This is what some of China's best and brightest call home: the teachers' housing at People's University, one of the country's top institutions of higher learning.

CNN: PLENTY OF ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

The visit to Kyoto also featured the signing of a Cooperation Agreement with Professor Hiroshi Matsumoto, President of Kyoto University, for the establishment of an internship programme to strengthen UNESCO's action -- "through many talented young women and men coming from one of the world's leading institutions of higher learning, a haven for Nobel Prize winners and Fields medallists" said Irina Bokova.

UNESCO: MEDIA SERVICES

To be sure, more than 6 million students in the U.S. are now taking at least one course online, and 65 percent of higher education institutions say online learning is a critical part of their long-term strategy, according to a 2011 report from the Babson Survey Research Group .

FORBES: $97,500 for an Online Degree? 2U Is Worth It, Say Students