In the title the author asked whether dual-mode institutions were a stable "final" model for higher education or a step on the way to something else. Only a few institutions seem able to function in dual mode (i.e. with distinct groups of distance and classroom students) in a successful and sustainable way. Some institutions now claim that all their students are engaged in blended learning, which mixes the two modes, but almost none have begun to act on the economic consequences of this development by changing their cost structures (e.g. by decommissioning classrooms). Meanwhile, forecasts of the death of single-mode open universities appear to be exaggerated. While these institutions may also be evolving in the direction of blended learning, they do so from a more appropriate cost structure and, at least in the western world, often score higher in surveys of student satisfaction than their campus counterparts.