ABSTRACT
We define a mega-university as a distance-teaching institution with over 100,000 active students in degree-level courses. Table 3.1 lists the 11 institutions that met these criteria in 1996 (ICDL, 1995). Table 3.2 provides some basic data but should be used cautiously in making detailed comparisons between them. The data supplied by the institutions for budgets and numbers ofstudents, graduates or staffare not always calculated on the same basis. Profiles of all the world's mega-universities are given in the Appendix.
