November 27th, 2009
Imagine earning an online university degree without the expense of tuition. This is the brain-child of Reshef, an Israeli entrepreneur with decades of experience in international education. His goal is to take the popularity of social networking and apply it to educational fields. Thus far, Reshef is already the founder of many internet-based educational businesses and knows how to attract people across the globe. Additionally, he has prepared an impressive resume to become the perfect founder for such an endeavor, working for years in online universities such as Kaplan and University of Liverpool.
His idea for this school is called the University of the People and combines the lure of the internet with the sudden boom in online education. 2007 alone demonstrated the high demand for online education in the United States, with over four million students enrolled in online courses. Thus far, many other prestigious universities have offered free online classes to the public, such as MIT and Utah State, but never a whole university curriculum that ends with an Online University Degree.
Reshef’s idea offers a competitive edge to schools such as University of Phoenix and Kaplan University, who are notably for-profit institutions, as compared to Reshef’s nonprofit plans. Like other online universities, the University of the People would offer online study communities, homework assignments, and exams. While there is no tuition requirement, the school will require a nominal fee for enrollment and exams, ranging from $10 to $100, depending on your economic situation and the situation of your country.
While this program is attractive to education fields around the world, it is not without criticism. Many directors of academia argue that there is no draw for educated faulty to want to participate in a program that does not require tuition money. Other educators question the logistics of such a plan. Testing students from various regions of the world will require a vast knowledge about their education systems, and while the program is directed toward English-speakers, what will the university do for students whose English is not at a college level? Or students who are not in the predominantly English-speaking countries?
Reshef contends that his university will use both active and retired professors, some paid, some volunteers and other master-level professionals to develop and oversee curriculums. His current goal is to limit the first class to only 300 students when the university opens, offering only bachelor’s degrees in business administration and computer science, hopefully reaching a potential population of 10,000 within a few years. As the school is wrapping up the end of its first semester, it appears to be on a forward track to make waves around the world, even earning the backing of the United Nations. Reshef stresses that in this world full of social networks with people helping people, a university of this nature will only bring globalization boundaries closer together.
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