The purpose of this paper is to analyse the state of the art about distance learning in Italian universities, in order to understand how higher education institutions are reacting to the change that occurred in the education market. Distance learning represents an upgraded version of lifelong learning, defined as each activity that starts in any moment of life in order to improve knowledge, skills, and competences in a personal, civic, social, and/or employment perspective (European Commission, 2001). Higher education institutions are called to satisfy the needs of their students also after the end of their educational path, updating their supply by providing “massive open online courses” (MOOCs). Given the presence of new online universities, starting with an analysis of the behaviour adopted by all Italian traditional higher education institutions, we will try to answer the following research question: How do traditional universities effectively face the challenge of lifelong learning, especially in terms of distance learning? We propose an approach based on the following steps. We will start by reviewing the literature on the concept of lifelong learning and its evolution in terms of distance learning. We will proceed with a documentary analysis based on the official statements provided by the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of the University and Research Systems (ANVUR) and by the Italian higher education institutions investigated. Collected data will be analysed through a qualitative method, in order to identify changes in the traditional universities’ supply, by answering to the recent emergence of distance learning. Lastly, we will interpret the findings in order to make considerations in terms of future perspectives. This methodology puts in evidence the importance of ensuring lifelong learning experiences, according to the needs of learners. The aim is to describe the current situation in Italy and the behaviour adopted by traditional universities in order to accept this unavoidable revolution. The outcome of the application of this work is represented by the possibility of generating a new field of interest about the institutionalization of MOOCs in Italy. This is a preliminary study: in a future perspective, the aim will be to define a new strategy for traditional universities, that will help them in order to combine distance learning opportunities and high quality in terms of education offered.