title: Inari Ōkami

text: Inari is often venerated as a collective of three deities ("Inari sanza"); since the Kamakura period, this number has sometimes increased to five "kami" ("Inari goza"). However, the identification of these "kami" has varied over time. According to records of Fushimi Inari, the oldest and perhaps most prominent Inari shrine, these "kami" have included Izanagi, Izanami, Ninigi, and Wakumusubi, in addition to the food deities previously mentioned. The five "kami" today identified with Inari at Fushimi Inari are Ukanomitama, Sarutahiko, Omiyanome, Tanaka, and Shi. However, at Takekoma Inari, the second-oldest Inari shrine in Japan, the three enshrined deities are Ukanomitama, Ukemochi, and Wakumusubi. According to the Nijūni shaki, the three "kami" are Ōmiyame no mikoto (water) Ukanomitama no mikoto (grain) and Sarutahiko no mikami (land).


title: Inari Ōkami

text: The fox and the wish-fulfilling jewel are prominent symbols of Inari. Other common elements in depictions of Inari, and sometimes of their "kitsune", include a sickle, a sheaf or sack of rice, and a sword. Another belonging was their whip—although they were hardly known to use it, it was a powerful weapon that was used to burn people's crops of rice.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: The origin of Inari worship is not entirely clear. The first recorded use of the present-day "kanji" ("characters") of Inari's name, which mean "carrying rice", (literally "rice load") was in the "Ruijū Kokushi" in 892 AD. Other sets of "kanji" with the same phonetic readings, most of which contained a reference to rice, were in use earlier, and most scholars agree that the name "Inari" is derived from . The worship of Inari is known to have existed as of 711 AD, the official founding date of the shrine at Inari Mountain in Fushimi, Kyoto. Scholars such as Kazuo Higo believe worship was conducted for centuries before that date; they suggest that the Hata clan began the formal worship of Inari as an agriculture "kami" in the late fifth century. The name Inari does not appear in classical Japanese mythology.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: By the Heian period, Inari worship began to spread. In 823 AD, after Emperor Saga presented the Tō-ji temple to Kūkai, the founder of the Shingon Buddhist sect, the latter designated Inari as its resident protector "kami". In 827, the court granted Inari the lower fifth rank, which further increased the deity's popularity in the capital. Inari's rank was subsequently increased, and by 942, Emperor Suzaku granted Inari the top rank in thanks for overcoming rebellions. At this time, the Fushimi Inari-taisha shrine was among the twenty-two shrines chosen by the court to receive imperial patronage, a high honor. The second Inari shrine, Takekoma Inari, was established in the late ninth century.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: Inari's popularity continued to grow. The Fushimi shrine, already a popular pilgrimage site, gained wide renown when it became an imperial pilgrimage site in 1072. By 1338, the shrine's festival was said to rival the Gion Festival in splendor.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: In 1468, during the Ōnin War, the entire Fushimi shrine complex was burned. Rebuilding took about thirty years; the new building was consecrated in 1499. While the old complex had enshrined three "kami" in separate buildings, the new one enshrined five "kami" in a single building. The new shrine also included a Buddhist temple building for the first time, and the hereditary priesthood was expanded to include the Kada clan.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: During the Edo period, Inari worship spread across Japan; it became especially prominent in Edo. Smyers attributes this spread to the movement of "daimyōs" (feudal lords). Inari had by the sixteenth century become the patron of blacksmiths and the protector of warriors—for this reason, many castle compounds in Japan contain Inari shrines—and the "daimyōs" took their belief in their protector "kami" with them when they relocated to a new domain. Inari's divine role continued to expand; on the coast, they became a protector of fishermen; in Edo, they were invoked to prevent fires. They became the patron of actors and of prostitutes, since their shrines were often found near the pleasure quarters where these individuals lived. They began to be worshipped as the "Desire-Fulfilling Inari", a deity of luck and prosperity; a common saying in Osaka was "Byō Kōbō, yoku Inari" ("For sickness [pray to] Kōbō, for desires [pray to] Inari"). Inari also began to be petitioned for good health; they are credited with curing such diverse afflictions as coughs, toothaches, broken bones, and syphilis. Women prayed to Inari to grant them children.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: After a government decree mandated the separation of Buddhist and Shinto beliefs, many Inari shrines underwent changes. At Fushimi Inari, for instance, structures that were obviously Buddhist were torn down. Among the populace, however, the blended form of worship continued. Some Buddhist temples, such as Toyokawa Inari, maintained Inari worship by arguing that they had always been devoted to a Buddhist deity (often Dakiniten), which the common folk had mistaken as Inari.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: In the Tokugawa period, when money replaced rice as the measure of wealth in Japan, Inari's role as a "kami" of worldly prosperity was expanded to include all aspects of finance, business, and industry. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, followers of Inari at the Ginza mint struck coins meant for offerings to Inari, which featured pictures of two foxes and a jewel or the characters for "long life" and "good luck".


title: Inari Ōkami

text: Inari is a popular deity with shrines and temples located throughout most of Japan. According to a 1985 survey by the National Association of Shinto Shrines, 32,000 shrines—more than one-third of Shinto shrines in Japan—are dedicated to Inari. This number includes only Shinto shrines with full-time resident priests; if small roadside or field shrines, shrines kept in a home or corporate office, smaller shrines without full-time resident priests, and Buddhist temples were included, the number would increase by at least an order of magnitude.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: The entrance to an Inari shrine is usually marked by one or more vermilion torii and some statues of "kitsune", which are often adorned with red "yodarekake" ("votive bibs") by worshippers out of respect. This red color has come to be identified with Inari, because of the prevalence of its use among Inari shrines and their torii. The main shrine is the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Fushimi, Kyoto, Japan, where the paths up the shrine hill are marked in this fashion. The "kitsune" statues are at times taken for a form of Inari, and they typically come in pairs, representing a male and a female. These fox statues hold a symbolic item in their mouths or beneath a front paw—most often a jewel and a key, but a sheaf of rice, a scroll, or a fox cub are all common. Almost all Inari shrines, no matter how small, will feature at least a pair of these statues, usually flanking or on the altar or in front of the main sanctuary. The statues are rarely realistic; they are typically stylized, portraying a seated animal with its tail in the air looking forward. Despite these common characteristics, the statues are highly individual in nature; no two are quite the same.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: Offerings of rice, sake, and other food are given at the shrine to appease and please these "kitsune" messengers, who are then expected to plead with Inari on the worshipper's behalf. Inari-zushi, a Japanese sushi roll of packaged fried tofu, is another popular offering. Fried tofu is believed to be a favorite food of Japanese foxes, and an Inari-zushi roll has pointed corners that resemble fox ears, thus reinforcing the association. Priests do not normally offer these foods to the deity, but it is common for shops that line the approach to an Inari shrine to sell fried tofu for devotees to offer. Fox statues are often offered to Inari shrines by worshippers, and on occasion a stuffed and mounted fox is presented to a temple. At one time, some temples were home to live foxes that were venerated, but this is not current practice.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: According to Inari scholar, Karen A. Smyers, the "most striking feature of Inari worship is the high degree of diversification and even personalization of this kami. Devotees do not simply worship 'Inari,' but a separate form of Inari with its own name. Various Inari shrines and temples worship entirely different kami "as" Inari; traditions and symbols have a multiplicity of meanings." This is exemplified by the various kami Inari is identified with such as Uganomitama no Okami, Ukanomitama no kami, Ukemochi no kami, Wakumusubi no kami, and many more. In fact, except for ancestor worship, Inari worship is the most personalized of all Japanese religiosity.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: Smyers also describes the concept of "personal Inari" or ""watashi no O-Inari-sama"" in Japanese. "One Shinto priest argued that the impulse to worship 'my own Inari' arose during the late Edo period and accounted for the great spread of Inari shrines at that time." Furthermore, "If there are one hundred believers, they will have a hundred different ideas about Inari." Smyers notes that Inari has been re-enshrined and divided with "far greater ease and frequency than other Shinto kami, and this may in part account for its great diversity."


title: Inari Ōkami

text: This personalization is not restricted to Shinto practitioners, but also has ties with Buddhism. Inari is often described as being the "closest deity to humans" according to a Toyokawa priest in Smyers's article. "'It [Inari] is like your own mother, it grants your wishes. In times of illness when even a doctor cannot cure you, you have no alternative but to ask Inari. Buddhas have various ranks; Dakiniten [one of Inari's many other names] is at the "ten" (deva) level, the level closest to that of humans. So Inari has very close relations to people.'"


title: Inari Ōkami

text: Inari's personalization also extends to Inari's messengers, the kitsune. In fact, Smyers attests that the fox is "the symbol most often equated with Inari."


title: Inari Ōkami

text: Smyers's analysis is essentially thus: "Inari seems to have struck a fortuitous balance: famous and powerful enough to make people feel confident that he can help them, but lacking the sort of clear historical narrative that would prevent his personalization to fit particular needs."


title: Inari Ōkami

text: Like many other places of spiritual prominence, many practitioners of Shinto, especially Inari worship, take pilgrimage to Inari Mountain at the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. Unlike other religions however, pilgrimage to and around the Fushimi Inari Shrine is the only standardized pilgrimage despite having some 40,000 shrines across Japan. This is in part due to the personalization Inari practitioners tend to have towards Inari as described above. "They have little reason to worship some other form in another place, which may even be seen as someone else's Inari," says Karen A. Smyers, a known academic on Inari.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: The pilgrimage begins starting "at the foot of the mountain, in the midst of elegant red buildings house the five kami of Fushimi Inari Shrine and a number of other deities." Visitors need to first rinse their mouths and wash their hands, a means to symbolically purify one's self before becoming near the kami. The many red torii that Fushimi is known for is the main gateway to convey that one is entering a sacred space. Along the way through these torii and up the mountain, one will find various rock altars, tea houses, waterfalls, and many cedar trees, which symbolizes Inari's "manifestation in the grandeur of nature." Upon reaching the peak, one "passes the place associated with the miraculous assistance of Inari in forging the emperor's sword." Then the pilgrim has a steady descent down the mountain and returns to the regular world outside of the sacred space. Despite this pathway, there is actually "no fixed route one must take through the thousands of sacred sites on the mountain, and pilgrims and groups tend to develop their own sacred histories, worshipping at the sites that are invested with particular meaning to them." Furthermore, "each version of the pilgrimage is a kind of musical improvisation on the theme of Inari."


title: Inari Ōkami

text: Inari's traditional festival day was the first horse day (the sixth day) of the second month ("nigatsu no hatsuuma") of the lunisolar calendar.


title: Inari Ōkami

text: In some parts of Kyūshū, a festival or praying period begins five days before the full moon in November; occasionally it is extended to a full week. This is accompanied by bringing offerings of rice products to a shrine to Inari each day and receiving "o-mamori" ("protection charms").


title: Distance education

text: Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually involved correspondence courses wherein the student corresponded with the school via mail. Distance education is a technology mediated modality and has evolved with the evolution of technologies such as video conferencing, TV, and internet. Today, it usually involves online education and the learning is usually mediated by some form of technology. A distance learning program can be completely distance learning, or a combination of distance learning and traditional classroom instruction (called hybrid or blended). Other modalities include distance learning with complementary virtual environment or teaching in virtual environment (e-learning).


title: Distance education

text: Massive open online courses (MOOCs), offering large-scale interactive participation and open access through the World Wide Web or other network technologies, are recent educational modes in distance education. A number of other terms (distributed learning, e-learning, m-learning, online learning, virtual classroom etc.) are used roughly synonymously with distance education. E-learning has shown to be a useful educational tool. E-learning should be an interactive process with multiple learning modes for all learners at various levels of learning. The distance learning environment is an exciting place to learn new things, collaborate with others, and retain self-discipline.


title: Distance education

text: One of the earliest attempts of distance education was advertised in 1728. This was in the "Boston Gazette" for "Caleb Philipps, Teacher of the new method of Short Hand", who sought students who wanted to learn the skills through weekly mailed lessons.


title: Distance education

text: The first distance education course in the modern sense was provided by Sir Isaac Pitman in the 1840s who taught a system of shorthand by mailing texts transcribed into shorthand on postcards and receiving transcriptions from his students in return for correction. The element of student feedback was a crucial innovation in Pitman's system. This scheme was made possible by the introduction of uniform postage rates across England in 1840.


title: Distance education

text: This early beginning proved extremely successful and the Phonographic Correspondence Society was founded three years later to establish these courses on a more formal basis. The society paved the way for the later formation of Sir Isaac Pitman Colleges across the country.


title: Distance education

text: The first correspondence school in the United States was the Society to Encourage Studies at Home which was founded in 1873.


title: Distance education

text: The University of London was the first university to offer distance learning degrees, establishing its External Programme in 1858. The background to this innovation lay in the fact that the institution (later known as University College London) was non-denominational and the intense religious rivalries at the time led to an outcry against the "godless" university. The issue soon boiled down to which institutions had degree-granting powers and which institutions did not.


title: Distance education

text: The compromise that emerged in 1836 was that the sole authority to conduct the examinations leading to degrees would be given to a new officially recognized entity, the "University of London", which would act as examining body for the University of London colleges, originally University College London and King's College London, and award their students University of London degrees. As Sheldon Rothblatt states: "Thus arose in nearly archetypal form the famous English distinction between teaching and examining, here embodied in separate institutions."


title: Distance education

text: With the state giving examining powers to a separate entity, the groundwork was laid for the creation of a programme within the new university which would both administer examinations and award qualifications to students taking instruction at another institution or pursuing a course of self-directed study. Referred to as "People's University" by Charles Dickens because it provided access to higher education to students from less affluent backgrounds, the External Programme was chartered by Queen Victoria in 1858, making the University of London the first university to offer distance learning degrees to students. Enrollment increased steadily during the late 19th century, and its example was widely copied elsewhere. This programme is now known as the University of London International Programme and includes Postgraduate, Undergraduate and Diploma degrees created by colleges such as the London School of Economics, Royal Holloway and Goldsmiths.


title: Distance education

text: In the United States, William Rainey Harper, founder and first president of the University of Chicago, celebrated the concept of extended education, where a research university had satellite colleges elsewhere in the region.


title: Distance education

text: In 1892, Harper encouraged correspondence courses to further promote education, an idea that was put into practice by Chicago, Wisconsin, Columbia, and several dozen other universities by the 1920s. Enrollment in the largest private for-profit school based in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the International Correspondence Schools grew explosively in the 1890s. Founded in 1888 to provide training for immigrant coal miners aiming to become state mine inspectors or foremen, it enrolled 2500 new students in 1894 and matriculated 72,000 new students in 1895. By 1906 total enrollments reached 900,000. The growth was due to sending out complete textbooks instead of single lessons, and the use of 1200 aggressive in-person salesmen. There was a stark contrast in pedagogy:


title: Distance education

text: Education was a high priority in the Progressive Era, as American high schools and colleges expanded greatly. For men who were older or were too busy with family responsibilities, night schools were opened, such as the YMCA school in Boston that became Northeastern University. Outside the big cities, private correspondence schools offered a flexible, narrowly focused solution. Large corporations systematized their training programmes for new employees. The National Association of Corporation Schools grew from 37 in 1913 to 146 in 1920. Starting in the 1880s, private schools opened across the country which offered specialized technical training to anyone who enrolled, not just the employees of one company. Starting in Milwaukee in 1907, public schools began opening free vocational programmes.


title: Distance education

text: Only a third of the American population lived in cities of 100,000 or more population in 1920; to reach the rest, correspondence techniques had to be adopted. Australia, with its vast distances, was especially active; the University of Queensland established its Department of Correspondence Studies in 1911. In South Africa, the University of South Africa, formerly an examining and certification body, started to present distance education tuition in 1946. The International Conference for Correspondence Education held its first meeting in 1938. The goal was to provide individualised education for students, at low cost, by using a pedagogy of testing, recording, classification, and differentiation. The organization has since been renamed as the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE), with headquarters in Oslo, Norway.


title: Distance education

text: The Open University (OU) the United Kingdom was founded by the-then Labour government led by Harold Wilson. Based on the vision of Michael Young, planning commenced in 1965 under the Minister of State for Education, Jennie Lee, who established a model for the Open University as one of widening access to the highest standards of scholarship in higher education and set up a planning committee consisting of university vice-chancellors, educationalists, and television broadcasters, chaired by Sir Peter Venables. The British Broadcasting Corporation's (BBC) Assistant Director of Engineering at the time, James Redmond, had obtained most of his qualifications at night school, and his natural enthusiasm for the project did much to overcome the technical difficulties of using television to broadcast teaching programmes.


title: Distance education

text: The Open University revolutionised the scope of the correspondence programme and helped to create a respectable learning alternative to the traditional form of education. It has been at the forefront of developing new technologies to improve the distance learning service as well as undertaking research in other disciplines. Walter Perry was appointed the OU's first vice-chancellor in January 1969, and its foundation secretary was Anastasios Christodoulou. The election of the new Conservative government under the leadership of Edward Heath, in 1970; led to budget cuts under Chancellor of the Exchequer Iain Macleod (who had earlier called the idea of an Open University "blithering nonsense"). However, the OU accepted its first 25,000 students in 1971, adopting a radical open admissions policy. At the time, the total student population of conventional universities in the United Kingdom was around 130,000.


title: Distance education

text: Athabasca University, Canada's open university, was created in 1970 and followed a similar, though independently developed, pattern. The Open University inspired the creation of Spain's National University of Distance Education (1972) and Germany's FernUniversität in Hagen (1974). There are now many similar institutions around the world, often with the name "Open University" (in English or in the local language).


title: Distance education

text: The University of the Philippines Open University was established in 1995 as the fifth constituent university of the University of the Philippines System and was the first distance education and online university in the Philippines. Its mandate is to provide education opportunities to individuals aspiring for higher education and improved qualifications but were unable to take advantage of traditional modes of education because of personal and professional obligations.


title: Distance education

text: Most open universities use distance education technologies as delivery methods, though some require attendance at local study centres or at regional "summer schools". Some open universities have grown to become "mega-universities".


title: Distance education

text: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the closure of the vast majority of schools worldwide for in person learning. Many schools moved to online remote learning through platforms including—but not limited to—Zoom, Cisco Webex, Google Classroom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, D2L, and Edgenuity. Concerns arose over the impact of this transition on students without access to an internet-enabled device or a stable internet connection. Distanced education during the COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted synchronous learning for many students and teachers; where educators were no longer able to teach in real time and could only switch to asynchronous instruction, this significantly and negatively affected their coping with the transition, and posed various legal issues, especially in terms of copyright. A recent study about the benefits and drawbacks of online learning found that students have had a harder time producing their own work. The study suggests teachers should cut back on the amount of information taught and incorporate more activities during the lesson, in order for students to create their own work.


title: Distance education

text: Though schools are slow to adapt to new technologies, Covid-19 required schools to adapt and learn how to use new digital and online learning tools. Web conferencing has become more popular since 2007. Researchers have found that people in online classes perform just as effectively as participants in conventional learning classes. The use of online learning is becoming a pathway for learners with sparse access to physical courses so they can complete their degrees. Furthermore, digital classroom technologies allow those living remotely to access learning and it enables the student to fit learning into their schedule more easily.


title: Distance education

text: Internet technology has enabled many forms of distance learning through open educational resources and facilities such as e-learning and MOOCs. Although the expansion of the Internet blurs the boundaries, distance education technologies are divided into two modes of delivery: synchronous learning and asynchronous learning.


title: Distance education

text: In synchronous learning, all participants are "present" at the same time in a virtual classroom, as in traditional classroom teaching. It requires a timetable. Web conferencing, videoconferencing, educational television, instructional television are examples of synchronous technology, as are direct-broadcast satellite (DBS), internet radio, live streaming, telephone, and web-based VoIP.


title: Distance education

text: Web conferencing software helps to facilitate class meetings, and usually contains additional interaction tools such as text chat, polls, hand raising, emoticons etc. These tools also support asynchronous participation by students who can listen to recordings of synchronous sessions. Immersive environments (notably SecondLife) have also been used to enhance participant presence in distance education courses. Another form of synchronous learning using the classroom is the use of robot proxies including those that allow sick students to attend classes.


title: Distance education

text: Some universities have been starting to use robot proxies to enable more engaging synchronous hybrid classes where both remote and in-person students can be present and interact using telerobotics devices such as the Kubi Telepresence robot stand that looks around and the Double Robot that roams around. With these telepresence robots, the remote students have a seat at the table or desk instead of being on a screen on the wall.


title: Distance education

text: In asynchronous learning, participants access course materials flexibly on their own schedules. Students are not required to be together at the same time. Mail correspondence, which is the oldest form of distance education, is an asynchronous delivery technology, as are message board forums, e-mail, video and audio recordings, print materials, voicemail, and fax.


title: Distance education

text: The two methods can be combined. Many courses offered by both open universities and an increasing number of campus-based institutions use periodic sessions of residential or day teaching to supplement the sessions delivered at a distance. This type of mixed distance and campus-based education has recently come to be called "blended learning" or less often "hybrid learning". Many open universities use a blend of technologies and a blend of learning modalities (face-to-face, distance, and hybrid) all under the rubric of "distance learning".


title: Distance education

text: Distance learning can also use interactive radio instruction (IRI), interactive audio instruction (IAI), online virtual worlds, digital games, webinars, and webcasts, all of which are referred to as e-Learning.


title: Distance education

text: The rapid spread of film in the 1920s and radio in the 1930s led to proposals to use it for distance education. By 1938, at least 200 city school systems, 25 state boards of education, and many colleges and universities broadcast educational programmes for the public schools. One line of thought was to use radio as a master teacher.


title: Distance education

text: The first large-scale implementation of radio for distance education took place in 1937 in Chicago. During a three-week school closure implemented in response to a polio outbreak that the city was experiencing, superintendent of Chicago Public Schools William Johnson and assistant superintendent Minnie Fallon implemented a programme of distance learning that provided the city's elementary school students with instruction through radio broadcasts.


title: Distance education

text: A typical setup came in Kentucky in 1948 when John Wilkinson Taylor, president of the University of Louisville, teamed up with NBC to use radio as a medium for distance education, The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission endorsed the project and predicted that the "college-by-radio" would put "American education 25 years ahead". The university was owned by the city, and local residents would pay the low tuition rates, receive their study materials in the mail, and listen by radio to live classroom discussions that were held on campus. Physicist Daniel Q. Posin also was a pioneer in the field of distance education when he hosted a televised course through DePaul University.


title: Distance education

text: Charles Wedemeyer of the University of Wisconsin–Madison also promoted new methods. From 1964 to 1968, the Carnegie Foundation funded Wedemeyer's "Articulated Instructional Media Project" (AIM) which brought in a variety of communications technologies aimed at providing learning to an off-campus population. The radio courses faded away in the 1950s. Many efforts to use television along the same lines proved unsuccessful, despite heavy funding by the Ford Foundation.


title: Distance education

text: From 1970 to 1972 the Coordinating Commission for Higher Education in California funded Project Outreach to study the potential of telecourses. The study included the University of California, California State University, and the community colleges. This study led to coordinated instructional systems legislation allowing the use of public funds for non-classroom instruction and paved the way for the emergence of telecourses as the precursor to the online courses and programmes of today. The Coastline Community Colleges, The Dallas County Community College District, and Miami Dade Community College led the way. The "Adult Learning Service" of the US Public Broadcasting Service came into being and the "wrapped" series, and individually produced telecourse for credit became a significant part of the history of distance education and online learning.


title: Distance education

text: The widespread use of computers and the Internet has made distance learning easier and faster, and today virtual schools and virtual universities deliver full curricula online. The capacity of Internet to support voice, video, text and immersion teaching methods made earlier distinct forms of telephone, videoconferencing, radio, television, and text based education somewhat redundant. However, many of the techniques developed and lessons learned with earlier media are used in Internet delivery.


title: Distance education

text: The first totally online courses for graduate and undergraduate credit were offered in 1985 by Connected Education through The New School in New York City, with students earning the MA in Media Studies completely online via computer conferencing, with no in-person requirements. This was followed in 1986 by the University of Toronto through the Graduate School of Education (then called OISE: the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education), offering a course in "Women and Computers in Education", dealing with gender issues and educational computing. The first new and fully online university was founded in 1994 as the Open University of Catalonia, headquartered in Barcelona, Spain. In 1999 Jones International University was launched as the first fully online university accredited by a regional accrediting association in the US.


title: Distance education

text: Between 2000 and 2008, enrollment in distance education courses increased rapidly in almost every country in both developed and developing countries. Many private, public, non-profit and for-profit institutions worldwide now offer distance education courses from the most basic instruction through to the highest levels of degree and doctoral programmes. New York University and the International University Canada, for example, offers online degrees in engineering and management-related fields through NYU Tandon Online. Levels of accreditation vary: widely respected universities such as Stanford University and Harvard now deliver online courses—but other online schools receive little outside oversight, and some are actually fraudulent, i.e., diploma mills. In the US, the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC) specializes in the accreditation of distance education institutions.


title: Distance education

text: In the United States in 2011, it was found that a third of all the students enrolled in postsecondary education had taken an accredited online course in a postsecondary institution. Growth continued. In 2013 the majority of public and private colleges offered full academic programmes online. Programmes included training in the mental health, occupational therapy, family therapy, art therapy, physical therapy, and rehabilitation counseling fields.


title: Distance education

text: By 2008, online learning programmes were available in the United States in 44 states at the K-12 level.


title: Distance education

text: Internet forums, online discussion group and online learning community can contribute to a distance education experience. Research shows that socialization plays an important role in some forms of distance education.


title: Distance education

text: ECourses are available from educational platforms such as Khan Academy and MasterClass on many topics and for students of all levels.


title: Distance education

text: Most distance education uses a paced format similar to traditional campus-based models in which learners commence and complete a course at the same time. Some institutions offer self-paced programmes that allow for continuous enrollment, and the length of time to complete the course is set by the learner's time, skill, and commitment levels. Self-paced courses are almost always offered asynchronously. Each delivery method offers advantages and disadvantages for students, teachers, and institutions.


title: Distance education

text: Kaplan and Haenlein classify distance education into four groups according to "Time dependency" and "Number of participants":


title: Distance education

text: Paced models are a familiar mode since they are used almost exclusively in campus-based schools. Institutes that offer both distance and campus programmes usually use paced models so that teacher workload, student semester planning, tuition deadlines, exam schedules, and other administrative details can be synchronized with campus delivery. Student familiarity and the pressure of deadlines encourages students to readily adapt to and usually succeed in paced models. However, student freedom is sacrificed as a common pace is often too fast for some students and too slow for others. In additional life events, professional or family responsibilities can interfere with a student's capability to complete tasks to an external schedule. Finally, paced models allow students to readily form communities of inquiry and to engage in collaborative work.


title: Distance education

text: Self-paced courses maximize student freedom, as not only can students commence studies on any date, but they can complete a course in as little time as a few weeks or up to a year or longer. Students often enroll in self-paced study when they are under pressure to complete programmes, have not been able to complete a scheduled course, need additional courses, or have pressure which precludes regular study for any length of time. The self-paced nature of the programming, though, is an unfamiliar model for many students and can lead to excessive procrastination, resulting in course incompletion. Assessment of learning can also be challenging as exams can be written on any day, making it possible for students to share examination questions with resulting loss of academic integrity. Finally, it is extremely challenging to organize collaborative work activities, though some schools are developing cooperative models based upon networked and connectivist pedagogies for use in self-paced programmes.


title: Distance education

text: Distance learning can expand access to education and training for both general populace and businesses since its flexible scheduling structure lessens the effects of the many time-constraints imposed by personal responsibilities and commitments. Devolving some activities off-site alleviates institutional capacity constraints arising from the traditional demand on institutional buildings and infrastructure. As a result, more classes can be offered and enable students to enroll in more of their required classes on time and prevent delayed graduation. Furthermore, there is the potential for increased access to more experts in the field and to other students from diverse geographical, social, cultural, economic, and experiential backgrounds.


title: Distance education

text: As the population at large becomes more involved in lifelong learning beyond the normal schooling age, institutions can benefit financially, and adult learning business courses may be particularly lucrative. Distance education programmes can act as a catalyst for institutional innovation and are at least as effective as face-to-face learning programmes, especially if the instructor is knowledgeable and skilled.


title: Distance education

text: Distance education can also provide a broader method of communication within the realm of education. With the many tools and programmes that technological advancements have to offer, communication appears to increase in distance education amongst students and their professors, as well as students and their classmates. The distance educational increase in communication, particularly communication amongst students and their classmates, is an improvement that has been made to provide distance education students with as many of the opportunities as possible as they would receive in in-person education. The improvement being made in distance education is growing in tandem with the constant technological advancements. Present-day online communication allows students to associate with accredited schools and programmes throughout the world that are out of reach for in-person learning. By having the opportunity to be involved in global institutions via distance education, a diverse array of thought is presented to students through communication with their classmates. This is beneficial because students have the opportunity to "combine new opinions with their own, and develop a solid foundation for learning". It has been shown through research that "as learners become aware of the variations in interpretation and construction of meaning among a range of people [they] construct an individual meaning", which can help students become knowledgeable of a wide array of viewpoints in education. To increase the likelihood that students will build effective ties with one another during the course, instructors should use similar assignments for students across different locations to overcome the influence of co-location on relationship building.


title: Distance education

text: The high cost of education affects students in higher education, to which distance education may be an alternative in order to provide some relief. Distance education has been a more cost-effective form of learning, and can sometimes save students a significant amount of money as opposed to traditional education. Distance education may be able to help to save students a considerable amount financially by removing the cost of transportation. In addition, distance education may be able to save students from the economic burden of high-priced course textbooks. Many textbooks are now available as electronic textbooks, known as e-textbooks, which can offer digital textbooks for a reduced price in comparison to traditional textbooks. Also, the increasing improvements in technology have resulted in many school libraries having a partnership with digital publishers that offer course materials for free, which can help students significantly with educational costs.


title: Distance education

text: Within the class, students are able to learn in ways that traditional classrooms would not be able to provide. It is able to promote good learning experiences and therefore, allow students to obtain higher satisfaction with their online learning. For example, students can review their lessons more than once according to their needs. Students can then manipulate the coursework to fit their learning by focusing more on their weaker topics while breezing through concepts that they already have or can easily grasp. When course design and the learning environment are at their optimal conditions, distance education can lead students to higher satisfaction with their learning experiences. Studies have shown that high satisfaction correlates to increased learning. For those in a healthcare or mental health distance learning programme, online-based interactions have the potential to foster deeper reflections and discussions of client issues as well as a quicker response to client issues, since supervision happens on a regular basis and is not limited to a weekly supervision meeting. This also may contribute to the students feeling a greater sense of support, since they have ongoing and regular access to their instructors and other students.


title: Distance education

text: Distance learning may enable students who are unable to attend a traditional school setting, due to disability or illness such as decreased mobility and immune system suppression, to get a good education. Children who are sick or are unable to attend classes are able to attend them in "person" through the use of robot proxies. This helps the students have experiences of the classroom and social interaction that they are unable to receive at home or the hospital, while still keeping them in a safe learning environment. Over the last few years more students are entering safely back into the classroom thanks to the help of robots. An article from the "New York Times", "A Swiveling Proxy Will Even Wear a Tutu", explains the positive impact of virtual learning in the classroom, and another that explains how even a simple, stationary telepresence robot can help.


title: Distance education

text: Distance education may provide equal access regardless of socioeconomic status or income, area of residence, gender, race, age, or cost per student. Applying universal design strategies to distance learning courses as they are being developed (rather than instituting accommodations for specific students on an as-needed basis) can increase the accessibility of such courses to students with a range of abilities, disabilities, learning styles, and native languages.


title: Distance education

text: Distance education graduates, who would never have been associated with the school under a traditional system, may donate money to the school.


title: Distance education

text: Distance learning may also offer a final opportunity for adolescents that are no longer permitted in the general education population due to behavior disorders. Instead of these students having no other academic opportunities, they may continue their education from their homes and earn their diplomas, offering them another chance to be an integral part of society.


title: Distance education

text: Distance learning offers individuals a unique opportunity to benefit from the expertise and resources of the best universities currently available. Moreover, the online environment facilitates pedagogical innovation such as new programme structures and formats. Students have the ability to collaborate, share, question, infer, and suggest new methods and techniques for continuous improvement of the content. The ability to complete a course at a pace that is appropriate for each individual is the most effective manner to learn given the personal demands on time and schedule. Self-paced distance learning on a mobile device, such as a smartphone, provides maximum flexibility and capability.


title: Distance education

text: Distance learning can also reduce the phenomenon of rural exodus by enabling students from remote regions to remain in their hometowns while pursuing higher education. Eliminating the distance barrier to higher education can also increase the number of alternatives open to students, and foster greater competition between institutions of higher learning regardless of geography.


title: Distance education

text: Barriers to effective distance education include obstacles such as domestic distractions and unreliable technology, as well as students' programme costs, adequate contact with teachers and support services, and a need for more experience.


title: Distance education

text: Some students attempt to participate in distance education without proper training with the tools needed to be successful in the programme. Students must be provided with training opportunities (if needed) on each tool that is used throughout the programme. The lack of advanced technology skills can lead to an unsuccessful experience. Schools have a responsibility to adopt a proactive policy for managing technology barriers. Time management skills and self-discipline in distance education is just as important as complete knowledge of the software and tools being used for learning.


title: Distance education

text: The results of a study of Washington state community college students showed that distance learning students tended to drop out more often than their traditional counterparts due to difficulties in language, time management, and study skills.


title: Distance education

text: According to Dr. Pankaj Singhm, director of Nims University, "distance learning benefits may outweigh the disadvantages for students in such a technology-driven society, however before indulging into the use of educational technology a few more disadvantages should be considered." He describes that over multiple years, "all of the obstacles have been overcome and the world environment for distance education continues to improve." Dr. Pankaj Singhm also claims there is a debate to distance education stating, "due to a lack of direct face-to-face social interaction. However, as more people become used to personal and social interaction online (for example dating, chat rooms, shopping, or blogging), it is becoming easier for learners to both project themselves and socializes with others. This is an obstacle that has dissipated."


title: Distance education

text: Not all courses required to complete a degree may be offered online. Health care profession programmes in particular require some sort of patient interaction through fieldwork before a student may graduate. Studies have also shown that students pursuing a medical professional graduate degree who are participating in distance education courses, favor a face to face communication over professor-mediated chat rooms and/or independent studies. However, this is little correlation between student performance when comparing the previous different distance learning strategies.


title: Distance education

text: There is a theoretical problem about the application of traditional teaching methods to online courses because online courses may have no upper size limit. Daniel Barwick noted that there is no evidence that large class size is always worse or that small class size is always better, although a negative link has been established between certain types of instruction in large classes and learning outcomes; he argued that higher education has not made a sufficient effort to experiment with a variety of instructional methods to determine whether large class size is always negatively correlated with a reduction in learning outcomes. Early proponents of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) saw them as just the type of experiment that Barwick had pointed out was lacking in higher education, although Barwick himself has never advocated for MOOCs.


title: Distance education

text: There may also be institutional challenges. Distance learning is new enough that it may be a challenge to gain support for these programmes in a traditional brick-and-mortar academic learning environment. Furthermore, it may be more difficult for the instructor to organize and plan a distance learning programme, especially since many are new programmes and their organizational needs are different from a traditional learning programme.


title: Distance education

text: Additionally, though distance education offers industrial countries the opportunity to become globally informed, there are still negative sides to it. Hellman states that "These include its cost and capital intensiveness, time constraints and other pressures on instructors, the isolation of students from instructors and their peers, instructors' enormous difficulty in adequately evaluating students they never meet face-to-face, and drop-out rates far higher than in classroom-based courses."


title: Distance education

text: A more complex challenge of distance education relates to cultural differences between students and teachers and among students. Distance programmes tend to be more diverse as they could go beyond the geographical borders of regions, countries, and continents, and cross the cultural borders that may exist with respect to race, gender, and religion. That requires a proper understanding and awareness of the norms, differences, preconceptions, and potential conflicting issues.


title: Distance education

text: The modern use of electronic educational technology (also called e-learning) facilitates distance learning and independent learning by the extensive use of information and communications technology (ICT), replacing traditional content delivery by postal correspondence. Instruction can be synchronous and asynchronous online communication in an interactive learning environment or virtual communities, in lieu of a physical classroom. "The focus is shifted to the education transaction in the form of a virtual community of learners sustainable across time."


title: Distance education

text: One of the most significant issues encountered in the mainstream correspondence model of distance education is the transactional distance, which results from the lack of appropriate communication between learner and teacher. This gap has been observed to become wider if there is no communication between the learner and teacher and has direct implications over the learning process and future endeavors in distance education. Distance education providers began to introduce various strategies, techniques, and procedures to increase the amount of interaction between learners and teachers. These measures e.g. more frequent face-to-face tutorials, increased use of information and communication technologies including teleconferencing and the Internet, were designed to close the gap in transactional distance.


title: Distance education

text: Online credentials for learning are digital credentials that are offered in place of traditional paper credentials for a skill or educational achievement. Directly linked to the accelerated development of internet communication technologies, the development of digital badges, electronic passports and massive open online courses (MOOCs) have a very direct bearing on our understanding of learning, recognition and levels as they pose a direct challenge to the status quo. It is useful to distinguish between three forms of online credentials: Test-based credentials, online badges, and online certificates.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: Qaboos bin Said Al Said (, ; 18 November 1940 – 10 January 2020) was Sultan of Oman from 23 July 1970 until his death in 2020. A fifteenth-generation descendant of the founder of the House of Al Said,


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: The only son of Said bin Taimur, Sultan of Muscat and Oman, Qaboos was educated in Suffolk, England. After graduating from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he served briefly in the British Army. He returned to Oman in 1966 and was the subject of considerable restrictions from his father. In 1970, Qaboos ascended to the Omani throne after overthrowing his father in a coup d'état, with British support. The country was subsequently renamed the Sultanate of Oman.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: As sultan, Qaboos implemented a policy of modernization and ended Oman's international isolation. His reign saw a rise in living standards and development in the country, the abolition of slavery, the end of the Dhofar Rebellion, and the promulgation of Oman's constitution. Suffering from poor health in later life, Qaboos died in 2020. He had no children, so he entailed the royal court to reach consensus on a successor upon his death. As a precaution he hid a letter which named his successor in case an agreement was not achieved. After his death the royal court decided to view Qaboos's letter and named his intended successor, his cousin Haitham bin Tariq, as sultan.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: Sayyid Qaboos bin Said was born in the southern city of Salalah in Dhofar on 18 November 1940 as an only son of Sultan Said bin Taimur and Mazoon al-Mashani. He received his primary and secondary education at Salalah, and was sent to a private educational establishment at Bury St Edmunds in England at age 16. At 20, he entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. After graduating from Sandhurst in September 1962, he joined the British Army and was posted to the 1st Battalion The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles), serving with them in Germany for one year. He also held a staff appointment with the British Army.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: After his military service, Qaboos studied local government subjects in England and then completed his education with a world tour chaperoned by Leslie Chauncy. Upon his return in 1966, he was placed under virtual house arrest in Al-Husun Palace in Salalah by his father. Here he was kept isolated from government affairs, except for occasional briefings by his father's personal advisers. Qaboos studied Islam and the history of his country. His personal relationships were limited to a handpicked group of palace officials who were sons of his father's advisors and a few expatriate friends such as Tim Landon. Sultan Said said that he would not allow his son to be involved with the developing planning process, and Qaboos began to make known his desire for change—which was quietly supported by his expatriate visitors.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: Qaboos acceded to the throne on 23 July 1970 following a successful coup against his father, with the aim of ending the country's isolation and using its oil revenue for modernization and development. He declared that the country would no longer be known as Muscat and Oman, but would change its name to "the Sultanate of Oman" in order to better reflect its political unity.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: The coup was supported by the British, with Ian Cobain writing that it was "planned in London by MI6 and by civil servants at the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office" and sanctioned by the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: The first pressing problem that Qaboos bin Said faced as sultan was an armed communist insurgency from South Yemen, the Dhofar Rebellion (1962–1976). The sultanate eventually defeated the incursion with help from the Shah of Iran, Jordanian troops sent from his friend King Hussein of Jordan, British Special Forces and the Royal Air Force.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: There were few rudiments of a modern state when Qaboos took power. Oman was a poorly developed country, severely lacking in infrastructure, healthcare, and education, with only six miles of paved roads and a population dependent on subsistence farming and fishing. Qaboos modernized the country using oil revenues. Schools and hospitals were built, and a modern infrastructure was laid down, with hundreds of kilometres of new roads paved, a telecommunications network established, projects for a port and airport that had begun prior to his reign were completed and a second port was built, and electrification was achieved. The government also began to search for new water resources and built a desalination plant, and the government encouraged the growth of the private enterprise, especially in development projects. Banks, hotels, insurance companies, and print media began to appear as the country developed economically. The Omani riyal was established as the national currency, replacing the Indian rupee and Maria Theresa thaler. Later, additional ports were built, and universities were opened. In his first year in power, Qaboos also abolished slavery in Oman.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: The political system which Qaboos established is that of an absolute monarchy. The Sultan's birthday, 18 November, is celebrated as Oman's national holiday. The first day of his reign, 23 July, is celebrated as Renaissance Day.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: Oman has no system of checks and balances, and thus no separation of powers. All power was concentrated in the Sultan during his reign, and he served as chief of staff of the armed forces, minister of defence, minister of foreign affairs and chairman of the Central Bank. All legislation since 1970 has been promulgated through royal decrees, including the 1996 Basic Law. The sultan appoints judges, and can grant pardons and commute sentences. The sultan's authority is inviolable.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: Qaboos' closest advisors were reportedly security and intelligence professionals within the Palace Office, headed by General Sultan bin Mohammed al Numani.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: The 2011 Omani protests were a series of protests in the Persian Gulf country of Oman that occurred as part of the revolutionary wave popularly known as the "Arab Spring". The protesters demanded salary increases, lower living costs, the creation of more jobs and a reduction in corruption. Protests in Sohar, Oman's fifth-largest city, centered on the Globe Roundabout. The Sultan's responses included the dismissal of a third of the governing cabinet.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: According to CBS News, 19 June 2011, Several protest leaders have been detained and released in rolling waves of arrests during the Arab Spring, and dissatisfaction with the state of affairs in the country is high. While disgruntlement amongst the populace is obvious, the extreme dearth of foreign press coverage and lack of general press freedom there leaves it unclear as to whether the protesters want the sultan to leave, or simply want their government to function better. Beyond the recent protests, there is concern about succession in the country, as there is no heir apparent or any clear legislation on who may be the next Sultan.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: The Sultan did give token concession to protesters yet detained social media activists. In August 2014, The Omani writer and human rights defender Mohammed Alfazari, the founder and editor-in-chief of the e-magazine Mowatin "Citizen", disappeared after going to the police station in the Al-Qurum district of Muscat, only to be pardoned some time later.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: Under Qaboos, Oman fostered closer ties with Iran than other Arab states of the Persian Gulf, and was careful to appear neutral and maintain a balance between the West and Iran. As a result, Oman often acted as an intermediary between the United States and Iran. Qaboos helped mediate secret US-Iran talks in 2013 that led two years later to the international nuclear pact, from which the United States withdrew in 2018.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: In 2011, Qaboos facilitated the release of American hikers who were held by Iran, paying $1 million for their freedom.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: Oman did not join the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen against the Houthis in 2015, and did not take sides in a Persian Gulf dispute that saw Saudi Arabia and its allies impose an embargo on Qatar in 2017.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: In October 2018, Qaboos invited Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu to visit Oman, a country that does not have official diplomatic ties with Israel. Netanyahu was the first Israeli prime minister to visit Oman since Shimon Peres in 1996.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: Qaboos financed the construction or maintenance of a number of mosques, notably the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, as well as the holy places of other religions.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: Through a donation to UNESCO in the early 1990s, Qaboos funded the Sultan Qaboos Prize for Environmental Preservation, to afford recognition to outstanding contributions in the management or preservation of the environment. The prize has been awarded biannually since 1991.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: Qaboos was a Muslim of the Ibadi denomination, which has traditionally ruled Oman. Although Oman is predominantly Muslim, the Sultan granted freedom of religion in the country and financed the construction of four Catholic and Protestant churches in the country as well as several Hindu temples.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: The Sultan was an avid fan and promoter of classical music. His 120-member orchestra consists entirely of young Omanis who, since 1986, audition as children and grow up as members of the symphonic ensemble. They play locally and traveled abroad with the Sultan. Argentine composer Lalo Schifrin was commissioned to compose a work entitled "Symphonic Impressions of Oman". Qaboos was particularly enthusiastic about the pipe organ. The Royal Opera House Muscat features the second largest mobile pipe organ in the world, which has three specially made organ stops, named the "Royal Solo" in his honour. He was also a patron of local folk musician Salim Rashid Suri, whom he made a cultural consultant.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: On 22 March 1976, Qaboos married his first cousin Kamila ("née" Sayyida) Nawwal bint Tariq Al Said (born 1951), the daughter of his uncle Sayyid Tariq bin Taimur Al Said and Sayyida Shawana bint Nasir Al Busaidi. Nawwal is a half-sister of Qaboos' successor, Haitham bin Tariq. The marriage ended in divorce in 1979. The marriage produced no children.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: In September 1995, Qaboos was involved in a car accident in Salalah just outside his palace, which killed one of his most prominent and influential ministers, the deputy prime minister for finance and economy, Qais Bin Abdul Munim Al Zawawi.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: Qaboos owned several yachts administered by the Oman Royal Yacht Squadron, including "Al Said" and "Fulk Al Salamah", two of the world's largest yachts.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: Qaboos was widely believed by Omanis and Gulf Arabs to be homosexual. This belief was supported by Tony Molesworth, Oman's former second-most-senior intelligence officer. Qaboos' obituary in "The Times" described rumours throughout his life of "liaisons with elegant young European men".


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: From 2014, Qaboos suffered from colon cancer, for which he received treatment. On 14 December 2019, he was reported to be terminal with a short time to live after his stay for medical treatment in UZ Leuven in Belgium and returned home because he wanted to die in his own country. He died on 10 January 2020 at the age of 79 at his personal residence, Bait Al-Baraka, just outside Muscat. The following day, the government declared three days of national mourning and said the country's flag would be flown at half-staff for a period of 40 days and the halt of official work in the public and private sectors for three days. Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Lebanon, and Egypt all declared three days of mourning; India and Bangladesh declared one day of mourning. The United Kingdom lowered the flags to half-mast as a sign of respect.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: Unlike the heads of other Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Qaboos did not publicly name an heir. Article 6 of the constitution says the Royal Family Council has three days to choose a new sultan from the date the position falls vacant. If the Royal Family Council fails to agree, a letter containing a name penned by Sultan Qaboos should be opened in the presence of the Defence Council of military and security officials, supreme court chiefs, and heads of the upper and lower houses of the consultative assemblies. Analysts saw the rules as an elaborate means of Qaboos securing his choice for successor without causing controversy by making it public during his lifetime, since it was considered unlikely that the royal family would be able to agree on a successor on its own.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: Qaboos had no children, and only one sister, Sayyida Umaima, but no male siblings; there are other male members of the Omani royal family including paternal uncles and their families. Using same-generation primogeniture, the successor to Qaboos would appear to be the children of his late uncle Sayyid Tariq bin Taimur, Oman's first prime minister and the Sultan's former father-in-law. Oman watchers believed the top contenders to succeed Qaboos were three of Tariq's sons: Asa'ad bin Tariq, Deputy Prime Minister for International Relations and Cooperation and the Sultan's special representative; Shihab bin Tariq, a retired commander of the Royal Navy of Oman; and Haitham bin Tariq, Minister of Heritage and National Culture.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: On 11 January 2020, Oman state TV said the Royal Family Council, in a letter to the Defense Council, had decided to defer to the choice that Qaboos named in his will, and thus had opened the letter by Qaboos naming his successor, announcing shortly that Haitham bin Tariq is the country's ruling sultan. Haitham has two sons and two daughters.


title: Qaboos bin Said

text: A collectible Euro note was issued in Qaboos' memory. In June 2022, his Service Medal of the Order of St John was ceremonially consecrated in London.


The 2022 United States Senate election in Vermont was held on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Vermont. Incumbent Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who was first elected in 1974 and most recently re-elected in 2016 with 61.3% of the vote, announced on November 15, 2021, that he would not seek re-election. Leahy was the only Democratic senator who did not run for re-election in 2022. Democratic U.S. Representative Peter Welch won the open seat.


title: 2022 United States Senate election in Vermont

text: Primary elections were held on August 9, 2022, with Welch, the incumbent U.S. Representative for the state's at-large congressional district, winning the Democratic primary, while Republican U.S. Army veteran Gerald Malloy won the Republican primary. On election day, Welch defeated Malloy in a landslide, sweeping every county in the state and taking 67.3% of the vote to Malloy's 27.6%. As winning the Democratic nomination is seen as tantamount to election in Vermont, the race was called for Welch shortly after polls closed.


text: At 75 years old, Welch became the oldest person ever elected to a first term as a U.S. senator and only the second Democratic senator from Vermont, after Leahy. This was the first open U.S. Senate seat in Vermont since 2006.


text: On November 15, 2021, incumbent Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy announced that he would not seek re-election to a ninth term. First elected in 1974, Leahy is the only Democrat to ever represent Vermont in the Senate.


text: Following Leahy's announcement that he would retire, speculation arose as to which Democrats could run to succeed him; "Newsweek" cited two of the leading possible contenders for the nomination as Peter Welch, who had served as U.S. Representative for Vermont's at-large congressional district since 2006, and President pro tempore of the Vermont Senate Becca Balint. Also considering a run was state representative Tanya Vyhovsky. However, candidates were reluctant to enter the race due to speculation that Bernie Sanders, Vermont's popular junior senator, would endorse Welch for the open seat. It was widely considered that an endorsement from Sanders would essentially lock up the race for Welch. While both men were both considered to be associated with the left-wing of the Democratic Party, Welch was noted by "The Intercept" to be rather more moderate than Sanders was, especially when compared to Vyhovsky.


text: Welch announced his campaign for the seat on November 22, 2021, pledging in a campaign video to support Medicare for All and the Green New Deal; he was immediately endorsed by Sanders.


title: Burn the Witch (manga)

text: Burn the Witch (stylized as BURN ☩HE WITCH) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tite Kubo. It was first published in Shueisha's "Weekly Shōnen Jump" as a one-shot chapter in July 2018. A serialized continuation of the one-shot is being published in the same magazine with a seasonal release schedule. The 4-chapter first season was published from August to September 2020. A second season of the manga has been announced. An anime film produced by Studio Colorido premiered in October 2020. The series' title comes from a 2016 song by the English band Radiohead.


title: Burn the Witch (manga)

text: The story of "Burn the Witch" takes place in the "Bleach" universe and follows two witches, Noel Niihashi and Ninny Spangcole, working for the Western Branch of Soul Society, located in Reverse London.


title: Burn the Witch (manga)

text: "Burn the Witch" is written and illustrated by Tite Kubo. A 62-pages one-shot was first published in the 33rd issue of Shueisha's "Weekly Shōnen Jump" on July 14, 2018. In March 2020, it was announced that a miniseries would be published in "Weekly Shōnen Jump" as a companion for the also announced film. "Burn the Witch"'s "first season" is a continuation of the one-shot chapter, and ran in the "Weekly Shōnen Jump" for four weeks, from August 24 to September 14, 2020. A "second season" was announced with the release of the first season's final chapter. Shueisha published the series' first season in a 260-page "tankōbon" volume, that included the one-shot chapter, on October 2, 2020.


title: Burn the Witch (manga)

text: Viz Media published the one-chapter in "Weekly Shonen Jump" on July 16, 2018. Viz Media simultaneously released the English-language version of the series. In February 2021, Viz Media announced that they will release the first volume of "Burn the Witch" in English. It was published on October 19, 2021.


title: Burn the Witch (manga)

text: In March 2020, it was announced that the series would receive an anime film adaptation by Studio Colorido, directed by Tatsuro Kawano. The film is distributed by Shochiku and premiered on October 2, 2020, in Japan. The theme song for the film is "Blowing", performed by Nil. The film also streamed in other territories outside Asia, with a different version from the Japanese theatrical release. Crunchyroll streamed the film in a 3-episode format on October 1, 2020. Viz Media will release the series on home video. In Southeast Asia and South Asia, Muse Communication has licensed the film and released it on YouTube.


title: Burn the Witch (manga)

text: In October 2020, the series collaborated with mobile game "", featuring Ninny and Noel as playable characters. "Brave Souls x Burn the Witch" collaboration merchandise was also given out to 150 random people who interacted with the game's Twitter account. A year later, a 2nd round of the collaboration debuted, introducing Bruno Bangnyfe as a new character with the previous two returning; it was followed by a 3rd round. The series had a crossover event with Oasis' mobile game "Bleach: Immortal Soul" in May 2022, featuring Nini and Noel as characters.


title: Burn the Witch (manga)

text: "Burn the Witch"s first volume sold 86,066 print copies in its first week and 68,810 print copies in its second week.


title: Burn the Witch (manga)

text: Skyler Allen of "The Fandom Post" wrote that despite lacking the same "spark" as "Bleach"s beginning, the "Burn the Witch" one-shot is still enjoyable and has plenty of potential for growth in a full serialization, but too much time is spent on its setup to work as a standalone story. He had strong praise for Kubo's art and memorable character designs, but criticized the one-shot as "unfocused" for ideas that did not get properly fleshed out.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: A crossover, crossover SUV, or crossover utility vehicle (CUV) is a type of automobile with increased ride height that is built on unibody chassis construction shared with passenger cars, as opposed to traditional sport utility vehicles (SUV) which are built on a body-on-frame chassis construction similar to pickup trucks.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: A term that originated from North America, the term crossover was initially used for any vehicle that blends characteristics between two different kinds of vehicles while, over time, crossover mostly refers to unibody-based SUVs. Crossovers are also described as "car-like SUVs" or "car-based SUVs". The term SUV is often used as an umbrella term for both crossovers and traditional SUVs due to the similarities between them.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Compared to traditional SUVs, crossovers are known to be less capable for use in off-road conditions or hauling heavy loads, while instead offering other advantages such as superior fuel economy and handling. Compared to traditional cars with lower ride height and lower roof such as sedans and hatchbacks, crossovers offer larger cabin space and enhanced driving position.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: The 1979 AMC Eagle has been credited as a forerunner of crossovers, before the term crossover was used. The Toyota RAV4, first introduced in 1994, pioneered the modern concept of a crossover.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: The difference between crossover SUVs and other SUVs as generally defined by journalists and manufacturers is that a crossover is built using a unibody platform, while an SUV is built using a body-on-frame platform. However, these definitions are often blurred in practice, since unibody vehicles are also often referred to as SUVs. "Crossover" is a relatively recent term, and early unibody SUVs (such as the 1984 Jeep Cherokee) are rarely called crossovers. Due to these inconsistencies, the term "SUV" is often used as an umbrella term for both crossovers and SUVs.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: U.S. magazine "MotorTrend" in 2005 mentioned that the term "crossover" has became "blurred as manufacturers apply it to everything from the Chrysler Pacifica to the Ford Five Hundred sedan". At that time, the publication proposes that the term "soft-roader" is more appropriate.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Some regions outside North America do not have a distinction between a crossover SUV and body-on-frame SUV, calling both of them SUVs. Several government bodies in the United States also did not acknowledge the crossover distinction, including the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In some jurisdictions, crossovers are classified as light trucks as are traditional SUVs and pickup trucks.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Outside the United States, the term "crossover" tends to be used for C-segment (compact) or smaller vehicles, with large unibody vehicles—such as the Audi Q7, Range Rover, Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg—usually referred to as SUVs rather than crossovers. In the United Kingdom, a crossover is sometimes defined as a hatchback with raised ride height and SUV-like styling features.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Crossovers' driving characteristics and performance are similar to those of traditional passenger cars, while providing more passenger and cargo space with relatively minor trade-offs in fuel economy and running cost. According to Consumer Reports, the three top-selling crossovers in the US in 2018 (Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, and Nissan Rogue) return an average of 10 percent less fuel economy than the top three selling sedan equivalents in the mid-size segment (Toyota Camry, Honda Accord, Nissan Altima), but provide almost 1.5 times the cargo space. Furthermore, the average mid-size crossover in the US costs less than 5% more than the average mid-size car.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Compared to truck-based SUVs, crossovers typically have greater interior comfort, a more comfortable ride, better fuel economy, and lower manufacturing costs, but inferior off-road and towing capabilities. Many crossovers lack an all-wheel drive or four-wheel-drive train, which, in combination with their inferior off-road capability, causes many journalists and consumers to question their definition as "sports utility vehicles". This has led some to describe crossovers as pseudo-SUVs.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Introduced in 1979, prior to the terms "SUV" or "crossover" being coined, the AMC Eagle is retroactively considered to be the first dedicated crossover automobile. The mass-market Eagle model line was based on a unibody passenger car platform, with fully-automatic four-wheel drive and a raised ride height. Furthermore, a writer for "Motor Trend" characterized the 1963 Studebaker Wagonaire as the "first crossover" because the innovative station wagon with a sliding roof "mashed up various vehicle types." It was available only with a conventional rear-wheel drive.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Others cite the front-wheel drive 1977 Matra Rancho as a slightly earlier forerunner to the modern crossover. Marketed as a "lifestyle" vehicle, it was not available with four-wheel drive. In 1981, American Motors Corporation (AMC) introduced four-wheel drive subcompact models built on the two-door AMC Spirit, the "Eagle SX/4" and "Eagle Kammback." These low-priced models joined the compact AMC Eagle line and they foreshadowed the market segment of comfortable cars with utility and foul-weather capabilities.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: The first-generation Toyota RAV4, released in 1994, has been credited as the model that expanded the concept of a modern crossover. The RAV4 was based on a modified platform used by the Toyota Corolla and Toyota Carina. At its release, Toyota in Japan used the term "4x4 vehicle" to describe the model, while Toyota in the US called the vehicle a "new concept SUV". By the early 2000s, Toyota was leading the market in its development of car-based trucks in North America with the release of other crossover models such as the Highlander and the Lexus RX.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: In North America, crossovers increased in popularity during the 2000s, when fuel efficiency standards for light trucks, which had been stuck at since 1996, moved upwards by 2005. With increasing fuel prices, traditional SUVs began to lose market share to crossovers. In the United States , crossover models comprised more than 50 percent of the overall SUV market. Crossovers have become increasingly popular in Europe also since the early 2010s.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Depending on the market, crossovers are divided into several size categories. Since there is an absence of any official distinction, often the size category is ambiguous for some crossover models. Several aspects needed to determine the size category of a vehicle may include length and width, positioning in its respective brand line-up, platform, and interior space.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Subcompact crossover SUVs (also called B-segment crossover SUV, B-SUV, small SUV) are crossovers that, depending on the market and the manufacturer, typically have a length less than . Subcompact crossovers are usually based on the platform of a subcompact (also known as supermini or B-segment) passenger car, although some high-end subcompact crossover models are based on a compact car (C-segment).


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: The segment may be called differently depending on the market. In several regions, the category may be known as "compact crossover" or "compact SUV" instead.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: This category is particularly popular in Europe, India, and Brazil, where it accounted for 37 percent, 75 percent, and 69 percent respectively of total SUV sales in 2018. In the United States, it accounted for 7 percent of total SUV sales in 2018. The best-selling vehicle in the segment in 2019 was the Honda HR-V, 622,154 units being recorded as having been sold worldwide.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: A compact crossover SUV (also called C-segment SUV or C-SUV) is a vehicle that is usually based on the platform of a compact car (C-segment), while some models may be based on a mid-size car (D-segment) or a subcompact (B-segment) platform. It typically has a length dimension between and . Most compact crossovers have two-row seating, while others have three rows.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: The naming of the segment may differ depending on the market. In several regions outside North America, the category may be known as "mid-size crossover" or "mid-size SUV", not to be confused with the North American definition of a mid-size crossover SUV, which is a larger D-segment crossover SUV.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: The first compact crossover was the 1980 AMC Eagle that was based on the compact-sized Concord line. Its four-wheel drive system was an almost unheard-of feature on regular passenger cars at the time, and it came with full-time all-wheel drive, automatic transmission, power steering, power front disk brakes as standard, and numerous convenience and comfort options. Later models included the 1994 Toyota RAV4, 1995 Honda CR-V, 1997 Subaru Forester, 2000 Nissan X-Trail, 2000 Mazda Tribute, and the 2001 Ford Escape.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Between 2005 and 2010, the market share of compact crossovers in the US increased from 6 percent to more than 11 percent. In 2014, for the first time ever, sales of compact crossovers outpaced mid-size sedans in the United States.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: In 2019, American magazine "Car and Driver" stated that "so many of these vehicles are crowding the marketplace, simply sorting through them can be a daunting task". Due to its popularity and to cater to customers' needs, many manufacturers offer more than one compact crossover, usually in slightly different sizes at different price points.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: By late 2010s, the segment had emerged as the most popular segment in several regions. For example, nearly 1 in every 4 cars (24.2 percent) sold in the United States in 2019 was a compact crossover. It also comprised 5.6 percent of the total European car market.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: The best-selling vehicle in the segment in 2019 was the Toyota RAV4, with 961,918 units sold globally.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: A mid-size crossover SUV is a class of crossover SUVs that is larger than compact crossover SUVs, but smaller than full-size crossover SUVs. Mid-size crossover SUVs are usually based on the platform of a mid-size (also known as a large family car or a D-segment) passenger car. The first mid-size crossover was the 1999 BMW X5. Some mid-size crossovers have three rows of seats, while others have two rows, which led to several brands offering multiple models to cater to both sub-segments. It typically has a length dimension between and . In Australia, American mid-sized crossovers are classified as large SUVs.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: The segment is most popular in North America and China, where larger vehicles are preferred. It makes up 15.8 percent of the total United States car market. In Europe, the segment covers 2.1 percent of the total market in 2019 with luxury crossover SUVs dominating most of the share.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: The Toyota Highlander/Kluger was the best-selling vehicle in the category in 2018, with 387,869 sold worldwide.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Full-size crossover SUVs are usually based on full-size cars. They are the largest crossovers and offer exclusively three rows. The first full-size crossovers included the GMC Acadia, Saturn Outlook, and the Buick Enclave, with older full-size SUVs being built mostly above a body-on-frame chassis. The full-size crossover SUV class is sometimes considered to include the three-row mid-size crossover class, as in the case of the Jeep Grand Cherokee L. Vehicles in this category usually are longer than in length.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: While three-door body-on-frame SUVs are not uncommon, crossover SUVs with three doors (including the tailgate door) are more rare. The decline of two or three-door vehicles in general has led to the disappearance of this category.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Crossover SUVs with a sloping rear roofline may be marketed as a "coupe crossover SUV" or "coupe SUV". Although the term "coupe" itself is supposed to refer to a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline, most coupé crossover SUVs are equipped with five doors. The sloping roofline is designed to offer a styling advantage over its standard crossover counterpart. The body style has attracted criticism as being less attractive and less practical than normal crossovers. The BMW X6 is credited to be the first coupe crossover.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: The first crossover convertible was the AMC Eagle marketed by AMC dealers during the 1981 and 1982 model years as the Sundancer, a factory-authorized conversion of the all-wheel-drive two-door sedans.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Several convertible crossover SUVs have entered mass production, including the Toyota RAV4 convertible. Released in North America in the 1998 model year, it was offered through the 1999 model year. Other examples include the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet, Range Rover Evoque Convertible, and Volkswagen T-Roc Cabriolet.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: This category was heavily criticized by journalists, enthusiasts, and analysts for numerous reasons, such as its design and high price tag. Some also questioned its purpose, as the practicality that crossovers usually have did not carryover to the convertible version, since it could only have two doors and little luggage space.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Many manufacturers have capitalized on the SUV trend by offering a version of station wagons, hatchbacks, or MPVs with a raised ride height and the addition of rugged-looking accessories such as a black plastic wheel arch extension kit, body cladding, skid plates, and roof rails. Due to their raised ground clearance, these vehicles may then be marketed as more capable off-road. Some of them may also be equipped with an all-wheel-drive. This strategy has been used by manufacturers to move models upmarket or to help fill an absence in a crossover SUV segment. These vehicles have been described as pseudo-crossovers.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Many manufacturers have released "off-road" versions of station wagons, with larger cargo space and greater practicality, that are marketed as more capable in soft off-road or all-weather situations due to their raised ground clearance, making them a "crossover" between a station wagon and an SUV. In North America, some manufacturers sell station wagons with crossover styling due to the former's unpopularity, the Subaru Outback being the most popular model.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: An early model of off-road-styled station wagons was the Subaru Legacy Outback (later Outback) in 1994. At the time, Subaru was absent in the growing SUV segment. Lacking the finances to design a ground-up SUV, Subaru added a two-tone paint scheme, body cladding and a suspension lift to the Legacy wagon. It was marketed as a capable and more efficient alternative to larger truck-based SUVs. Another example is the Volvo V70 XC (also called V70 Cross Country), first introduced in 1999. In 2002, the model was renamed the XC70. Audi has been making Allroad versions of their station wagons since 1999. The Volkswagen Alltrack and Škoda Scout are equivalent variants.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: The crossover-styled variant of hatchbacks or city cars with the same body was introduced either as a substitute for or a complement to the subcompact crossover SUV. Most crossover-styled hatchbacks do not have all-wheel-drive. Forerunners of the SUV-themed hatchback are the 1983 Fiat Panda 4x4, the 1996 Toyota Starlet Remix, and the 2003 Rover Streetwise. The Volkswagen Golf Country, a conversion by Steyr-Daimler-Puch, was also sold between 1990 and 1991, and was offered with part-time four-wheel drive and off-road exterior cladding. In the 2000s, the Volkswagen CrossPolo started the modern crossover-style hatchback trend and was marketed as an SUV-like "lifestyle" vehicle. The Dacia/Renault Sandero Stepway, the crossover-style version of the Sandero launched in 2009, is an example of a well-received crossover-style hatchback, making up 65 percent of Sandero sales.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: One of the first MPVs with a crossover-style variant was the Renault Scénic RX4, introduced in 2000. It featured a lifted ride height, rugged body cladding, tailgate-mounted spare wheel, and optional part-time four-wheel-drive. Another example is the Volkswagen CrossTouran, launched in 2006 as a lifted version of the Touran and marketed as a "lifestyle" vehicle. Apart from crossover-style variants equipped with exterior accessories, due to the increasing crossover market shares, many manufacturers began developing MPVs from ground up with crossover characteristics - and often marketed them either purely as an MPV or as a "crossover MPV" - such as the 5th generation of Renault Espace.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Some examples of sedans with crossover characteristics are the Subaru Legacy SUS (short for "Sport Utility Sedan"), Volvo S60 Cross Country, Polestar 2, Toyota Crown Crossover, Citroën C4 X and C3L in China, Renault/Dacia Logan Stepway and the Qoros 3 GT.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Since the early 2010s, sales of crossover-type vehicles have been increasing in Europe. By 2017, European sales of compact and mid-sized crossover models continued to surge. Analysis of the European new car market by data firm JATO Dynamics reveals that SUVs which mostly consisted of crossovers took almost 40% of the market in 2019, with the crossover segment being a key driver of growth for volume and profits.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: Sales of crossovers increased 30% between 2003 and 2005. By 2006, the segment came into strong visibility in the U.S., when crossover sales "made up more than 50% of the overall SUV market". Sales increased in 2007 by 16%. In 2013, the Audi Q5 became Audi's second best-selling vehicle in the United States market after the Audi A4 sedan. Between the late 1990s and 2012, around half of Lexus's sales came from its SUVs.


title: Crossover (automobile)

text: American manufacturers were initially slow to switch from their emphasis on light truck-based SUVs, and foreign automakers developed crossovers targeting the U.S. market as an alternative to station wagons that were unpopular there. By the early 2000s, American car manufacturers had caught up.


title: Jan Smuts

text: Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 to 1924 and 1939 to 1948.


title: Jan Smuts

text: Smuts was born to Afrikaner parents in the British Cape Colony. He was educated at Victoria College, Stellenbosch before reading law at Christ's College, Cambridge on a scholarship. He was called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1894 but returned home the following year. In the leadup to the Second Boer War, Smuts practised law in Pretoria, the capital of the South African Republic. He led the republic's delegation to the Bloemfontein Conference and served as an officer in a commando unit following the outbreak of war in 1899. In 1902, he played a key role in negotiating the Treaty of Vereeniging, which ended the war and resulted in the annexation of the South African Republic and Orange Free State into the British Empire. He subsequently helped negotiate self-government for the Transvaal Colony, becoming a cabinet minister under Louis Botha.


title: Jan Smuts

text: Smuts played a leading role in the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, helping shape its constitution. He and Botha established the South African Party, with Botha becoming the union's first prime minister and Smuts holding multiple cabinet portfolios. As defence minister he was responsible for the Union Defence Force during the First World War. Smuts personally led troops in the East African campaign in 1916 and the following year joined the Imperial War Cabinet in London. He played a leading role at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, advocating for the creation of the League of Nations and securing South African control over the former German South-West Africa.


title: Jan Smuts

text: In 1919, Smuts replaced Botha as prime minister, holding the office until the South African Party's defeat at the 1924 general election by J. B. M. Hertzog's National Party. He spent several years in academia, during which he coined the term "holism", before eventually re-entering politics as deputy prime minister in a coalition with Hertzog; in 1934 their parties subsequently merged to form the United Party. Smuts returned as prime minister in 1939, leading South Africa into the Second World War at the head of a pro-interventionist faction. He was appointed field marshal in 1941 and in 1945 signed the UN Charter, the only signer of the Treaty of Versailles to do so. His second term in office ended with the victory of the reconstituted National Party at the 1948 general election, with the new government beginning the implementation of apartheid.


title: Jan Smuts

text: Smuts was an internationalist who played a key role in establishing and defining the League of Nations, United Nations and Commonwealth of Nations.


title: Jan Smuts

text: Smuts was born on 24 May 1870, at the family farm, Bovenplaats, near Malmesbury, in the Cape Colony. His parents, Jacobus Smuts and his wife Catharina, were prosperous, traditional Afrikaner farmers, long established and highly respected.


title: Jan Smuts

text: As the second son of the family, rural custom dictated that Jan would remain working on the farm. In this system, typically only the first son was supported for a full, formal education. In 1882, when Jan was twelve, his elder brother died, and Jan was sent to school in his place. Jan attended the school in nearby Riebeek West. He made excellent progress despite his late start, and caught up with his contemporaries within four years. He was admitted to Victoria College, Stellenbosch, in 1886, at the age of sixteen.


title: Jan Smuts

text: At Stellenbosch, he learned High Dutch, German, and Ancient Greek, and immersed himself in literature, the classics, and Bible studies. His deeply traditional upbringing and serious outlook led to social isolation from his peers. He made outstanding academic progress, graduating in 1891 with double first-class honours in Literature and Science. During his last years at Stellenbosch, Smuts began to cast off some of his shyness and reserve. At this time he met Isie Krige, whom he later married.


title: Jan Smuts

text: On graduation from Victoria College, Smuts won the Ebden scholarship for overseas study. He decided to attend the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom to read law at Christ's College. Smuts found it difficult to settle at Cambridge. He felt homesick and isolated by his age and different upbringing from the English undergraduates. Worries over money also contributed to his unhappiness, as his scholarship was insufficient to cover his university expenses. He confided these worries to Professor J. I. Marais, a friend from Victoria College. In reply, Professor Marais enclosed a cheque for a substantial sum, by way of loan, encouraging Smuts to let him know if he ever found himself in need again. Thanks to Marais, Smuts's financial standing was secure. He gradually began to enter more into the social aspects of the university, although he retained a single-minded dedication to his studies.


title: Jan Smuts

text: During this time in Cambridge, Smuts studied a diverse number of subjects in addition to law. He wrote a book, "Walt Whitman: A Study in the Evolution of Personality". It was not published until 1973, after his death, but it can be seen that Smuts in this book had already conceptualized his thinking for his later wide-ranging philosophy of holism.


title: Jan Smuts

text: Smuts graduated in 1894 with a double first. Over the previous two years, he had received numerous academic prizes and accolades, including the coveted George Long prize in Roman Law and Jurisprudence. One of his tutors, Professor Maitland, a leading figure among English legal historians, described Smuts as the most brilliant student he had ever met. Lord Todd, the Master of Christ's College, said in 1970 that "in 500 years of the College's history, of all its members, past and present, three had been truly outstanding: John Milton, Charles Darwin and Jan Smuts."