Students face decisions on all aspects of the company, including marketing, production, research, distribution and sales.

ECONOMIST: News from the schools, February 2007

As a college professor, I face rooms of identically clad students who all watch the same sitcoms, have all seen that month's two or three mass-produced Hollywood films and all listen to the same six indistinguishable musical groups on the two local commercial radio stations.

ECONOMIST: Unnatural selection

On its face, it would appear to be a large one: somewhere between one third and one half of all college students eventually drop out.

FORBES: A New Market: Student Loan Insurance

Course director Professor Robin Mason said beforehand that a virtual graduation ceremony was "entirely appropriate for a programme in which students from all over the world have worked together online for three years and have never met face to face".

BBC: Open University's online graduation