A dual mode institution provides educational courses by both the conventional, on-campus mode and by distance education. This article discusses the challenges encountered during introduction of distance education at the University of Botswana (UB). At the UB, introduction of distance education was piecemeal and left the Distance Education Unit disconnected from the academic mainstream and unable to fully implement its mandate to convert university programs to the distance education mode. The UB experience is used to identify important factors that can guide the process of converting to a dual mode university. (Contains 2 tables.)