The law forbidding student loans for students learning online may soon be up for review in the US because of the huge increase in legitimate online learning courses. At the last federal count of enrolment in distance learning, three years ago, there were 1.4 million students.

Dawn Mosisa of University of Maryland University College, which provides online degree programmes for US armed forces serving abroad, says: "It's really an access issue." Current law, she says, makes it more difficult for people to find suitable education programmes and to pay for them.

Others, such as the American Federation of Teachers, urge caution. Its president, Sandra Feldman, says: "An Internet-based degree programme is much harder to audit than a traditional programme - the chances for abuse are greater."