Why Don't All Colleges Offer Online Degrees?

Currently there are a lot of colleges that offer online degrees so finding one should not be a problem. That being said you should not assume that all colleges will offer online programs. In fact it is generally the best known and most reputable schools that do not offer online degrees. There is of course a reason for this.

The reason that the well known, big name schools do not offer online degrees is that it would reduce the value of their regular degree programs. One of the reasons that people pay a hundred thousand dollars for a Harvard degree is that the number of people who have them is strictly limited. If they were to open the doors and start conferring thousands of online degrees every year the value would decline dramatically.

This recently became an issue when Berkeley attempted to start an online degree program, the students of the regular degree program protested against the move. So far Berkeley has introduced one online Master's degree program but it is unlikely that more are going to follow any time soon.

The schools that are much more likely to offer online degree programs are the ones whose job is to educate large numbers of people, like the state colleges. The job of the state colleges is to make educational opportunities available to as many people as they can so they have embraced online learning. They also don't have to worry nearly as much about too many graduates as adding a few more to the tens of thousands who get them every year is hardly going to devalue them.

The other colleges that are likely to offer online degrees are the ones that were set up specifically to do this. Because you can operate an online school with much less overhead than would be required for a regular college it has proven to be a good business for many companies.

While most big name schools have avoided offering online degrees some of them are starting to dip their toes in the water. As already mentioned Berkeley has started to offer one degree program. In addition Harvard has an online program that actually offers quite a few different degrees. They have decided that online learning is something they can't avoid. In order to get around the problem of devaluing their degrees they have decided to differentiate them. You can get a Harvard degree online but it is not the same degree that you would get if you attended class in person. This is probably the route that the other well known schools will follow.