According to the relevant documents of the Ministry of Education, colleges and universities that offer distance education with the approval of the Ministry of Education have the right to run schools independently, make plans independently, enroll students independently, take entrance examinations independently, and decide what diplomas to award independently. All majors offered can be awarded degrees. These diplomas and degrees are officially recognized by the state and participate in the online "electronic certification registration" of national academic diplomas.

Distance education is now called online education. At present, the Ministry of Education has approved 68 colleges and universities to carry out modern distance education (online education) pilot. The online education students trained by these 68 colleges and universities meet the requirements of undergraduate and junior college graduation, and the higher education diploma is awarded by the school in accordance with the relevant provisions of the state. After electronic registration, the state recognizes the diploma.

Distance academic education, also known as network academic education, is a new form of education developed by using modern information technology such as network technology and multimedia technology. It is a network education based on modern electronic information communication technology (supplemented by face-to-face instruction, correspondence, radio and television (audio-visual) teaching). It takes learners as the main body, and students and teachers, students and educational institutions mainly use various media and interactive means to carry out systematic teaching and communication. Modern distance education is relative to traditional forms of distance education such as correspondence education, radio and television education. Network education is a new concept after modern information technology is applied to education, that is, education by using network technology and environment. In some documents issued by the Ministry of Education, modern distance education is also called network education.