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

I have nothing to say accept thank you Uopeople for everything you've gave an oxygen

Hello guys studying at UoPeople has really helped me a lot especially academically. When i first heard about this great online learning plartform from a friend i was not really serious about it because i taught it was not possible for there to exist a tuition free university but my friend then i should just give it a try since there was nothing to loose by trying and that was how i registered at UoPeople .I just finished my 2nd term at UoPeople and trust me its be absolutely amazing from the instructors to the students from different parts of the world to the beautiful and easy to move around learning environment . I do not regrit ever considering registering on this learning plartform at all and i can recommend this plartform to anyone at anytime. thanks a lot UoPeople am really grateful.

To have a middle-class job, you need knowledge, not a degree. (Disclaimer: my son does not have a degree but has a pretty demanding middle-class engineering job.)

If you spend time in a university to just get a diploma and maybe some connections, you likely are wasting your time and significant money (remember, a student loan cannot be got rid of by a bankruptcy).

I agree completely on your critique of profit motive at universities, and think it particularly applies to state-owned institutions. There is a false notion that profit is an automatic good, when that is clearly not the case.

There is more to critical thinking than formal logic, I'd argue. The classroom format of a typical humanities college course has a lot to do with this. For example I would argue that a person without any background in the classics and some basic theology is going to struggle to get much from Paradise Lost. It's dense, difficult, and you have to know some things going into it to pick up on the nuances. But 30 people discussing it collaboratively 2 or 3 times per week, with the expert professor's guidance when they stumble on certain parts makes for a lot of interesting discussion. Thirty different people will pick up on thirty different bits and pieces in every classroom session.

I'd guess that a big part of the reason there is such a glut of humanities graduates who can't find professorships is that people simply enjoy the classes enough to keep going all the way through graduate degrees. You get discussion and debate in those classes that you can't find anywhere else.

I don't think the above is true of many other disciplines of study, with so many degrees offered being pitched for purely profit motive as job training, as you mentioned above.

I can't do a better job of describing this than this professor who puts his public lectures on youtube for free..

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpO_X3dhaqULiItXg84O9...

For what it may be worth: two accredited online universities that have interestingly sustainable models and, I gather, good quality:

BYU Pathway Worldwide and associated programs. It requires a Church affiliation but not necessarily membership (I think). I think tuition is much lower especially if you do the year of English etc first, bachelors programs (like IT, business, others) are available, programs excellent, and is also suitable for those who need to first become qualified for entering a university (edit: i.e., learning English which is used in curriculum, and other basic skills), then provides that university. More info is in Wikipedia and I have gathered a bit of info including linking to a news article that explains it well I think, here: http://lukecall.net/e-9223372036854578440.html .

And: https://www.wgu.edu/ (also mentioned in wikipedia): state aid available from multiple states it seems (per wkp). Others have commented about it in this discussion, and praised it in other HN discussions, IIRC.