Online Degrees in the United Kingdom

Students attending on-campus courses will study for at least three years to obtain their undergraduate (bachelors) degree. Honours degrees can also be completed in three years except for Scotland where Honours degrees take four.

Most universities in the UK can be classified into a number of different categories.

• New Universities are institutions that had previously been categorized as polytechnics (institutes specializing in technology) as recently as 1992.
  
• Universities established in the 1960s are known as 'Plate Glass Universities'.
  
• Red Brick universities were institutes founded in the early 20th century, and in some cases the late 19th century.
• Ancient universities are universities founded prior to the 19th century.
  

An institute can only call itself a university in the UK after being instituted by Royal Charter (basically this is an official recognition by the State). Only universities can award a degree (whether it be bachelor, master or other).

British universities have a fantastic international reputation. The origins of this reputation are routed in the research conducted by the British universities along with the ancient universities such as Oxford and Cambridge that maintain such high positions in the rankings of the world's finest universities.

Distance and online learning in the UK has grown steadily in recent years. The country's Open University (a university specializing in distance learning) was founded in the late 1960s, and has become a widely recognised name within the UK. Because of the advances of the Internet it has become far easier for universities to reach more students wishing to study at home. For that reason more and more universities and other institutes in the UK are now offering some form of academic course online.