Current student in the CS program. Feel free to ask questions.
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University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs
11–20 of 483 posts
Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs
#12The first question I always ask of these weird online universities is, are they regionally accredited? National accreditation is not really a high bar and isn’t considered competitive; all legitimate institutions of higher learning should qualify for and receive regional accreditation from an appropriate authority before considering such study in one’s best interest. This online learning site is eligible for regional…
So what makes regional accreditation so great? Do other countries have it? Why can’t a major regional body go national? Is it the law? It all sounds like a scam from that to textbooks.
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Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs
#13Great, they made it tuition-free, accredited, and online; now take it all the way and get rid of the idiotic hoop-jumping of the admissions process!
Edit: I know nothing about their admissions process, only that they have one. Somebody's unimaginative I see. "Admissions" should be filling out a form including contact info, bank info and so forth, and then verifying that it's all true. What could they (or you downvoters) possibly have vested in restricting admissions in any way beyond that?
To conserve scarce resources? No, resources are almost limitless, because it's online, and lecturing and presumably grading are partially or fully automated, and there's no campus with spatial restrictions.
To make sure everyone pays their way? No, everybody does pay their way, and it's a non-profit.
To maintain an air of exclusivity? No, it's the University of the People.
To make sure the on-campus community is vibrant, diverse, and full of people with interesting extra-curricular interests and leadership skills? No, because again, there is no campus and no on-campus community.
To make sure not too large a percentage of enrolled students flunk out or quit trying? No, because who cares? Only elite colleges that care about an air of exclusivity, and they care in the other direction, i.e. they want you to fail out so they appear rigorous and demanding.
So yeah. ????
Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs
#14How are the faculty paid? Are there faculty? And if not, why can’t Khan Academy go for accreditation?
Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs
#15This seems too good to be true and I’m trying to figure out the catch.
The catch is your degree will be from “University of the People” which will send red flags to hiring managers who check. Hopefully one day this will be a normal thing, but it’s questionable whether your degree will signal what you want it to signal.
Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs
#16I can't wait for a fully online without human University.
I'd like speed running to be a thing
Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs
#17The first question I always ask of these weird online universities is, are they regionally accredited? National accreditation is not really a high bar and isn’t considered competitive; all legitimate institutions of higher learning should qualify for and receive regional accreditation from an appropriate authority before considering such study in one’s best interest. This online learning site is eligible for regional…
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Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs
#18The first question I always ask of these weird online universities is, are they regionally accredited? National accreditation is not really a high bar and isn’t considered competitive; all legitimate institutions of higher learning should qualify for and receive regional accreditation from an appropriate authority before considering such study in one’s best interest. This online learning site is eligible for regional…
> Not saying this is a scam, but it feels like a scam.
Not directly related to your specific concern, but every attempt to make a open / democratized degree has felt like that to me, unfortunately.
Example: There was an online degree program I saw that awarded a real, regionally accredited degree from a state university. The degree and course work were exactly the same, but the online program was basically open. No admission requirements except to pay for and pass some pre-requisites that would then grant you access to the rest of the degree. The equivalent brick and motar program went through the typical admissions process.
My first thought: "this sounds very close to for-profit school".
Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs
#19How are the faculty paid? Are there faculty? And if not, why can’t Khan Academy go for accreditation?
yes, they get an "honorarium" according to the signup page, which means peanuts most likely (probably a portion of that ~$200 proctoring fee, or whatever they call it).
has anyone here applied to be an instructor?
Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs
#20I guess this is a promising project, bookmarked.