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Online schools could provide the solution to many of the problems faced by mature students. With more and more people finding that they need extra qualifications to advance in the employment market, mature students are often faced with a dilemma; how to obtain those coveted higher educational qualifications whilst juggling work, family and financial commitments. By studying through online schools, students are able to maintain their current standard of living, while working towards a better lifestyle.

Just to give you an idea, there are many good reasons for you to consider earning your degree online, including:

- You can study when you wish and at your own pace

- You can keep your existing job while you study

- You do not have to leave your family and live on a campus

- You have round-the-clock access to the many facilities of your college

- via your Internet connection

- Online Degree programs generally cost less

Allthough I reside in Texas, I do know that a good list of online schools are available in Texas. But there are many other list of onlilne schools around the nation offering courses in every subject and specialty area. Whatever your area of interest, you will be able to find a program that will suit your needs and give you the education and training you’re looking for.

But because there are so much information and options available on online universities; it sometimes can be difficult to choose which online universities to enroll for your degree program?

Hence, if you decide to earn your degree online, which is the best online university for you? I can honestly say that online education has it’s risk, but a well run program requires a great deal of self motivation and discipline. I have a college degree and have taken classes both in a class room and from a distance.

So which list of online schools are you interested in? Do you know? Have you found that right oline accredited school? If not, let me provide you with a short list of online schools to get things started on your search:

1) University of Phoenix – A well recognized and good reputation online university. Employers consistently regard the students coming out of University of Phoenix Online as prepared for the job market and as a result, a degree from University of Phoenix Online, more than any other online university, confers marketability.

2) DeVry University – One of the oldest and most widely recognized online universities. DeVry is an accredited school offering studies in the areas of business, technology, healthcare technology and management. DeVry provides assistance in job placement and many companies actively hire from DeVry.

Other good reputation and well known list of online schools include:

- Everest College

- Kaplan University

- Concord Law School

- Berkerly College

- South University

- Keiser University

- eCampus Online

- National American University

- National Technological University

- Penn Foster Career School

- Penn Foster College

- Penn Foster High School

There are many more list of online schools on the net, you just have to do some thorough research to find the right one in your hometown. Request free online college degree information from as many of these schools as it takes to make the right decision for you.

Keep in mind that each good online university has it pros and cons against their competitors. To maximize the investment on your education, you must choose the best list of online schools which meets your career goals.

An assessment carried out by AllAboutUni.com found that Dutch universities do very well in the World’s Top-500 universities. AllAboutUni.com is an independent, global and interactive website where visitors can obtain information about universities (global rankings, student reviews, university news and campus pictures).

The analysis is based on a ranking of the World’s Top-500 Universities produced by the Institute of Higher Education at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Several indicators of academic or research performance are used to establish the ranking, these include staff winning Nobel Prizes, highly cited researchers and articles indexed in major citation indices.

There are 12 Dutch universities in the World’s Top-500 universities (2008): University of Utrecht (ranked 47th), University of Leiden (76th), Free University of Amsterdam (101-151), Amsterdam University (101-151), University of Groningen (101-151), Delft University of Technology (152-200), Erasmus University (152-200), Radboud University Nijmegen (152-200), University of Wageningen (152-200), University of Maastricht (303-401), Twente University (303-401) and Eindhoven University of Technology (402-503).

Comparison with the World’s Top-500 Overall,

the World’s Top-500 universities are mainly located in Europe (n=210; 40%), the Americas (n=190; 40%) and the Asian/Pacific region (n=100; 20%). The Netherlands, with 12 universities, represents 2% of the total universities in the World’s Top-500 universities. If one adjusts for population size (i.e. one calculates the number of universities in the Top-500 per 1 million inhabitants in the country), the Netherlands performs very well compared to other industrialised countries. The countries with the highest number of universities per million inhabitants are the smaller countries in Western Europe (Sweden (1.2 universities in the World’s Top-500 Universities per 1 million inhabitants), Finland (1.2), Switzerland (1.0), Austria (0.9), Norway (0.8)) and (Israel) (0.8). The Netherlands comes into the next group of countries with 0.7 universities per million inhabitants (this group includes Denmark, Australia, Hong Kong and the UK). The number of US universities per million inhabitants is 0.5.

Comparison with the World’s Top-100universities

Universities in the US clearly dominate the World’s Top-100 universities, with 58 universities. There are 23 European universities, of which two are Dutch (the Universities of Utrecht and Leiden).

Age

The median age of the 12 Dutch universities is 112 years, ranging from 32 years (University of Maastricht) to 433 (University of Leiden). Many of the Dutch universities are young, with six of the 12 universities aged less than 100 years.

Endowments

Endowments can play an important role in the operating budget of universities, as demonstrated by the AllAboutUni.com assessment of the world’s Top-25 universities. Only one of the 12 Dutch universities reported an endowment on Wikipedia [accessed 22 November 2008] and this was the Delft University of Technology (€460 million in 2007). This is a relatively small amount in comparison to the World’s Top-25 universities whose median endowment is $5.9 billion.

Conclusions

The overall performance of Dutch universities compared to the rest of the world is very good. Despite not being represented in the World’s Top-25 universities, they have a very good overall performance with a high number of universities per million inhabitants in the World´s Top-500. Another positive point is that many of the Dutch universities are young and have progressed to the World’s Top-500 universities over a relatively short time period. The strong overall performance of Dutch universities is probably associated with factors like the good management practices, the high level of public (and private) funding available to Dutch universities and the long academic tradition that exists in the Netherlands.