Web university Jones International is accredited to grant college degrees.

Jones International University, which sells online courses for profit, has become the first Internet-only school accredited to grant college degrees. It operates out of a small suite of offices with nine full-time employees in Englewood, Colo, and is unrelated to Internet courses offered by Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of The Wall Street Journal and the Interactive Journal. Jones International received its bona fides last week from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, the main accreditor for higher education in its region. Like the hugely successful University of Phoenix, a unit of Apollo Group Inc. also accredited by North Central, Jones International_s business model features courses taught by part-time professors free-lancing from other schools to earn a little extra money. It hires professors from Columbia University, Stanford University and the University of Texas to design the courses. But instruction is delivered by adjunct faculty who lead e-mail discussions and grade papers and exams. This provides substantial savings from the costs associated with full-time university professors. Jones International offers bachelor_s and master_s degrees in business communications. Among other Internet education ventures, OnlineLearning.net has the exclusive rights to market noncredit versions of courses given at University of California at Los Angeles. Mr. Jones is the founder of Jones Intercable Inc., a large cable-TV company, and Mind Extension University, a cable network that provides degrees from existing colleges. Mr. Jones, who has agreed to sell his controlling stake in Jones Intercable to Comcast Inc. for $200 million, sees a huge market for "real-estate averse" schools such as his. Jones International started offering Internet courses in business communications four years ago. Since then, 950 people from 34 countries have enrolled in eight-week courses at an average cost of $700 for a three-credit graduate course. Jones International can_t match the state-subsidized prices of public schools. But it is far cheaper than private universities.