Asserting that the traditional system of higher education is not capable of meeting the ever-increasing demands of a developing country such as India, this paper suggests possible alternative methods of higher education. In addition to in-depth descriptions of the United Kingdom's Open University at Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, and the Regional Study Centres of the Open University at Leeds and London, this paper examines the status of distance education in other countries including Pakistan, Canada, China, and India. Recommending that developing countries emulate the work being done by the Open University in the United Kingdom, the article concludes by emphasizing that this non-formal system is flexible and innovative, can provide a powerful socioeconomic alternative to conventional higher education systems, and has immense potential for correcting some of the existing weaknesses of the current university and collegiate patterns. The paper also suggests reforms in the system of correspondence education in the University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, in the wider context of strengthening and expanding the open university system at the national as well as the state level in India. (Author/THC)