Have you ever wondered what a university education will look like in 20-50 years? Will universities have campuses or laboratories?
Or will education and research completely move into virtual reality? Recently, many countries have seen the emergence of digital universities that have no building, no classrooms, not even a rector. Experts consider the expansion of online education as a prerequisite for the transition of national economies to innovative rails. It should be noted that the world's first institution of higher education, which implemented the principles of distance learning, opened back in 1969. It was the Open University of Great Britain, named so to show its availability due to the low price and absence of necessity to attend lecture classes frequently. Communication between teachers and students was carried out by means of correspondence and two-way radio. Other well-known universities with distance learning programs abroad: National University of Technology (USA), Open University Hagen (Germany), Spanish National University of Distance Learning, University of South Africa (South Africa), Australian Territorial Information Network. One of the pioneers of distance education in Russia was Synergy University. Today it implements over 100 educational programs and issues state diplomas to its graduates. According to experts, in the next 3-5 years the situation in education will continue to change radically. Distance learning through digital technology and the Internet is called "education of the future".

The largest and most famous universities of the world are in full swing to develop virtual space, and Uzbekistan, which sets ambitious goals of joining the ranks of countries with an innovative economy, cannot lag behind in this issue. It is clear that ensuring high rates of economic growth is impossible without development of human capital, implementation of innovative technologies and training of qualified personnel capable of solving the latest problems and being competitive in the world market. Similarly, it is obvious that the low level of higher education coverage inevitably leads to a drop in labor productivity and real incomes, rising unemployment, crime, and the outflow of labor resources. Solving these urgent tasks for Uzbekistan - increasing access to higher education and creating conditions for continuous adult education - requires an innovative and high-tech approach. The traditional way of building more universities is associated with huge capital investments, which will be a burdensome burden on the state budget. In addition, this option is doomed to face an acute shortage of teaching staff. For this reason, the best solution to the whole set of social, economic, personnel and financial problems, which are in the field of vision of the Government of Uzbekistan, is the implementation of the SOTHIS AEGIS project to create an Open Network University (OSU).

The ONU is designed to make world-class education accessible and inclusive for all segments of the population, including people with disabilities, young people from low-income families, and residents of remote rural areas of the republic. This socially important and economically promising for the state project will increase the coverage of higher education, will ensure the continuity of education for all segments of the population at low cost of infrastructure and facilities. Given that international specialists are actively involved in the development of e-courses, the issue of lack of qualified faculty is also eliminated. ONU offers higher education or continuing education through interactive courses that meet world-class standards. At the same time, the proposed courses are developed on the basis of educational programs of the world's leading universities, in coordination with the academic community and the private sector of Uzbekistan. The active participation of the private sector in the formation of educational programs, in turn, will allow training highly qualified specialists-practitioners who correspond to the prospective needs of the labor market and the economy as a whole. The development of a nationwide online knowledge platform will reduce the cost of education, infrastructure, which in turn will free up resources for the development of other sectors of the economy. At the same time, the creation of the ONU will have a number of indirect macroeconomic effects, which will eliminate the imbalance in the labor market and lead to qualitative institutional changes in the system of higher education.