Modern day technology has brought us some astonishing things. John Lennon would never have guessed in the 1960's that people would be carrying around tiny jukeboxes with even tinier speakers that go directly into your ear. Apply the same principle and the Oxford students of the 1960's would never have thought that somebody could complete a degree course without any paper, any pens and by sitting in their own homes. Online degrees are becoming more and more popular for a number of reasons; for some it is the benefit of being able to do a specific course without the expense of moving out of the family home; for others it is because they wish to complete a degree in their own time and fit it around either part time or full time employment. I guess that you yourself are likely to be looking into the possibility of doing some sort of online or distance learning degree, else your search engine has let you down badly! Through this hub I will talk you through some of the UK institutions, all fully and properly accredited, that offer online degree courses.

If you are serious about doing a distance learning / online degree, then The Open University is the first organisation that you should consider. The OU have been operating for donkey's years and recently celebrated their 10,000th graduate. They offer a wide range of postgraduate and undergraduate degrees, many of which can be completed in your own time as long as the overall course is finished within 10 years. The Open University is without a doubt the biggest option for choice - with over 600 university level courses in over 60 different subject categories - they also offer a wide range of postgraduate courses. Like a normal university degree, you may be entitled to take a student loan or even grants towards your expenses. The cost of completing a full degree varies, but the Open University is amongst the cheapest available options for many of their courses. A BA (Hons) English Language and Literature will cost you as little as £3,780 to complete. The OU really are the experts in the field and the most respected around, so well worth a serious look!

The ICS, which was established in 1890, is a distance learning specialist. Amongst their portfolio of courses they offer a number of undergraduate degrees which include, amongst many others, BA (Hons) English, BA (Hons) History, BA (Hons) Business Management and some LLB courses. Like most distance degrees, you will be provided with a dedicated mentor to help you out either via email or telephone; the organisation also has a very active online community of degree students to communicate with. The typical degree course will cost you around £10,200 although this can differ slightly depending on the subject, you can choose to do each module as and when you wish and you may be entitled to a student loan to help cover costs. The ICS also enable, unlike some universities, the option to pay your fees monthly.

Another institute that offers a wide selection of online degrees is the University of Derby. They have around 30 courses for you to study, many of which are postgraduate; Derby even offer an online MBA. Course fees vary but for a BSc (Hons) or BSc (Hons) it costs £255 per module with 24 modules being studied before you gain your degree. This equates to £6,140 for your degree. Of course, this is cheaper than paying the standard UK fee for attending uni, but costs for international students are slightly higher at £360 per module. Perhaps their strongest course on offer is their MBA; Derby are one of the countries best regarded Business Schools and scored an excellent 22 out of 24 in recent inspections. The only MBA (taking you first through PgCert and PgDip stages) will cost you under £10,000, which for an MBA is relatively cheap. In comparison, an MSc in Strategic Management will cost you £4,320.

The RDI are slightly different in format to the other institutions in this list in that they effectively 'broker' online degree courses that are run by a number of UK universities. The universities that offer courses through RDI include Sheffield Hallam University, University of Sunderland and the University of Warwick. Of course, all of those institutions will also offer the same courses directly, so you should be advised to check for possible price disparities (either negative or positive!)

The four institutions on this list have been discussed because they offer a wide variety of courses, many other respectable universities offer online degrees and you should fully explore whats available before choosing. See below search engine results for online courses:-

Google Results: 'Online Degree UK'

Yahoo Results: 'Online Degree UK'

Bing Results: 'Online Degree UK'