No educationist could fail to observe that in the rather conservative world of education a silent revolution is in action - the revolution of distance education. As an educational strategy for democratising education and promoting human resource development, Distance Education has been popularised by advances in educational technologies, and today several developing countries as well as developed countries, are using or proposing to use distance education to tackle some of their pressing educational problems. The establishment of CRTV in China, UT in Indonesia, STOU in Thailand, AIOU in Pakistan, IGNOU in India and the Commonwealth of Learning is a proof of the thinking of policy-makers. Although general sets of common socio-economic-political and historical factors can be identified as being the major engine behind the establishment of distance education centres world-wide, yet each country has its own specificity with its unique set of factor combinations that in turn determine its own approach and vision to Distance Education. For example, in Indonesia, it is an access problem; in Australia and New Zealand it is geographical and demographic particularities, and in Hong Kong it is the need for trained manpower. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the sets of conditions that have led the University of Mauritius to adopt the mixed mode of delivery as a key strategic tool in improving access and quality. The first part, which will be essentially historical, will focus on recommendations and reports made by various experts leading to the eventual setting up of the Centre for Distance Learning of the University of Mauritius, while the second part, which will be analytical, will make use of Quantitative and Qualitative techniques to assess how far the University of Mauritius through the Centre for Distance Learning has achieved its overall objectives in the small state island, where physical distance is not a problem. The concluding part will profile the future development path of Distance Education on campus, in the light of emerging multimedia technique and the Caerenad project. The eventual establishment of the Centre for Distance Learning of the University of Mauritius as the hub of the Indian Ocean, providing capacity building facilities to the Region will also be contemplated. |