Distance Education or Distance Learning, whose characteristic is the possibility of an extensively time- and place-independent study, is looking back to a long tradition in the context of traditional dis-tance universities. The extended use of new technological applications leads to a change in available teaching methods, also in the area of university education. Through the integration of new information and communication technologies (ICT) into the educational program of institutions offering Distance Learning, a modern variant, the DistancE-Learning, emerged. By the implementation of DistancE-Learning elements into the university educational program diverse forms of virtual education institutes evolved, which vary widely in quality and quantity of the implementation of virtual applications. ‘Vir-tual Full-Universities’ and ‘Online Distance Universities’ represent two distinct forms of this devel-opment. By using several criterions like ‘group of addressee’, ‘offered courses of study and examina-tions’, ‘number of students’, ‘degree of virtuality in teaching’, ‘language’ and ‘university fees’ several of this virtual university models shall be compared. Furthermore, the article will discuss the question which contribution these two forms of virtual universities can perform in reference to a transnational university education concept.