This paper reports on the general results of a comparative study of the open universities in Asia conducted by the Centre for Research in Distance and Adult Learning (CRIDAL) at the Open University of Hong Kong. 122 distance educators in 26 open universities of 12 Asian countries/regions were surveyed. Based on this survey and literature review, five topics are explored, including gender and age distribution of the students; leadership styles; teaching and delivery model; methods and forms of student assessment, and the importance of outcome indicators. It is hoped that the research will provide a better understanding of the current state and problems of distance education in Asia and encourage collaboration among open universities in the region through experience sharing and lesson drawing.