World's first tuition-free university opened its doors this month

I am constantly looking for more effective ways of doing things, and it seems that what is needed most right now is for innovative people to come up with and implement creative and effective ideas which might transform institutions. This may sound threatening, or (alternatively) exciting, but certainly people such as Buddha, Jesus, Luther, St. Francis, the Founders of the United States and others were not willing to accept the status quo as divinely inspired.

Certainly schools, and the Church, business, and the non-profit world are in need of this "stirring of the pot" these days, and one unexpected positive result of our economic crisis is that we might be forced to be more efficient and more inventive in our institutions. I ran across the following item on the "Interfolio Blog" and thought it was quite interesting....


From the Interfolio blog:

This month marked a milestone in higher education history as the world's first tuition-free university opened its "doors" and began enrollment. University of the People, or UoPeople, is an "online academic institution dedicated to the global advancement and democratization of higher education." Using a combination of open-source courses, open-source software and volunteer academics, the university will offer two degrees this year: computer science and business administration.

UoPeople was founded to combat the global skyrocketing of higher education costs. University President Shai Reshef explained in a recent interview that "for hundreds of millions of people around the world higher education is no more than a dream, a dream that can never be materialized. Financial constraints make it impossible to go to higher education and for others there are not enough institutions in the place they live."

The university will allow students worldwide access to higher education. All that is needed is demonstrable proficiency in English and a high school diploma, along with access to a computer and internet connection. And with many developing countries focused on building broadband infrastructures, access to e-learning and online universities will increase significantly in coming years.

UoPeople is backed by the United Nations' Global Alliance for Information and Communications Technology (GAID) and aided by a number of well-known academics, including Jack Balkin, who teaches Constitutional Law at Yale Law School, and Russell S. Winer, who chairs the department of marketing at New York University's Stern School of Business.

Only two weeks into registration, the university has already enrolled 200 students from over 51 countries, and Reshef's goal is to grow the school to 15,000 students within 4 years. This is at least a very exciting project, and we will be keeping an eye on this new venture. We welcome thoughts from you on what this kind of institution could mean for the future of global access to higher ed and any comments you have on how successful the school can be. Let us know what you think!