This model has been successfully used in traditional schools such as Oxford, Cambridge, the University of London, and the University of South Africa, in some cases for over a hundred years. By recognizing that mature students, who have developed independent study skills, can successfully complete upper division and graduate work in a one-to-one mentoring relationship, with an experienced master teacher who had achieved leadership in his/her field, Hawai'i International University found the solution to liberating its students from the constraints of time, location, and tuition costs.

Since the teaching relationship is one on one, it can be conducted at times and in places that are of the student's choosing, rather than in classrooms at rigidly scheduled intervals. Since distant learning by phone, fax, E-mail, and postal service does not require a physical campus with multiple buildings and classrooms and high maintenance costs, the enormous costs of these facilities and services can be avoided and the savings passed on to the student in reduced tuition. As a result, Hawai'i International University can offer quality educational degree programs for a fifth, or less, of what the same programs would cost on a traditional college campus.