Economic and geographic constraints exclude millions of people from higher education. With the aid of technological developments and the help of volunteers, however, access to a tuition-free online education is within reach courtesy of University of the People.
University of the People is a nonprofit venture that is beginning to revolutionize higher education by providing universal access to tuition-free online education, even in the poorest areas of the world.
With a few keystrokes, UoPeople takes the concept of social networking and applies it to academia, providing a global classroom for all students that seek access to online higher education. Shai Reshef, UoPeople President and Founder, credits open-source technology and the increasing access to the Internet in making tuition-free, online education available to people all around the world.
Online learning is a growing trend in the United States of America. According to a survey by the Sloan Consortium, approximately 4 million students are currently enrolled in online education in the United States. As a tuition-free online education service, UoPeople takes the concept of e-learning to an unprecedentedly broader and global audience.
UoPeople operates on a limited budget without sacrificing the quality of education by employing collaborative and open-source e-learning. UoPeople embraces peer-to-peer and collaborative learning to provide university-level programs to a global student body. Within the online study communities, students share resources, exchange ideas, discuss weekly topics, submit assignments and take exams.
A community of educators comprised of active and retired professors, librarians, master-level students and other professionals participate in the educational activity and oversee the assessment process of this tuition-free online education model.
UoPeople offers tuition-free education, and presently charges only a nominal Application Processing Fee of between $10-$50 that is adjusted on sliding scale based on the economic situation in each applicant’s country or place of residence. In the future, UoPeople plans to implement Exam Processing Fees of between $10-$100 that will operate on the same sliding scaled as the Application Processing Fee.
UoPeople is open to accept applications from applicants who submit a certificate of graduation from secondary school, demonstrate proficiency in English and have access to a computer and to an Internet connection.
