Free Online University Receives Accreditation, in Time for Graduating Class of 7
Just in time for its first graduates, the University of the People, a tuition-free four-year-old online institution built to reach underserved students around the world, announced Thursday that it had received accreditation.
“This is every exciting, especially for the students who will graduate in April, with a degree from an accredited institution,” said Shai Reshef, the Israeli entrepreneur who invested millions of dollars to create the nonprofit university. “This has been the big question for anyone who thought about enrolling. We have 1.2 million supporters on Facebook, I think second only to Harvard, and every day, there is discussion about when we will be accredited.”
Now, with accreditation from the Distance Education and Training Council, a national accrediting group, Mr. Reshef said, the university will expand significantly. He expects to have 5,000 students by 2016.
The university currently has 700 students from 142 countries enrolled in its degree programs in business administration and computer science. About 30 percent are from Africa and 25 percent from the United States, most of whom were born outside the country. While the first graduating class is tiny, only seven students, it shows the broad reach of the university: One of the graduates is from Syria and another from Jordan.
From the start, Mr. Reshef has said that he aimed to show developing countries that it is possible to provide higher education to all, at a low cost. Classes are deliberately low-tech, with text-based open-source materials, since so many potential students around the world have no access to broadband or video. Some students participate via mobile devices. The university has never charged any tuition, although students pay $0 to $50 to apply, depending on the wealth of the country they come from. In addition, exams, which are proctored in their home country, cost $100, with a variety of scholarships for those who cannot afford that fee.
“We want to make sure that no student is left out for financial reasons,” Mr. Reshef said.
Although the last few years have brought an explosion of online courses, including massive open online offerings from new ventures like Coursera and edX, the University of the People remains unique.
Classes at the university are 10 weeks long, and have 20 to 30 students — often from as many different countries — who have weekly homework and quizzes. The university depends largely on volunteer labor. Mr. Reshef said some 3,000 professors have offered to volunteer, although so far the university has only been able to use about 100 of them.
Its deans are volunteers from New York University and Columbia.
“Many people have been attracted by the possibility of opening opportunities for students from so many different backgrounds,” Mr. Reshef said.
The University of the People, almost from the start, has attracted high-level support, with partnerships or backing from New York University, the Clinton Global Initiative, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the OpenCourseWare Consortium and many others. In August, Microsoft agreed to provide scholarships, mentoring and job opportunities to 1,000 African students who enroll at the University of the People.
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