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University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

uopeople.edu

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Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#321

Post by RNCTX »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #308
SuoDuanDao wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't word this in a non-snarky way, but it's a genuine question: Why do you believe that college can teach making subjective decisions?

Because moral philosophy and epistemology have been a thing for well over 4,000 years, and college could easily teach the basics.

This.

The humanities are glossed over at best in public high schools across the United States. I don't know of one that requires a PHIL intro course of students.

College is not vocational training (unless you're a law or medicine student), it's for learning how to think.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#322

Post by jki275 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #283
jki275 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stanford doesn't need accreditation. Neither does Harvard. You're not seriously comparing the two, are you?

Yes? You said 'Nationally accredited. Not regionally accredited. Hence useless for academic purposes.' But, as Stanford and Harvard show us, being neither nationally nor regionally accredited does not make it useless for academic purposes. Saying they don't need accreditation - yeah that was my point.

By stating this, you are claiming that this fly-by-night unknown is like Stanford and Harvard. Stanford and Harvard don't need accreditation because they are the standards, and have set those standards for (Harvard anyway) nearly 400 years.

When this college has been around and is known as one of the most prestigious colleges on the planet for 400 years, then we can talk about it not needing accreditation. Until then, you're being disingenuous at best by pretending they exist in the same conversation.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#323

Post by barry-cotter »

hatmatrix wrote: post #222
non-entity wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 a…

In principle, this could work if the school maintained high standards and allowed everyone to attempt to pass their courses + eventually attain the degree. Having an online platform without limitations (or with less limitations) in instructor resources allows legitimate programs to pursue this model. To my knowledge, the difference with for-profit schools is that you are essentially guaranteed a degree by enrolling a…

> To my knowledge, the difference with for-profit schools is that you are essentially guaranteed a degree by enrolling and paying the tuition and fees.

A large majority of students who start at the University of Phoenix fail to graduate. The guarantee you speak of does not exist, not because the standards are high, but because the average student admitted to these universities is incapable of the work, or too disorganized to do so. There are plenty of not for profit universities who admit similar students and they don’t graduate either.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#324

Post by chrisseaton »

jki275 wrote: post #322
chrisseaton wrote: post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes? You said 'Nationally accredited. Not regionally accredited. Hence useless for academic purposes.' But, as Stanford and Harvard show us, being neither nationally nor regionally accredited does not make it useless for academic purposes. Saying they don't need accreditation - yeah that was my point.

By stating this, you are claiming that this fly-by-night unknown is like Stanford and Harvard. Stanford and Harvard don't need accreditation because they are the standards, and have set those standards for (Harvard anyway) nearly 400 years. When this college has been around and is known as one of the most prestigious colleges on the planet for 400 years, then we can talk about it not needing accreditation. Until then…

I don't think you understand. The reason this college is useless for academic purposes is nothing to do with its accreditation - it's to do with its reputation.

We know accreditation is irrelevant, as other colleges do fine with out. You can be accredited and have a reputation, or you can be not accredited and have a reputation, or you can be accredited and not have a reputation, or you can be not accredited and not have a reputation.

The two things are entirely independent.

Almost nobody (notable exception probably the government) cares if your college is accredited or not. When you say you have a Stanford degree nobody goes 'wait is that accredited?'

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#325

Post by tankenmate »

RNCTX wrote: post #321
TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because moral philosophy and epistemology have been a thing for well over 4,000 years, and college could easily teach the basics.

This. The humanities are glossed over at best in public high schools across the United States. I don't know of one that requires a PHIL intro course of students. College is not vocational training (unless you're a law or medicine student), it's for learning how to think.

If you study the International Bacalaureat (IB), a high school curriculum taught around the world that is based on the French system, you are required to study Theory of Knowledge; effectively an introduction to philosophy.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#326

Post by [deleted] »

bonoboTP wrote: post #237
themodelplumber wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> could not grasp the idea of plagiarism being unethical I remember experiencing this at a private religious university. At the time, my hyper-religious mind was blown to see students outright cheating in the Testing Center. Since then I've been exposed to additional perspectives on plagiarism. It is an extremely deep and nuanced topic. A few years out of school, I ended up mentoring and then teaching college student…

It depends, like many things, this is very nuanced. In my time at university, I knew many capable and bright people who cheated once in a while, but only in well-picked cases, not as their general policy. For example if there was a mandatory bullshit subject, or something that they regarded as worthless waste of time etc. and rather spent the time on the important things. I think it's a very naive shielded "good boy"…

[deleted]

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#327

Post by SupplyChainGuy »

bonoboTP wrote: post #237
themodelplumber wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> could not grasp the idea of plagiarism being unethical I remember experiencing this at a private religious university. At the time, my hyper-religious mind was blown to see students outright cheating in the Testing Center. Since then I've been exposed to additional perspectives on plagiarism. It is an extremely deep and nuanced topic. A few years out of school, I ended up mentoring and then teaching college student…

It depends, like many things, this is very nuanced. In my time at university, I knew many capable and bright people who cheated once in a while, but only in well-picked cases, not as their general policy. For example if there was a mandatory bullshit subject, or something that they regarded as worthless waste of time etc. and rather spent the time on the important things. I think it's a very naive shielded "good boy"…

I agree. I'm a CS major and am forced to take a class on history. The class is entirely online and the teacher doesn't seem to really care one bit. The entire class is just random quizzes that can easily be googled/ Just follow along on quizlet.

I have two options; Read the super boring textbook for 5 hours, take the test legit and get an 80% or I quizlett the test get 100% and spend the next 5 hours listening to Dan Carlins "Hardcore History" Podcast which i find much more informative and enjoyable.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#328

Post by barry-cotter »

RNCTX wrote: post #306
non-entity wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 a…

I won't name names since I've buried the hatchet but here's a story along those lines. During a hotly contested political debate in my city a person who called himself a doctor (psych therapist, to be precise) showed up at a council meeting and threatened a city council member from my district. Being the data-fluent person I am I offered to help, so I pulled all of the person in question's educational, legal, and acc…

> If not, this guy planned the whole thing as his escape from the car burning bit and new career as a psychiatrist with shady credentials.

Psychiatrists are medical doctors, and the rules on who gets to practice in the US are for practical purposes written by the AMA. That guy was not a licensed psychiatrist. He wouldn’t even be allowed to sit the first levels of the requisite exams.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#329

Post by TallGuyShort »

themodelplumber wrote: post #40
dart600 wrote: post #33

Hi. I attended this school and then got accepted to another more standard institution, which I applied at the same time to. The new institution, learning I had been attending U of the P, promptly told me that U of the P credits would not transfer. Universal transferability in question, I opted out. I did enjoy meeting people from all walks of life, all over the world. However, I also saw a grossly wide range of educa…

> could not grasp the idea of plagiarism being unethical I remember experiencing this at a private religious university. At the time, my hyper-religious mind was blown to see students outright cheating in the Testing Center. Since then I've been exposed to additional perspectives on plagiarism. It is an extremely deep and nuanced topic. A few years out of school, I ended up mentoring and then teaching college student…

... the Testing Center!? Hey I went there too.

But I don't see how this is more nuanced that being honest or dishonest. I really pride myself on being able to see where a lot of opposing viewpoints are coming from, but I can't see how any of the people you describe are doing much more than lying to themselves about what they're doing.

Re: University of the People: Tuition-Free, Accredited Online Degree Programs

#330

Post by barry-cotter »

non-entity wrote: post #275
barry-cotter wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How far do they go on the performance based admission? Must you have a Bachelor’s to be admitted? I’m currently on my last year of my Master’s and did not fulfill the usual entrance requirements but CEFIMS will let you into their Master’s programmes sans Bachelor’s though there is a bit of hoop jumping and it’s difficult to do it in the two year minimum for students who start with a Bachelor’s.

Nope, there's no bachelors degree required. I was actually pretty surprised by this when I first heard about it and I emailed them. In part of their response I quote: Our program aims to make admission less bureaucratic (no degree, no GRE, nor recommendation letters, nor statement of purpose required), but we still are appealing to students who have the near-equivalent of a Bachelor’s degree, whether through academic…

Thank you. If I ever want another Master’s I’m going to keep this in mind.
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