Online and Distance Education can be seen as a product and a producer of globalisation. Educational access, inequality and exclusion from education are topics of major importance in developing and developed countries' efforts to use Online and Distance Education as a means to respond to the forces of globalisation. Socio-cultural, economic, political and technological factors and their complex combinations in the wider context of globalisation show that globalising forces affect deeply and in various ways the educational systems of any country and are expected to do so more drastically in the future. This is mirrored at the universities' mission statements that were examined. While educational access has traditionally been given high priority, inequity and exclusion issues–along with globalisation pressures–undermined societies' and universities' efforts to fully achieve their aims. These society used Online and Distance Education (especially by establishing Open Universities) but responded to each country's specific needs and priorities. It is suggested that a good response to these issues might be context-specific Online and Distance Education and Flexible Learning solutions, new pedagogy that is more aware of students' needs and, alternatively, tailor-made modes of Open and Distance Learning and Flexible Learning that suit particular contexts and circumstances.