education courses²	Under- graduate degree programs³	Graduate/first- professional degree programs⁴	Degree programs at either level²	Under- graduate certificate programs³	Graduate/first- professional certificate programs⁴	Certificate programs at either level²

	1997–98
All institutions	34	25	13	31	22	4	9	7
Public 2-year	62	13	11	†	11	4	†	4
Public 4-year	78	39	18	34	38	4	8	10
Private 4-year	19	32	14	26	29	3	11	11

	2000–01
All institutions	56	34	21	35	30	12	13	16
Public 2-year	90	25	20	†	20	15	†	15
Public 4-year	89	53	28	43	48	13	18	25
Private 4-year	40	36	19	28	33	10	10	14

†Not applicable.
¹1997–98 data based on the estimated 5,010 2- and 4-year postsecondary institutions in the nation; 2000–01 data based on the estimated 4,130 2- and 4-year Title IV-eligible, degree-granting institutions.
²1997–98 data based on the estimated 1,680 institutions that offered distance education courses in 1997–98; 2000–01 data based on the estimated 2,320 institutions that offered any distance education courses in 2000–01.
³1997–98 data based on the estimated 1,620 institutions that had undergraduate programs and that offered any distance education courses in 1997–98; 2000–01 data based on the estimated 2,170 institutions that had undergraduate programs and that offered any distance education courses in 2000–01.
⁴1997–98 data based on the estimated 750 institutions that had graduate or first-professional programs and that offered any distance education courses in 1997–98; 2000–01 data based on the estimated 1,080 institutions that had graduate or first-professional programs and that offered any distance education in 2000–01.
NOTE: Data for private 2-year institutions are not reported in a separate category because too few private 2-year institutions in the sample offered distance education courses to make reliable estimates. Data for private 2-year institutions are included in the totals and in analyses by other institutional characteristics.
SOURCE: Lewis, L., Snow, K., Farris, E., and Levin, D. (1999). Distance Education at Postsecondary Education Institutions: 1997–98 (NCES 2000–013), table 13; and Waits, T., and Lewis, L. (2003). Distance Education at Degree-Granting Postsecondary Institutions: 2000–2001 (NCES 2003–017), table 8. Data from U.S. Department of Education, NCES, Postsecondary Education Quick Information System (PEQIS), “Survey on Distance Education at Postsecondary Education Institutions,” 1998–99 and “Survey on Distance Education at Higher Education Institutions,” 2000–01.

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