PBS And Leading Colleges Join To Provide “Anytime, Anywhere” Access to Top Quality Distance Education College Courses and Degrees

ALEXANDRIA, VA – September 25, 2003 – PBS today joined five of the nation’s leading institutions of higher education to announce that, for the first time, every course available in the wide ranging “PBS Campus” service (www.pbs.org/campus) will be available for any student to take for college credit, no matter where they live.

The five institutions taking part in this initiative are: Dallas TeleCollege (TX); St. Petersburg College (FL); Strayer University (DC); Thomas Edison State College (NJ); and the Education Technology Consortium (ETC). The ETC is a partnership with WHYY, the leading public broadcasting station in the Greater Philadelphia area, a regionally-based software provider and higher education institutions, including Camden County College, Community College of Philadelphia, Delaware County Community College and Montgomery County Community College.

Before today’s announcement, students wishing to take one of PBS Campus’s award-winning multimedia courses might find that it was not offered by a nearby college or university. But now, the five institutions selected by PBS through a competitive nationwide process will collectively offer all courses listed on PBS Campus.

Because each of the five institutions is a proven leader at providing distance education, students will be able to complete the PBS courses, or entire college degree programs, at their own convenience, without ever having to physically set foot on campus.

“Since 1980, more than six million Americans have improved their lives and achieved success by taking PBS courses for credit through distance learning programs at local colleges,” said PBS Executive Vice President Judy Harris. “But we want to do even better, to make sure educational opportunities are available to every American, no matter where they live. We are delighted that this new alliance will make this dream a reality.”

PBS Campus, launched in March of this year, is a joint effort of PBS, local public television stations, and colleges nationwide. PBS provides the course materials – including rich video and interactive content delivered via TV, video and the Internet — and the colleges provide the instructors, register the students, and award the credit and degrees.

PBS Campus is where users find out about PBS courses they can take and the many local colleges offering these courses. About 600 colleges and universities nationwide already offer PBS courses to their students, and many of these colleges are listed in the PBS Campus “Find a Course – Find a College” search engine.

PBS, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, is a private, nonprofit media enterprise owned and operated by the nation’s 349 public television stations. Serving nearly 90 million people each week, PBS enriches the lives of all Americans through quality programs and education services on noncommercial television, the Internet and other media. More information about PBS is available at http://www.pbs.org, the leading dot-org Web site on the Internet.