in the loosest sense of the word.

About 200 people, mostly professionals, turned up at City Hall on Tuesday night for a demonstration of how they can obtain an MBA at the Heriot-Watt University, in Edinburgh, Scotland, without having to leave their jobs.

The university has produced what is believed to be the world's first "distance learning'' degree course which does not require any form of personal lecturing, correspondence or entry requirements.

Scottish professor Mr. Keith Lumsden, who spent 14 years designing the programme, has been in Bermuda this week pushing the scheme.

He said it was ideal for a place like Bermuda which was isolated and where there were a large number of well-educated professional people who did not want to give up their jobs to study full time.

The innovative MBA programme allows students to enrol in a variety of courses and study at their own pace using their own personal computers, software and text books supplied by the university.

To obtain an MBA students must pass seven required courses and two courses which they choose themselves out of a choice of five.

Students are given two chances only to pass any one course. If they fail a second time, they cannot resit.

Since it was launched in November, 1990, the programme has exceeded the university's expectations and attracted interest all around the world, said Mr. Lumsden. Even prison inmates have enrolled.

The programme has also doubled the university's number of students from 4,000 who actually attend the university full-time to the same again who are distance learners.

In June, the university carried out examinations in 120 countries all over the world.

The average age of students doing the distance learning degree is 37 years old, said Mr. Lumsden.

"Of these, 99.9 percent are in full-time employment,'' he said. "Almost everyone is doing it in their spare time.'' Trained professionals may be entitled to up to two exemptions from courses they are already qualified in.

"For example, chartered accountants are allowed up to two exemptions, while engineering degree graduates are allowed one,'' he said. "Chartered accountancy is one of the professions which we have managed to attract in a big way.'' Although there was no educational requirement to take the programme, Mr.

Lumsden said people needed to be intelligent and highly driven to stand a chance of succeeding.

"If you're not a highly motivated person then don't even look at it,'' he said.

Students typically studied for between 100 and 200 hours per course at a rate of 10-15 hours per week.

Two full-time university staff are on hand in Scotland to answer students' queries by facsimile or telephone.

One of the big advantages of the programme was its relatively low cost, compared with full-time studying.

"If you don't buy the computer software you can get an MBA degree for 2,700,'' he said.

"Each course costs 300 or the equivalent, while each piece of accompanying software costs 200. This is excellent especially when you consider that the same course in an American university can set you back tens of thousands of dollars.'' So far, the university had sold over 8,000 courses in just under two years of operation.

Currently, there are two Bermuda residents studying the courses, although that figure could escalate as a result of this week's promotion.

The university has appointed local people training firm Cranleigh Ltd. as its agent in Bermuda.

Mrs. Calmae Best, Cranleigh's manager, said a number of people had said they would be signing up and many more expressed an interest in obtaining more information about the programme.

"This is a very exciting development for executive professionals in Bermuda,'' she said.

Examinations will eventually be held in Bermuda once students are ready to sit them.