ABSTRACT

Shaiffadzillah Omarali

Building an online education empire:

How online education is socially and economically beneficial to Brunei Darussalam

Global tourism is a 200 year old industry. In contrast, education is a 5,000 year old industry. The

former is a new territory for Brunei Darussalam, while the latter has ingrained itself in Brunei’s

culture and society. Hence, why is tourism touted as the expected successor to the oil and gas

industry, and why has this idea not been challenged by other options?

Education is one feasible option, because throughout history, tertiary education has generated

income to the countries that provide them. Moreover, online education has multiplied the

population of oversea learners. The Open University UK alone currently has 20,000

postgraduates. If each student contributes to an annual $10,000 fee, financial mathematics

suggests a gross income of $200 million, annually. The idea of potentially generating such

revenue, adding to (1) the greater demand for professional development worldwide, and (2)

the increase of online education providers, puts ‘online education industry’ as a stiff competitor

for Brunei’s future main source of income revenue. This proposition is supported by several

research performed locally, analyses of various related case studies, and interviews performed

on both experts and users of online education – accumulating into instances of how online

education would benefit Brunei’s society and economy due to its context, and the factors that

need be considered to transform Brunei into an international hub for online education.

Keywords: Online education, industry, revenue, economics