Free Online Global University to Debut This April
This fall, Israeli entrepreneur Shai Reshef will open the world’s first tuition-free internet university called the University of the People, reports The New York Times (“Israeli Entrepreneur Plans a Free Global University That Will Be Online Only,” Jan. 25, 2009).
University of the People — which will operate solely based on open-source courseware, a type of learning tool that has allowed universities all over the globe to post education materials online at no cost to the public — will allow its students throughout the world to access written materials and lectures for thousands of courses via its website.
In lieu of tuition, students will pay enrollment fees of $15 to $50 and exam fees of $10 to $100, both of which will vary depending on the student’s country of origin. And instead of physically attending lectures, students will participate in online study communities and weekly discussion topics and will be asked to submit homework and exams online.
“The idea is to take social networking and apply it to academia,” Reshef told the Times. “The open-source courseware is there, from universities that have put their courses online, available to the public, free.”
With about $5 million in start-up funds, including $1 million of his own capital, Rashef will open the school, initially, to approximately 300 students who will be able to pursue bachelor’s degrees in business administration and computer science. The school will support the students with both paid and volunteer professors, along with librarians and other professional educators that will monitor curriculum and evaluate exams.
In five years, at which time Reshef expects the university to be self-sustaining, Reshef hopes to have increased enrollment to 10,000 students.
Critics Question Plan
Although close to 4 million U.S. students took at least one online course in 2007, according to a survey by the Sloan Consortium, an advocacy group for online learning, online education experts still wonder how Reshef’s new venture will come together.
John Bourne, Sloan Consortium executive director, says, “It’s true that the open courseware movement is pretty robust, so there are a lot of high-quality course materials out there, but there’s no human backup behind them. I’d be interested to know how you’d find and train faculty and ensure quality without tuition money.”
Despite these uncertainties, Reshef, who is currently the chairman of Cramster, an online study community for students, and who offers an extensive entrepreneurial background in the business side of higher education, is convinced that his new venture will be a success.
“We know that online peer-to-peer teaching works,” Rashef said. “Putting it all together, we can make a free university for students all over the world, [to] anyone who speaks English and has an Internet connection.”