"Congress is poised to remove a controversial restriction on distance education after more than a decade of heated debate. Supporters say the move will spark a boom in online programs at traditional colleges, as well as the creation of for-profit businesses specializing in cybereducation, while critics argue that it will lead to an increase in diploma mills.
Lawmakers originally passed the rule in 1992 to counter a rash of fraud perpetuated by diploma mills and some correspondence programs in the 1980s. Known as the 50-percent rule, the regulation prevents any college that enrolls more than 50 percent of its students at a distance or provides more than half of its courses via distance education from participating in federal student-aid programs.
Back then, before the popularization of the Web, few traditional colleges offered online courses. Now many colleges that never imagined they would enroll many online students are nearing the 50-percent limit. For instance, Bellevue University, a traditional institution based in Nebraska, says it is likely to have more than half of its students taking courses online within the next year or two.
‘We are getting to the point that more of our students are choosing online,’ says Mary B. Hawkins, Bellevue’s provost. ‘It’s the direction that the industry is moving.’
In response to the growing demand for distance courses, and after an eight-year experiment in which a few colleges were given waivers of the rule, Congress is expected to do away with it in the next few weeks."
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