Distance learning programs in China - is EBLCU dead?

[Jackdk]

Hi,

I work just outside Beijing and would like to enroll in an undergraduate course to get a BA in Chinese language. But I work during the day so it's not possible for me to study at a normal university. Also I'm not yet able to pass an HSK test.

I've tried to enroll at www.ebclu.net which is (or was) a distance learning portal launched by BLCU. But but... the website seems outdated and emails are just returned by the BLCU mailer deamon. I tried to call them but they just referred me to www.worldlinkedu.com, which seems to be a commercial company / frontend for a number of (onsite) courses on universities around China. Dead end.

Would anyone happen to know if the EBLCU programme has been discontinued or if it is possible to study towards a BA at another Beijing university without being on campus every day?

Thanks

/J

[roddy]

I know that at least one uni - Dongcai in Dalian - allows students with a certain HSK level (6 or 7 I think) to enter directly into the third year of their 'Chinese for Foreigners' BA. I'd suggest you look at that route - do self study, enrol at a more flexible private school, etc for a year or so, get your Chinese level up, then jump into a BA course - quite possibly saving yourself some time and money.

If you have specific universities in mind you probably want to check what their policy on this is, but the BA's are overseen by the Ministry of Education, so you'd at least expect some consistency.

That doesn't exactly answer your question, as it seems you are looking for a distance / online option which will count towards a degree. However, I don't know of any, so that's all you're getting

[Radial]

EBCLU certainly looks dead... just try going to the website and it would not load... the program was a good early attempt to put chinese learning online... too bad they did not keep it up... and just let the project die... they could have been leaders...

[BrandeX]

Distance/online Education, is a growing industry in the USA, as well as other countries. Most places, like China, just haven't gotten on the boat yet so to speak, which is too bad. There is a lot of money they could be making by opening new online schools here, or adding in distance ed programs to existing brick and mortar uni's. My wife is crrently a distance ed student of sorts at Sun-Yat Sen, but its for Chinese only, and requires you to be fluent in Chinese anyways (its a business degree, they have no language degree this way), and you still have to go in to take the finals once or twice a semester. Maybe in the future there will be more opportunities to learn chinese from a real university (there is private companies but these don't result in a degree if that is your goal, only a cert.) However one potential issue is learning a language online can be difficult to implement and succeed. In fact most western uni's don't offer languages in their distance ed programs, those that do have only the basics like french and spanish, etc.