ABSTRACT
Jones International University (JIU) is a viable and operational virtual university, which illustrates the important role of private, for-profit entrepreneurship in higher education. As a new for-profit university with no legacy as a branded ‘bricks-and-mortar’ institution, JIU was developed from inception in 1993 to be fully online. Its academic offerings and organizational structure were shaped by JIU’s founding mission. This included four distinctive goals that were operationalized in 1995 when the university began offering courses, certificates and degrees:
1 to serve adult learners worldwide as a global university; 2 to provide accessible and affordable programs – overcoming
barriers of time, distance and cost; 3 to develop and deliver rich content and learning to adult learners
across the world via the Internet and Web; and 4 to demonstrate a new model for higher education.
