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

• factchecker01 6y ago
  Is UoPeople completely free? Are there any costs? While we have removed most of the costs associated with attending a university, we do still have some fees to help us keep UoPeople running, and take care of all the admin and processing work we have to do for all of our students. To cover these fees we ask for: A one time non-refundable application fee of $60 and, For undergraduates: an assessment fee of $100 per course, or For graduates: an assessment fee of $200 per course Don’t worry, if you need to time to save the money and you want to start right now you can, as the fees don’t need to be paid until the end of each course. The assessment fees do not need to be paid until the end of each course which is very convenient for students who have to budget and save up. You can also apply for one of our numerous grants and scholarships to help you cover all the fees. Please note the application fee does not include any additional fees that may be required for third-party evaluation. After all courses we estimate the total fees for the: Associate Degree are $2,060 Bachelor’s Degree are$4,060 MBA is $2,460 M.Ed. is $2,660 What are the costs for Transfer credits? If you have credits approved to transfer toward your degree, the cost per transfer course will be $17. This is instead of paying the assessment fee per course of $100 for undergraduates and $200 for graduates. Transferring credits may significantly reduce the total cost of your degree. What Grants & Scholarships are available? UoPeople works with top corporations and organizations to provide grants and scholarships to students needing financial support when paying the required application fees. Students can apply each term for the scholarship for which they are most qualified, and once awarded it can last for a full year of study. It is UoPeople’s aim that financial need will not restrict students from studying. How can I pay the application fees? Payments can be made through Western Union, Western Union Global Pay, Paypal, Cashier’s Checks and Payment via MoneyGram. PayPal payments can be with your personal PayPal account or by using major credit card or debit card – VISA, MasterCard, Discover or American Express. For more information on how payments can be made, click here.
  • zxcvbn4038 6y ago
    Accredited or not, “university of the people” sounds just like “hard knocks university”, “life college”, etc. Works for the Saul Goodman’s of the world, maybe.
  • tgv 6y ago
    It's not free if you want a (partial) degree: https://www.uopeople.edu/tuition-free/processing-fees/ https://www.uopeople.edu/tuition-free/processing-fees/
• scoot 6y ago
  "tuition-free" "tuition-fee free"? I would hope you get at least some tuition!
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    The only required fees are an application fee and an exam fee per course. There are fees to transfer courses in, and many courses require a proctor. You can opt to have a professional in your community or use the online service ProctorU for a fee charged by that service.
  • unmole 6y ago
    Tuition in American English is what would be called tuition fees in Commonwealth English.
• johnkpaul 6y ago
  This seems too good to be true and I’m trying to figure out the catch.
  • reidjs 6y ago
    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.
    • Nginx487 6y ago
      Graduates work in FAANG companies though, probably hiring managers comsider it trustworthy enough. Btw, what red flags do you mean?
      • chrisseaton 6y ago
        > Btw, what red flags do you mean? It looks like a lesser education. And it further makes it look like there’s something strange about you that made you pick it.
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    It's true. The current "catch" is that the school is nationally accredited. This means you can encounter some issue getting your degree recognized (e.g., some grad schools in the US will not consider nationally accredited degrees, some schools only accept their credits on a case-by-case basis, and so on). However, if you know that going into it, you know the primary shortcoming. (Fortunately, I have a regionally accredited degree already, so I didn't care about that.)
    • johnkpaul 6y ago
      Ah I see! I didn’t realize this accreditation distinction you’re making. My googling from here makes much more sense. Thanks.
• aspenmayer 6y ago
  The 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 accreditation as of 2020, but they really play up the eligibility in a way that seems suspect. They aren’t clear if they have even applied, but they have 5 years to apply until they have to have a redetermination of eligibility. Not saying this is a scam, but it feels like a scam. This site was very hard to find, for what it’s worth. https://www.uopeople.edu/student-experience/quality/accreditation/ https://www.uopeople.edu/student-experience/quality/accredit...
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    Not yet. They started the process a few months ago.
  • BigChiefSmokem 6y ago
    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.
    • deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
      Regional accreditation is the "gold standard" in the US. National accreditation is consider below that. However, the school is accredited by the DEAC which is recognized by the US Department of Education. (Some have tried to claim the school is unaccredited, but that is false.)
    • jcrawfordor 6y ago
      To somewhat oversimplify, the regional accreditation bodies (about a half dozen of them) are older and better established than the national accreditation bodies. They generally have 100+ year histories, accredit all of the major universities within their jurisdiction, and in general have acquired a great deal of respect throughout US academia. National accreditation boards in general, and especially those that are not field-specific, are seen as being less rigorous, faster to accredit, and more profit- or prestige-motivated than the regional accreditation boards. Most are relatively new and some of the most prominent (e.g. ACICS) have been involved in specific controversy over the quality of their work. Because the regional accrediting boards are older and better respected, the first question about a university that advertises a national accreditation tends to be "why aren't they regionally accredited?". It is both symptom and cause of this difference that most for-profit and otherwise "questionable" institutions are nationally accredited and not regionally accredited. While some national accreditation bodies are considered rigorous and respectable (e.g. ABET), they tend to be field-specific (in the case of ABET, engineering) and often require regional accreditation as a prerequisite to accredit a university, as they consider regional accreditation to be the indication that the broader learning institution is able to provide a quality program. Usually specific departments or colleges of a university will go to these types of accreditation boards to add a credential to specific programs (e.g. "ABET accredited computer science program") above and beyond the university already having a regional accreditation.
• uopeoplestudent 6y ago
  Current student in the CS program. Feel free to ask questions.
  • person_of_color 6y ago
    Rigor?
    • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
      Modest to "it depends." I'd place it on par with a local community college for myself. However, I think it depends more on the student. The instructors act more as moderators rather than instructors. There are no lectures, and they have limited interaction (e.g., a few posts in the forums and responses to our weekly learning journals). Thus, it's hard to really take advantage of their knowledge. Instructor are also volunteers. I've read that they're paid a small honorarium, but I've been unable to find supporting evidence in any school documentation. (Granted, I haven't looked hard.) You will primarily teach yourself through course materials. The materials can vary from excellent to awful. Thus, it can be a challenge sometimes. (Fortunately, I've been to grad school [education field] in the past, so it's not much of an issue for me.) The school talks about "peer learning," but it is poorly integrated. It mainly amounts to peer assessments and required discussion forum posts. So, as you might guess, the quality of the latter varies wildly. There are definitely quite a few students who struggle, and there's not a lot of support structure built into the school yet. (It's still young. ~10 years old.) The CS curriculum is fairly standard (e.g., operating systems, programming, algorithms, data structures, etc.).
  • kamyarg 6y ago
    As both the OP and you are new accounts, I will ask the first question I can think of: is this a marketing move to post it here? Also, I watched the "Who is behind it" video and it did not answer the question, who is actually behind this? Is it a non-profit? Is it owned by by someone? Who founded it when?
    • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
• luhego 6y ago
  Is this available to international students?
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    Yes. In fact, I believe most of the students are international students. In my last course, I had students from Nigeria, Italy, Germany, the US, Vietnam, and China.
    • mkbkn 6y ago
      Tell me how many are from India?
      • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
        No idea. I don't recall anyone from my classes who has specifically mentioned being from India. I did a quick search on the internal social network, and there's quite a few students who mention being from various parts though. So, "some" is the best answer I can offer.
• rdiddly 6y ago
  Great, 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. ????
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    As a US based student, it wasn't too difficulty. It's comparative to any other school in the US. For students outside the US and particularly outside English speaking countries, it can be more involved.
  • zerof1l 6y ago
    This university does not have a quota. They take in all students who apply as long as they meet minimum criteria. There are reasons as to why there should be admissions. For starters, they require a high school degree. It's obvious that you should be well familiar with all of the school material before university. All studies and communications at the university are in English only. They accept people from the whole world so they need to ensure that you have adequate English skills. In the case of CS studies, they also check if a student has some basic math skills and any previous experience in the field or recommendation. But even here university is trying to help students who don't pass minimum math and English requirements by offering them to take introductory English and math course. If they pass it, they can go on and pursue the degree. There are good reasons as to why it is necessary. If you don't have basic English, you can't communicate with your peers. As a part of the study, you have to read and write a lot. You also need to understand your peer work and grade it. Finally, it is easier for the rest of us to study. Before they were more lenient in requirements and it was causing problems. They had a very high drop rate because people who enrolled had no adequate English skills for example. It also made it difficult for others to study.
• WoodenChair 6y ago
  How are the faculty paid? Are there faculty? And if not, why can’t Khan Academy go for accreditation?
  • clairity 6y ago
    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?
• DudeInBasement 6y ago
  I can't wait for a fully online without human University. I'd like speed running to be a thing
  • TheAdamAndChe 6y ago
    Check out Western Governors University, it's self-paced.
    • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
      I'll just add that many UoPeople students in the US transfer to WGU to complete their bachelor's degree. (WGU is regionally accredited, so it carried more weight. And it accepts UoPeople credits.)
      • misterhtmlcss 6y ago
        So the savvy move if you have the cash is to do your three years and then what transfer to your final year at WGU? That's so smart. What more do you know about this strategy? Can you introduce me to anyone who has done this?
        • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
          If you're on Yammer, look for the group "UoPeople Computer Science Majors Discord Server." Post a message to that group about HN. I'll find you and send an invite. Several of the students on that Discord are doing this or have done this. I know one is just about to graduate from WGU after doing it.
          • SeerKlein 6y ago
            I posted in the group. Can you invite me too?
        • jki275 6y ago
          It probably doesn't work that way. You probably do 3 years at this whatever and then WGU says "we'll take your history and art credits, now start the rest of your degree over with us". That's generally how this sort of thing goes. Also WGU isn't known for academic rigor either. They're essentially like Excelsior and UOP and AMU.
• terrycody 6y ago
  I guess this is a promising project, bookmarked.
• coronadisaster 6y ago
  They sure ask for a lot of information for signing up, which make me think that it is not free.
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    Tuition-free, not completely free. There is a require one-time app fee and exam fee for each course.
  • BossingAround 6y ago
    You pay I believe ~60USD signing up fee and then 100USD for each class (or 200USD for each graduate class). It's tuition free, not free.
    • yellowapple 6y ago
      Is that $100/$200 not "tuition"? I mean, it's cheap tuition, but it seems like it's tuition nonetheless.
      • BossingAround 6y ago
        Well, the term "tuition" refers to a part of the overall university expense. For example, for NYU, a quick search reveals a whopping $55,018 in annual tuition. That's not the total cost, which is higher since you might be paying for room and board, administration fees, classes/credit-hours, etc. In general, universities in Europe tend to be free, so I agree with you, 100USD per class is indeed tuition for me. But, it is not the US-centric "tuition" of the brick-and-mortar schools.
  • PopeDotNinja 6y ago
    It’s infomercial pricing. Absolutely free, all you have to pay is shipping and handling.
• dart600 6y ago
  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 educational professionalism in the students. In the introductory mandatory writing course, for example,there were a number of classmates whom could not grasp the idea of plagiarism being unethical. With a plagiarism assignment graded by those peers, it was difficult to not feel like higher educational learning was moving along for oneself at a progressively intellectually challenging pace.
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    > 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. Yes, many schools will not accept coursework from nationally accredited universities. This includes coursework from UoPeople. You will not be able to apply for many graduate schools as well. A degree from UoPeople definitely comes with limits, and I wish the school was a little more forward about that. (There are lots of discussions about this on the internal social network.)
    • dart600 6y ago
      Yes I was slightly piffed. Yet, the professor was notably intelligent and very professional. My comment was for others wondering if it was a scam. Its not a scam, it's real, but preferably for people seeking a multicultural experience along with their general educational knowledge, irregardless of the loss of highly guaranteed nontransferrability. Perhaps if one is retired, for example, it would simply be an amazing choice. :)
      • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
        Speaking on your comment about plagiarism, my second term there was a student who submitted their Java homework in a Word document. It contained two screenshots. The first was of the NetBeans IDE. The second was of their browser opened to a Github page that contained the answer to the assignment. They'd un-destructively cropped the second using Word. They made it look like it was typed into NetBeans. I was able to track down the original source.
• fortran77 6y ago
  Regional vs. National Accreditation – There’s a Huge Difference https://www.edsmart.org/regional-vs-national-accreditation/ https://www.edsmart.org/regional-vs-national-accreditation/
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    Yep. And this is absolutely a concern those considering the school should take seriously! That said, the school started the process for WASC accreditation. They announced it about a month or two ago. Thus, those who start now and take 4 years to do a bachelor's may end up with a regionally accredited degree instead of national.
• zerof1l 6y ago
  I've graduated from this university with a bachelor's in Computer Science last year. Overall I had a good experience. I found the curriculum to be on a weaker side. I was interested in various things about computers when I was young, so it felt like I knew half of the material. While studying, I was working at the company part-time. At the normal study pace, you should be ready to put up to 30 hours per week when taking 2 courses. In reality, it took me half of that time. Usually 10 hours per week. Some people with whom I've studied had a full-time job. I guess its a tradeoff. You have a less rigorous curriculum but you then have more time to pursue other interests. Closer to the end of the studies I quickly found a full-time job in a good company locally. The tuition-free part is more of a marketing. At the end of the day, it cost me $4,060 for the whole degree which is quite reasonable. Speaking of employment and red flags, from LinkedIn I know that those who had studied at UoPeople work for many big companies including FAANG. No problem here.
  • misterhtmlcss 6y ago
    That's what I'm finding. I started with one course because I was worried about time to study and time with my wife and child, but now I'm thinking I could do 2 courses probably without too much concern. My only worry is the Math course. Not having gone to University or high school in 20 years I'm fearful. The other courses have been easy so far though, but like you I'm working on the field, so it's not so new to me.
    • BossingAround 6y ago
      The math courses were surprisingly difficult for me, but in general, quite good. I spent way too much time on College Algebra (I kid you not, like 20+ hours every week--the pace is insane, they give you like 20-40 pages to read, and a number of assignments). I'm happy I went through them, but yea, MATH1201 was kinda difficult and MATH1280 was super boring (but not as difficult to be honest).
      • salutis 6y ago
        A fellow student at UoPeople here. I too spent an enormous amount of time on College Algebra. I did nothing but math, morning till evening, all day every day. I dreamt about math at night. And guess what? It was one of the best periods of my life. I fell in love with math.
• cy_hauser 6y ago
  In looking at the CS curricilum this looks more like an extended bootcamp. Most regular university courses are not there, the credits/classes won't transfer to full universities, and you're left with a "degree" that pales in comparison to a "regular" degree. Plus you've spent about $5,000 to get their paper. I guess "accredited degree" just doesn't mean the same thing to as what I was thinking.
  • m463 6y ago
    accreditation has varied levels of shenanigans: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accreditation_mill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accreditation_mill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unaccredited_institutions_of_higher_education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unaccredited_instituti...
  • traverseda 6y ago
    But is it enough to get me a visa to work in the US? I'm already a self-taught programmer, 5k is cheap to have the option of working in the US.
    • cy_hauser 6y ago
      I would speculate no. It's not a well recognized degree and has little history or experience to back it up.
      • traverseda 6y ago
        Presume that my accomplishments stand on my own, and the only thing getting in my way is that I don't qualify for a VISA under NAFTA. What I'd need would be a > Baccalaureate or Licenciatura degree; or Post-Secondary Diploma or Post Secondary Certificate and three years' experience. Now you and I know this is pretty much just a sheet of paper, but what's the cheapest/easiest way for someone who already has professional accomplishments to get that sheet of paper?
        • non-entity 6y ago
• MattGaiser 6y ago
  They branded this wrong. University of the People stands out front and centre as different and sketchy as the name makes you think of protestors in a park waving the hammer and sickle and handing out diplomas for life experience.
  • thatha7777 6y ago
    That’s a pretty interesting interpretation of “we the people” filled with political undercurrents. I think your underlying assumption is that only an “exclusive” university can provide a good education, and not something en masse. I think UoP is explicitly trying to challenge that assumption. Btw, I have a hunch that if we valued “life experience degrees” more than “law degree at Harvard” the US Congress would be a better legislative body
• fortran77 6y ago
  I looked at their CS degree. Just one semester of Calculus?
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    Sadly, yes. College Algebra, Stats, Calculus (one-term), and Discrete Mathematics are all the math requirements. I plan to do my math elsewhere.
    • deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  • mehrdadn 6y ago
    Link: https://www.uopeople.edu/programs/cs/degrees/computer-science-bachelor-degree-2/curriculum/ https://www.uopeople.edu/programs/cs/degrees/computer-scienc... Their data structures & algorithms course: https://my.uopeople.edu/mod/book/view.php?id=45606&chapterid=37618 https://my.uopeople.edu/mod/book/view.php?id=45606&chapterid... I'm more worried about the the apparent lack of basic algorithms (Dijkstra? DP?) than not having more semesters of calculus.
    • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
      Algorithms is a separate course. https://my.uopeople.edu/mod/book/view.php?id=45606&chapterid=37619 https://my.uopeople.edu/mod/book/view.php?id=45606&chapterid... Note that this syllabus is somewhat out of date. The second textbook link is a bad link. I can't find any material on the (unofficial) CS Discord about updates to the course.
      • mehrdadn 6y ago
        Ah, it's not on the curriculum, it's an elective: https://www.uopeople.edu/programs/cs/degrees/computer-science-bachelor-degree-2/curriculum/ https://www.uopeople.edu/programs/cs/degrees/computer-scienc...
  • 6y ago
• Zircom 6y ago
  So this seems like a good time to ask, does anyone have experience with University of London's online degree and how US employers feel about it? I've been eyeing it for a couple years now and was wondering if anyone either has experience directly with this program, or at least can speak more to how US employer's feel about degrees from overseas. https://london.ac.uk/sites/default/files/prospectuses/computer-science-prospectus-2019-20.pdf https://london.ac.uk/sites/default/files/prospectuses/comput... https://www.coursera.org/degrees/bachelor-of-science-computer-science-london https://www.coursera.org/degrees/bachelor-of-science-compute...
  • noelwelsh 6y ago
    I don't know about the online course, but in general the University of London is highly regarded. Some of the best universities in the world (LSE, UCL) are part of the University of London system, and all the members are very good universities. I don't imagine US employers would have an issue with degrees from there. You can find it easily and it looks reputable.
  • querez 6y ago
    This may be slightly off-topic, but if you're looking at online/distance-learning offers from the UK, the OpenUniversity ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_University ) is very well known and well respected, and has decades of experience in doing this.
    • jimnotgym 6y ago
      I will second the OU, both me and my wife got access to higher education through the OU and successfully transferred credit elsewhere. It was still cassette tapes and books back then, but those materials were excellent. The difference I see now is that the funding is not as good from the government for UK learners. I didn't pay a penny for my courses.
    • brainwipe 6y ago
      Another vote for OU; I haven't attended but from an employer perpective, OU grads have had excellent depth of knowledge.
• MattGaiser 6y ago
  An interesting question would be whether governments and teachers agreements accept this program. Many of those have rules about how if you have a Masters, you earn X more and you can just keep earning more the more degrees you get. $4000 lets the payback period Be quite fast.
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    The school is accredited by the DEAC which is recognized by the US DoE. It's national accreditation which is less prestigious and not always "accepted" by regional accredited schools. https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/institution-profile/233675 https://ope.ed.gov/dapip/#/institution-profile/233675 The Master's in education is recognized by International Baccalaureate (IB) which is a well regarded program. I'm not sure of the exact relationship as the program is new. (It just started this year.) However, it likely wouldn't be accepted by the various state education bodies for teaching licensing. (This is a guess based on my past experience in education.)
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• quickthrower2 6y ago
  So, Correspondence Learning? Like http://www.open.ac.uk/ http://www.open.ac.uk/?
  • elric 6y ago
    Seems to be a fair bit cheaper than the Open University. But maybe you get what you pay for ...
• pugio 6y ago
  I took a semester of courses from UofP. It had a wonderful diversity of ages, genders, and nationalities. Interacting with those people through peer assignments was interesting, and I applaud what they're trying to do. Ultimately, however, I found the entire thing way too tedious - full of the classic "make-work" and silly hoops. The level of pedagogy was very basic. I dream of (and am actively working towards) a day where the computer's potential as a new educational medium is fully realized, rather than the current parade of attempts at transplanting a brick and mortar classroom into a remote asynchronous delivery system.
  • d0gbread 6y ago
    Are you willing to share more about what you're working on? It sounds interesting. One language app I tried for a few minutes was a VR app that put you, for example, on a train, and you had to have a relevant conversation. It was cool, not sure how effective because the GearVR I used at the time made me sick too quickly.
    • pugio 6y ago
      (Disclaimer: Most of what I say here has caveats and qualifications – hard to capture full nuance in a comment's space.) One of the distinguishing features of computers is easy simulation. Humans learn well by direct, tight, interaction with a system – poking at a thing to see how it works. Tight feedback loops are how we quickly build intuitions. Explorable Explanations [0] are a great extant example of what I mean, but we can do more... Imagine a "textbook" constructed around a well built-simulator (extant example, Earth Primer [1]). Sections of the textbook would present the simulator configured in a pre-set state, with various simplifications and initial conditions. Students can poke and prod these simulators, reset them, test out new states, and answer questions. Assignments could be on the order of "Given Sim[Initial Conditions] figure out what gets you to Sim[Desired State]". Current explorables are lovely, but (usually) incredibly bespoke. One concrete improvement would be to produce an OpenSim standard, which would allow other content creators to embed and customize these sims to construct new narratives. Another powerful computer affordance is extreme specificity – a system should be able to build a representation of a learner's current knowledge / skill graph, and figure out a (or many) shortest path(s) from current knowledge to desired knowledge, scoped to that user's interests. (Many LMS systems attempt this, but we're still in the early, clunky days). Next we have non-linearity. Most textbooks and courses impose a false idea of topic dependence. Yes, there are some intrinsic dependencies, but there are many MANY more ways (orderings) of moving through a learning space than your chapter textbook suggests. I can go on like this forever. I myself am currently focused on constructing usable knowledge graphs (and localizing incoming students on them), and simulations students can easily play around with to build powerful intuition. For the latter, we've found the wealth of STEM tools available in Python to be a huge boon. We (I work for an ed-tech non-profit startup) usually teach students some programming, and then have them start building models (physics simulations) or interacting with existing toolkits (such as, recently, the Rosetta protein modeling suite). These tools act as a forcing function for real-world relevance, and allow for direct intuition building over rote memorization. More effective, and much more engaging. To address your comment: VR (and IMHO, AR) look to have a lot of potential in the future, though they are still in their infancy. I think there's a lot of potential for the humanities to provide more immersive experiences of places and time periods. (Re humanities, simulations also work quite well. Mock trials, political re-enactments, etc. There's a reason simulation games are so popular...) [0] https://explorabl.es/ https://explorabl.es/ [1] https://www.earthprimer.com/ https://www.earthprimer.com/ [2] https://rosettacommons.org/ https://rosettacommons.org/
• M5x7wI3CmbEem10 6y ago
  could’ve renamed “of the People” to something in Latin to make it sound more legitimate. University of Populi Homines University
• elil17 6y ago
  Reading the comments in this thread, it seems like there is a real need for a version of this that focuses on being more rigorous and achieving regional accreditation.
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    I wish the school were more rigorous, but they are working towards regional accreditation. It takes time, unfortunately (or fortunately?).
    • elil17 6y ago
      I want to clarify, I’m not at all saying that UoP isn’t rigorous enough for what it is. While it may look like a cake walk to some HN readers, I’d guess that the curriculum poses a significant challenge and a real opportunity to learn for most people. If this is the low cost, online version of a average public university, I think there should also be a low cost, online version of a “top-tier” school.
      • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
        No worries. I didn't take it negatively. I would prefer a more rigorous program, but for what I pay I accept it for what it is. And you're right that many of the students struggle with even the basic courses, and there's very little in the way of support for them. Then again, that tends to be the nature of online education in general. I don't know of any low cost "top tier" bachelor's programs, but I do know the University of Texas Austin and Georgia Tech both offer online master's for ~$10k. As I understand the programs, they're supposed to be more for students who didn't major in CS in their undergrad though. I actually find some of the coursework in the Tech program interesting like Computational Photography.
• mrfusion 6y ago
  How is this possible?
• phaus 6y ago
  There are different types of accreditation for schools. Generally speaking, if you are in the US and want minimal risk in terms of transferability, you want to attend a school that has been accredited by one of several regional authorities. National accreditation is different and for purposes of credit transferability in the US, it is considered inferior to regional accreditation. The University of the People applied for regional accreditation in 2020. They are not regionally accredited yet. The process can take years. Note: Good schools can lack accreditation and bad schools can get the most prestigious accreditations. Another note: There are schools that set up accrediting organizations to, surprise, accredit their own schools. Edit: I think this is the list of legitimate regional accrediting organizations: https://www.chea.org/regional-accrediting-organizations https://www.chea.org/regional-accrediting-organizations
• yters 6y ago
  A university's selling point to an employer is their degree ensures a student knows the material and can reason about it. That is the practical point of academic ethics. If a student cheats, sure they may get a decent job, although their lack of competence will eventually catch up with them. However, what they've done will impact the worth of everyone with a degree. So, getting a degree by cheating is essentially stealing from those who got the degree ethically.
• dvduval 6y ago
  I like the premise and I believe education should be a basic right. Someone should be able to pursue knowledge to the highest level and receive recognition for having done that. Now so often large corporations will not hire someone unless they went to a very expensive school, or at least their chances are much lower. So I like the overall idea here and I hope it will grow in strength
• protomyth 6y ago
  Am I reading this correctly that they are nationally accredited but have not gone through one of the regionals?
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    Yes. They announced about a month or two ago that they received permission from WASC, a regional accrediting agency, to start the accreditation process.
• jki275 6y ago
  Nationally accredited. Not regionally accredited. Hence useless for academic purposes.
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    Not true. There are schools which will consider nationally accredited degrees for admissions into graduate schools. Even the University of Chicago will consider them. However, it's potential utilization is much, much more diminished compared to a no-name state school. This might change when (if) they acquire regional accreditation, but they've only just started the process. Thus, it could take upwards of 5 years.
    • jki275 6y ago
      Not really. It's a story that nationally accredited schools like to tell, but it's not really true. Regionally accredited schools simply don't take credits from schools that aren't.
      • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
        I know several students who've transferred to WGU (RA, non-profit, online) to complete their bachelors degrees. There are also students compiling lists of schools which will consider and/or accept UoPeople credits/degrees. https://www.reddit.com/r/UoPeople/comments/g55smv/list_of_international_universities_accepting/ https://www.reddit.com/r/UoPeople/comments/g55smv/list_of_in... The idea that UoPeople is some kind of academic dead-end is simply not accurate. It's not going to get as far as a degree from a no-name state uni on its own, but it can definitely be leveraged to further one's goals.
        • jki275 6y ago
          You can certainly get emails that talk about "we'll give you advanced standing" or some such bs, but credits don't actually transfer. You're deluding yourself, as people who go to these dead end institutions often do. You're of course free to do so, but if you think you are actually going to a real university, you're going to be in bad shape. Of course all this ignores the fact that the curriculum isn't adequate. Reddit posts aren't really proof of anything.
• sosilkj 6y ago
  Is there a tuition-free CS masters anywhere?
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    You might find some in European countries. Though, I think they've cut back on a lot of their "free" programs last I remember. However, Georgia Tech and the University of Texas Austin both have online MSCS degrees that come in around $10k.
• mrwnmonm 6y ago
  What does Health Science mean? medicine?, is there any way to study medicine deeply on the internet for an outsider? a programmer for example?
• paulcarroty 6y ago
  Here's the movie with similar idea: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384793/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384793/ :)
• BossingAround 6y ago
  I'm taking this Uni in my free time. I am a full-time at a large IT company, and when I started, I had too much free time. I thought, I don't have a degree, I learned everything myself, let's see what the rigorous side of CS is. Well, UoPeople is both good and bad, as everything in life. On the bad side, some teachers are not only useless, but actively making your experience worse. This is mostly cultural, but teachers coming from Africa and some Asian countries really make you want to stick to the tiniest details of rules and assignments. For example, if you have to write a learning journal (and you will), and the example of an LJ contains entries starting with date such as "DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM", African and some Asian teachers will ask you to correct it from any other format. I found this infuriating. What's more, when I had questions, most often, I got no help from these teachers. Some teachers would be amazing, most teachers would give me a non-helpful question, some would ignore my question outright. I also feel like there's a ton of hoops you have to jump through. An associate CS degree consists of a number of health/philosophy/econ classes that I have zero interest in. This is, again, cultural, as UoP is highly US-centric. If you're coming from other country, you'll realize how many assumptions you had (and how silly the UoP/US system can be). On the good side, however, I do feel like I'm learning a lot. If you really spend time in reading the materials, I have found the exercises in courses quite useful. I'm 100% sure it's not as rigorous as a brick-and-mortar university, no. They will let pass students who have learnt nothing as long as they put in work. But, if you want, you can surprisingly learn a lot. Even after being a number of years in IT (engineering and now architecture), I found something new (especially their Database and other specialized courses are quite good). I haven't done math since high school (my brick-and-mortar degree was not in CS) and some of the math courses were really kicking my ass, which is great. It's also insanely flexible in that it's online. You decide when to do stuff. You decide when to read. There's only deadlines for every week. Other than that, it's up to you. Overall, I think my experience with UoP is quite good, but it takes a very specific mindset. If you're from a poor non-US and non-EU country, I'd say UoP is great for you (provided you can pay for it, since it's still not free). If you're from US or any EU country, UoP degree will have almost zero value in terms of having a degree, but might provide you with a lot of new knowledge. If you're in for the knowledge, I'd say it's nice. If you're in for the degree, I'd say go for Georgia's Tech OMSCS. Feel free to ask any questions if you'd like. I'll be checking replies to this post for a day or two.
• paulmooreparks 6y ago
  This is nitpicky, I'll admit, but I consider it a canary in the coalmine. On the MBA admission requirements page (https://www.uopeople.edu/programs/ba/degrees/master-of-business-administration/admission-requirements/ https://www.uopeople.edu/programs/ba/degrees/master-of-busin...): "As an accredited University, UoPeople has a number of requirements for all potential applicants, to help maintain a strong, intellectual student body. [...] In addition, applicants need to have: " * Be able to demonstrate undergraduate degree completion " * Have English proficiency " * A minimum of two years work experience " * One reference (from an employer/lecturer etc.)" The phrasing of the first two bullet points doesn't agree with the preceding sentence. That's a poor example of English proficiency. If they don't proofread and correct their own admissions page, I'm frankly not too optimistic about the rest of the university.
• 198608_ 6y ago
  PRO HACKERS HELPING PEOPLE +1302-648-5479 (text) Is your partner keeping secrets of lately and you want to know why? you feel your partner is cheating on you? Do you or someone you know have a police or court case and want the case CLEARED and forgotten by us hacking into FBI or government server and wiping off HISTORY of its existence? Did someone steal your money and you want the person found and your money recovered? Do you feel somebody is spying on you or bugging you and you want the person out of your way or exposed? Did you lost or forget password to your Facebook,Instagram,twitter,Gmail,Yahoomail,Hotmail etc and want them recovered? Do you wish to spy on somebody's computer or phone? Did you loose contact with someone(family member or old friend) and wish to know where they are and how to locate them for you all to reconnect? Did you lose a pet(dog,cat etc)and want them found? Are you a student and want your school grades UPGRADED? Do you have depts and want your credit scores cleared? You're welcome to our world. We're professional hackers and can invade devices(phones, emails,whasapp,text messages,Facebook,Instagram etc),hack out information you need and forward to you. Then you will stay happy. +13026485479 (texts only) globalhacker1986@gmail.com
• tanilama 6y ago
  Will employer acknowledge this university? That will be the ultimate test
• BearsAreCool 6y ago
  After seeing a lot of comments here discussing accreditation, I figured it may be beneficial to many readers to know about low cost, more transferrable, options for college credits. I have to stress though, there are lots of a-hole universities so try to find one that is ok with transferring large numbers of credits. You can't get an entire degree from this, but you can get most of the fluff class requirements you don't actually need for your major done. Ordered based on cost. First 3 are online. saylor.org - You only pay the fee for online proctoring. Has a list of roughly 20 total lower level courses that are ACE accredited. Self paced. aleks.com - Like 20 bucks a month and they have some classes at the level of college algebra and precalc ACE accredited. straighterline.com - Self paced, overall better course quality than saylor. Has professor graded writing assignments sometimes. ACE accredited courses. Normally $60 a class with a $99 a month membership fee. To keep costs down sign up and do as many courses as possible in a month. The GED - You can get up to 10 college credits by doing well on the GED. Not online sadly, requires a testing center. If you have a non-traditional american high school background you probably need one of these to get into a university anyway. CLEP exams - Are very cost efficient at $90 each and allow you to "test out" of many lower and higher level classes. Not online, requires. testing center.
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    I'll append a few more. Sophia Learning is currently offering their courses for free through July. They are ACE "accredited" (recommend is actually the proper term, I believe). I think they're normally ~$300-350. There are several of us students doing courses there to transfer in. Study.com offers many courses in CS and other areas which are ACE recommended. They charge $199 a month and an exam fee. If I recall correctly, you get so many exams in the monthly fee. AP exams are another option. DSST offers credit by exams. And Excelsior College offers credit by exam as well, but I'm not sure of the costs.
• hnkramd 6y ago
  Hello to HN in general and those who know more about the University of the People. I have a question... I've been a Web Developer for 7+ years. I'm in my mid-30's. I never graduated college, and definitely went for the wrong reasons. I'm fully employed, but I've always wanted to land an engineering degree (software engineering most likely), and I'm wondering if this University would be a good option. I know little about it, but it seems like some of you know much more. Can anyone comment on if this would be a good fit for me for a college run in my mid-30's?
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    It really depends on your goals. If you're simply wanting to complete a degree or learn more about the field (like myself) then it's a great opportunity. If you're looking to pursue pure CS research, it might be better to go elsewhere. There are plenty of students around your age range. There are plenty who attend school full-time (2 courses per 8-week term) while also working full-time. Some are also raising families in the process. So, definitely feasible. If you have more specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them.
• syats 6y ago
  "tuition-free" is a misrepresentation of USD 4K for an undergrad degree. That might seem cheap for US (does it? really? compared to community college for example?), but it's crazy expensive for most "people" out there.
  • bootlooped 6y ago
    $4K is cheap for the US, even for just an Associate's degree from a community college. I want to say my undergrad tuition was around $4k per semester (before grants and aid), and this was from a relatively cheap university.
  • ineedasername 6y ago
    Yes, it's still cheap compared to a community college, which generally average an yearly tuition of around $4,000 to $5,000 per yeah, and that only for the first two years, after which you have to progress to a 4-year school to finish your degree at more than twice that price.
• ineedasername 6y ago
  This school is not a regionally accredited school, and therefore the vast majority of other schools will not accepted their credit if you decide to transfer somewhere else or use the degree you earned to try & get into a graduate degree program. It is borderline fraudulent for schools like this to operate without being very clear on the limits of the credits earned and their portability.
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    I don't know about borderline fraudulent, but I really wish there were better explanations by the school. I already knew what I was getting into when I started because I've been in and around academia for more than 2 decades. However, many of the students don't understand the intricacies of American higher ed. And they can be hard to explain to current and prospective students who just want to know if the degree will help them get a job or obtain some other goal in life. That said, if I am not mistaken there are rules about to go into place at the US Department of Education which is supposed to eliminate the distinction between national and regional accreditation[0]. This should be fun to watch how it plays out. [0] https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/03/17/pros-and-cons-having-regional-accreditors-go-national-opinion https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2020/03/17/pros-and-con...
    • ineedasername 6y ago
      If they're prohibited from treating credits from non-regionally accredited schools differently, then I suspect schools will put into place policies that are not "blanket" policies, but instead policies that dictate individual evaluation of each student, which will turn out to accomplish the same thing. Which really wouldn't be great, but also would filter out a lot of people of questionable academic credentials: regionally accredited schools generally meet some minimum standards, while non-regionally accredited schools are a crap shoot: some are just fine, but many are awful degree mills that don't even grade work beyond assigning an "A" for any submission.
• TheRelic74 6y ago
  Plagiarism is damning in many aspects of life and a critical part in learning the pros and cons of modern society. However without communication we are going nowhere fast. Simply put "Get right in what you know,say,and do in life or be left behind in the idiocy of the ones that are laden in ignorance" the don't give a shit group of people who do nothing but wait for the world to be handed to them on a silver platter. If you don't put your hands on it, trust and believe you will not gain the skills of what you are seeking to further yourself in life. Knowledge is power... Further more if you don't have failure in your life you are not going to learn anything either. Good intentions, everyone has them in order to be able to succeed in life, but some of the worst events in humanity were conducted with the best of intentions. Education and communication is fully important and key to get what you want in life. Without them were just dust in the wind.
• russfink 6y ago
  Are professors paid?
• blablabla123 6y ago
  There is always a negative sentiment towards novel approaches towards University, especially that the degree might not be as useful. At the same time there is the constant complaint that Universities tend teach things that are supposed to be too theoretical for the workplace. (And for practice focussed courses sometimes the curriculum is not as up-to-date as what is done in the workplace.) But since most people actually want to take a job outside of University after studying, this model seems ideal to me. It would literally give more space to traditional Universities, probably make admissions faster, studying cheaper and allow the different models to focus on what they can do best.
• dangus 6y ago
  It’s not regional accreditation, so it’s not real accreditation. For example, the MBA program doesn’t have AACSB accreditation. I don’t want to just be negative here and certainly for the price of free it’s a good resource to receive some kind of education, and ultimately a lot of people shopping for degree programs forget that a big reason to do them is to actually learn things. In that way this is a great resource! But without that regional accreditation, I find the big bold claim of “accredited” to be just about as misleading as the way that for-profit schools throw around the term. Of course, a lot of employers ignore the name of the college and don’t bother with researching its accreditation. I’m sure a lot of people want to just get through HR filters if you can say “bachelors degree” instead of “high school diploma.” Or maybe you need a masters degree to become a manager as a matter of company policy, and the company isn’t picky about the degree. I look at the MBA courses and it looks like the program consists first foundational courses that make up less than half or so of the curriculum of an AACSB accredited MBA. The computer science program does look a little more comprehensive. There are a ton of programs out there online with reasonable costs and more legitimate credentials. Since I was recently looking at MBA programs, I can tell you that public schools like the University of North Dakota, Ball State, Mississippi State, and many others are highly ranked along with a low cost per credit hour. You can jump on the US News online MBA ranking site and filter by credit hour cost. The most expensive thing is your time, and unlike money you can’t get it back, so if it were my own education I would consider cost but also consider whether I come out of the program having wasted time with any of the concerns I stated above. Look at the curriculum and make sure it offers electives that might help you in your desired or current career (for example, a good AACSB business school will have courses on specific industries like Healthcare or IT Operations).
• hbarka 6y ago
  Finishing college honorably demonstrates an ability to finish something having a foundation to be a contributing member to society and in turn the society gives you a certificate to recognize you for it.
• sidcool 6y ago
  There are no advanced or master degree courses
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    Not in CS, but the school offers an MBA and an master's in education.
• delaynomore 6y ago
  Let's be honest about schools like UofP and WGU. They exist to provide a cheap and easy way for experienced professionals to get that piece of paper to bypass a HR checkbox, nothing more. If you are serious about learning, look elsewhere.
  • deadwing0 6y ago
    Is this conjecture or is there some truth to it? Got any reading or sources? Thanks.
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    I somewhat agree. I don't think UoPeople and WGU were individually founded for this purpose. But, I think they were made necessary by cultural forces which necessitate "that piece of paper to bypass an HR checkbox." > If you are serious about learning, look elsewhere. This is unfair though. You can still acquire a decent education through the school. Depending on your goals, it might be better to look elsewhere.
• barillax 6y ago
  Seeing a lot of negative comments here, especially around accreditation and pricing. As a co-founder of an accredited online university, son of a retired state university professor father, and grandson of a retired state university professor grandmother, I'd like to offer my own perspective. University of the People is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC), a national accreditor recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). CHEA recognized accreditors can be browsed here: https://www.chea.org/chea-recognized-organizations https://www.chea.org/chea-recognized-organizations DEAC is a US-based, non-profit accreditation agency founded in 1926. Our university (quantic.edu) was also accredited by DEAC. It was a multi-year process, and extremely rigorous; we were evaluated across all aspects of our organization: academic, operational, financial, etc. Many schools that begin the accreditation process do not successfully complete it. As the name suggests, DEAC specializes in distance education, so it's a good choice for a university that offers purely online programs. Some accreditors have requirements that implicitly or explicitly exclude online universities; for example, there might be a requirement for a physical library of a certain size. Regional accreditation also often takes longer, or requires you to have been in operation for more years. However, when comparing notes with my retired academic family members, there were similarities in the required documentation for DEAC to what was needed in the regional accreditation renewal process. A prerequisite for accreditation in the US is licensing at the state level and compliance with all state laws within which the university has a physical presence. This means that you need to be very careful about where your school has physical offices and from which states you advertise and enroll students. Note that licensing is also required for issuing certificates, not just degrees; this is a common mistake for education startups, especially bootcamps. Lambda School [1] and Flatiron [2] were both slapped for this. The differences between regional and national accreditation often boil down to "regional accreditation means credits are more likely to transfer." However, one thing that's thrown a huge wrench into this is that in 2019, the US Department of Education revised its rules to eliminate the distinction between national and regional accreditors! [3] This rule change will take effect in July 2020. The impact of this (and related) rule changes on credit transfer and how universities market their accreditation are open to speculation. Regarding the University of People's pricing, it's important to note that they advertise as "tuition free." Terms like tuition have a very specific meaning in the world of higher education, and are considered distinct from "fees," for example. This is why UofP does not market itself as simply being "free," like we do for our early career MBA program. To use the word "free" unconditionally, DEAC requires us to prove our early career MBA students can apply, enroll, study, and graduate having paid no tuition or fees whatsoever. On the other hand, if you do charge for tuition, like we do for our Executive MBA, DEAC requires you to disclose all payment details up-front; this is why almost anywhere on our website where we reference a price, or even affordability, we also include a link to display a breakdown of tuition, payment plans, scholarships, discounts, and other potential fees. The higher education space is very regulated, so innovation can be challenging. It's important to remember that most innovative organizations have to (at least initially) make tradeoffs to better serve a subset of the market over incumbents. Our raison d'etre is active learning, for example; we eschew passive lectures (no video professor) in favor of a proprietary interactive learning format that's mobile-first and broken up into small modules. This has numerous advantages for the learner, but it also means that our bespoke curriculum structure can't be easily packaged up into transfer credits. As a graduate school, we decided that was a reasonable tradeoff to enable innovation in the core learning experience. Likewise, we decided to pursue a quality-first strategy (see: Tesla master plan), building a deep, challenging curriculum with a selective admissions process (less than 10% admitted) to establish the value of the school and alumni network, with the plan to launch more open programs down the line. If you've read this far, I hope that you at least take away the fact that building something new in the higher education space is hard. If some aspect of a program appears odd at first glance, consider if the diversion from the norm might also confer an advantage with a specific audience. And when evaluating educational program options, don't discount the value of a licensed and accredited provider recognized by the US Department of Education or CHEA. [1] https://www.educationdive.com/news/running-without-state-approval-lambda-school-shows-challenge-of-regulating/570906/ https://www.educationdive.com/news/running-without-state-app... [2] https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2017/ag-schneiderman-announces-375000-settlement-flatiron-computer-coding-school#:~:text=A.G.%20Schneiderman%20Announces%20%24375%2C000%20Settlement%20With%20Flatiron%20Computer%20Coding%20School,Its%20Employment%20And%20Salary%20Claims&text=NEW%20YORK%2D%2DAttorney%20General,settlement%20with%20Flatiron%20School%2C%20Inc https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2017/ag-schneiderman-announc.... [3] https://www.natlawreview.com/article/us-department-education-issues-final-rule-to-revise-accreditation-and-state https://www.natlawreview.com/article/us-department-education... [EDIT: some sentences tweaked for clarity]
• Seunemanuel 6y ago
  In all fairness, UoPeople has afforded me the opportunity to get an American education that is accredited and also transferable to other regular universities without leaving my home country. The most interesting part is the numerous scholarships available can be easily accessed regardless of wherever you might come from.
  • smoyer 6y ago
    Why do you need scholarships for a free university?
    • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
      The school is not free. It's tuition-free.
• Seunemanuel 6y ago
  The university gave me the opportunity to realize my dream of an American education without leaving my home country. There are also numerous financial aid available to all seeking and deserving students.
• efeoja 6y ago
  Uopeople is the best that has ever happened to me as a person . At the institution , I am exposed to quality education and highly qualified instructors whose tutoring has affected me positively bringing about academic excellence . The institution's curriculum is up to date . I have no regret studying at the University.
• Michelleb2 6y ago
  I go to this school and as long as you're really smart and can teach yourself the material without an actual class it's great. Low cost and you learn a ton.
• martinsana 6y ago
  I am a student at this University. This is what has saved my life in the last 2 years. I have an associate's degree now, a way to gain money and a lot of knowledge. I thank to this opportunity at UoPeople and I think it is all worth it.
• poma88 6y ago
  Great initiative!! I wanted to volunteer, but they only accept if you can teach in two semesters per year or 15h per week. I am a researcher and I find it is too much! Once per year and then 5 h per week is the maximum I am able for a usual paid course in top 200 university, sorry.
• JD-001 6y ago
  Hi, I recall my first day at UoPeople, was like a small paradise. The module was exceptional, not until I met realism in form Plagiarism and bias peers it was a knock down. Some Professors are a bit unkind without understanding the background and nature of some student. It's treating all animals the same way without considering their innocence, size, situation and intention. Howbeit, I 'have enjoyed the company and experience with good and positive professors and students. Thank you for raising the bars of education and professionalism
• Michelleb2 6y ago
  I attend this school now and as long as you are smart and can teach yourself it is a good school. You pay practically nothing and you get what you put into it. If you want to take the subjects the instructor gives you and master them all you can, if you just want to learn the minimum to pass the class, that is your option to do so too. This school really is what you make of it.
• 38530706 6y ago
  hi everyone. since i attend this achool and i accepted the admision.the first topic that i registering in the first terms it is psychoogy and online stratagy i have learn how i discusion in student portal,and also i learning the method of education how i prepare for study amd how prepare gor the exams. and meet the sevaral people in others country. my expiriance is writing and read and how the controll my self.
• Chan2423 6y ago
  Uopeople has in many ways made my life easier, physically i am glad to say that Uopeople has been my final alternative when nothing else felt available enough for me. Im financially relieved knowing that my sholarship will carry me through my educational journey at Uopeople. When i first heard that Tuition-free doesnt mean what i probably thought it meant. It did stress me out abit ,or for little longer as my admission process was pending. I wanted to opt out because even the small amount of registration fee was alot for me. But it became the least of my worries when i attempted to apply for their suggested sholarship,not the first try but the second try i was made known that i can actually rely on Uopeople with access to a scholarship, i can complete what i started. Thus far, ive had a ball of a first semester and i really enjoyed it. The future definitely dont look impossible for me with Uopeople by my side. Thank you.
• doha1_Edrees 6y ago
  Because of my special circumstances and the war in my country, I could not enroll in any university, when I heard about our university I felt joy and hope, and finally, I can study, now the study is. My opportunity and my dream of the People's University are among the best options that I have chosen in my life. It gave me hope and strength, it is distinguished With a very organized and beautiful learning system, I advise everyone to register! It is your best choice.
• kahlanf 6y ago
  My experience at UoPeople has been nothing but a positive experience. The tuition-free aspect is the whole reason I could even go to a college. I am so grateful for this opportunity and even admire the diversity this higher-education opportunity brings, I have met the BEST people and honestly the best professors.
• Illesam 6y ago
  Hello. I have just completed my first term with UoPeople. For me, it's been a blessing to be able to pursue a higher education from home and on my own schedule, without the financial commitment that other institutes have. My purpose for getting a degree is to A.) Have a degree, and B.) Have the competitive advantage over others in my field. Many employers these days want 2 things from employees: a degree and experience. I've already gone off into the world, worked for a few years, and started a family. Now it's time I complete my resume by getting a higher education. Specifically with UoPeople, the educational method here is much different than what I've experienced before. Peer assessment has it's ups and downs. The fact that we are headed by peers (on written assignments) I think is an effective when done right. I'm an English teacher and I've started implementing it with my intermediate students. Only time will tell how the rest of my path goes. For now, it's a good solution to my situation and I plan on taking advantage of it.
• mazly 6y ago
  This school saved my life in more ways than I can relate. It is like any other school, where students copy paste and struggle with plagiarism, so if you think that there is a college without these, you are so wrong. The only issue here is the accreditation and how limited the transfer places are for now. I hope they work on this.
• kinzabatool12 6y ago
  hello to all, I have found this amazing university where I can learn whenever I want and whatever I want to study. I never have the liberty to study on my availability but know I can and I am very happy about that. I would like to that UOP for being there for me and so many people to provide quality education.
• Tung_Ng 6y ago
  In this kind of time, i believe online study is the way to go. It takes self-motivation to study on a computer in the comfort of your home with lots of distraction. What is there to against a revolution that serves a great purpose of demolish education shortage in different parts of the world. I personally enjoy the flexibility the school gives me so i can be partly working or traveling.
• zino_isawhe 6y ago
  I think plagiarism cannot be completely avoided since there's nothing new under the sun. Tha challenge becomes how to present an already existing idea in a new way
• zino_isawhe 6y ago
  UoPeople has given me a really amazing experience so far, I don't regret signing up with them and I would absolutely stick with them
• S111663 6y ago
  My experience at UoPeople has been great both in education and culture. Truth be told, I want to say that in my case, with my associate in computer science from UoPeople, back in my country it is considered to be of higher standard. And this is not because the standard of universities in my country is low but I think that it is because my performance and know-how in my present company has improved tremendously, and in all the other companies I applied for a job,from my performance in the evaluation, they consider me to be over qualified for them to pay me and they make reference to the school I studied which is UoPeople. And that is how I got to share with them and many others about UoPeople. that is my little experience for now. Thanks....
• uopeopleabby 6y ago
  The University of the People is an innovative school where you can meet and talk to students from all over the world. The faculty is of high caliber as well.
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    I wouldn't called the school "innovative." It's fairly unique in higher ed, but definitely not innovative. The pedagogical approaches it uses have been around for decades in most cases. And the faculty can be hit-or-miss. Some are awesome, some of okay. A few are just awful. Personally, I had an instructor for Java who had difficulty managing different JDKs one a single machine. If I, as a student new to Java, can figure it out, I absolutely expect my instructor to know how to do so. Granted, this particular instructor was a "standout" in the negative sense. Most have been okay. Fortunately, instructors are mostly inconsequential as there's very little interaction with them.
• S178226 6y ago
  I am really happy to be a student of UoPeople which is one of the world highly rated tuision free online University. The school has helped me to overcome my problem of time management and communication at work place has improved. However, I am glad that it has given me an opportunity of having my degree certificate in the future. Being a student at UoPeople requires internal motivation and patience because the workload is much.
  • S178226 6y ago
    I almost lost interest with the school but I was motivated by my supervisor through her constant messages and quick response that made the university processes easier for me.
• nadinelynch2600 6y ago
  my experience so far has been nothing but pleasant, great quality content in their courses (majors), I'm currently in my first years in my third term in June, i have learned about python like I haven't gone into the programming in any depth before, I joined uopeople in a computer science degree (BSc). plagiarism is a big NO in this wonderful university and so is creating. more about me, I am Nadine lynch, and I am south African.
  • uopeoplestudent 6y ago
    Was this thread posted on Yammer or in a WhatsApp group?
• myriamlohier 6y ago
  I am a proud MBA student of UOP. As I am currently living in the US, transferability of courses credits doesn't apply to me. I am enjoying the Tuition free and have already made arrangement with a Public University in Florida for a PhD in Public Administration. One of my short-term goals is to help the community where I am living now and my home country with this degree. Uopeople might not be accepted yet in other regions but I heard that they are working on it. When you want to help, you can get the most out of "a little". Uopeple degree helps you make that happen!
• Grace_Wendy 6y ago
  My first experience with a tertiary institution and I could not have a better institution than UoPeople
• Nduna 6y ago
  I've had a wonderful experience at the Uopeople. Meeting different people with diversified cultural views and knowledge. Great and more hands on course instructors and program adviser. Am pleased with the course content and study materials.
• abdeslamazzoun 6y ago
  University of the people is an online university I joined it about a year ago and found a great level of professors in it and in the way of presenting the courses and weekly assignments as well. I got to know a lot of friends also from all countries of the world and forge a friendship with them I also studied with professors at a very high level and helped me to improve my level in programming and computer science in general because I study this specialization in it. Cultural diversity is a lot found in the University of the people of the best things in it Really, it is a very special experience and worth sharing.
• HajarLamdichi 6y ago
  I just started studying at the University of the People. but I gained a little bit of experience. It gives the opportunity to get to know people from around the world, we are still in the lockdown, all studies stopped but luckily I still can study and do my homework and do my exam in my house totally safe, plus my instructor is so kind and so helpful and full of information I would never regret studying at the University of the people.
• AlvesCla 6y ago
  University of the People is changing the way we see education. Firtsly, it is showing that education is freedom and hence it should not be the privilege of a few. It is also showing that the traditional educational system is outdated and needs to be rethought and reformulated into something that fits the needs of the modern world.
• faithful007 6y ago
  I'm a student from Nigeria, and I'd say UoPeople educational system is something I really enjoy. The peer-to-peer system is quite nice, and is primarily meant for learning and not grading as the instructor goes through the grades and re-awards unfair grades. The communication and the instructor-student relationship for me, is commendable. They also embrace self learning which is even more effective when done properly. Even if there are lapses, they'll get better with time.
• foligeorge 6y ago
  I can confidently say that, UoPeople has really helped me a lot in so many ways. Before, I did not understand what academic integrity was but with the help of the online education strategy that I took, has given me an indept understanding of why you need to provide a source. Time management was a problem for me because I did not have the knowledge of how to manage my time effectively. I have also come to understand different cultures from different countries. I have also made some friends through this school. To me, this school is a life changer.
• Ali5005 6y ago
  My experiment with university of the people is very well, I think it's good idea, online learning.
• Babylen2 6y ago
  My experience at UoPeople has been great. The courses are up to date and relevant in today's world. I remembered when my friend who is also studying Business Administration at a local university in my country looked at my school notes, she was surprised at how she did not know most of the things I had learned. This showed me that UoPeople offers quality education while there are still universities offering students outdated information.
• dbdb 6y ago
  Sometimes I read some heated comments / discussions on online degree programs. Is it good? Is it better or worse than traditional education? The answer is very simple: it depends on the student! I am a student at UoPeople. I’m already in my early 40s and I earned my bachelor degree in business roughly 20 years ago. I’ve built a solid and international professional career and I am a new father. I really wanted to pursue a new degree in computer science and I am so glad that I found UoPeople. It suited me perfectly. I have to say, though, that online education is not for everyone. It requires a few qualities that not everyone has (or wants to develop): discipline and self-motivation. UoPeople is excellent in my opinion, and from my perspective. It is an accredited American university that has academic partnerships with some of the most prestigious universities on the planet. It is tuition free. It allows students to have a flexible schedule. It sounded just like music to my ears. If you are a curious self-motivated person that is willing to accept the level of discipline that such commitment requires, I have to say: you will have a rewarding experience.
• Bellomylove 6y ago
  I have nothing to say accept thank you Uopeople for everything you've gave an oxygen
• dryaks 6y ago
  Im happy to be a student of uopeople cos I get quality education and for far less!! Looking forward to my uopeople diploma.
• sundayadabahi 6y ago
  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.
• dryaks 6y ago
  Im happy to be a student of uopeople cos I get quality education and for far less!! Looking forward to my uopeople diploma. To be honest the school is very smooth and convenient
• lcall 6y ago
  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 http://lukecall.net/e-9223372036854578440.html . And: https://www.wgu.edu/ 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.
• martinsana 6y ago
  I am a student from UoPeople, I recently graduated from the associates degree in computer science. I am working on a good portfolio to present to employers! Thank you UoPeople for all your help! =)
• 38530706 6y ago
  hi, the first day when i attepted the apply the uopeople is im so afraid becaurse they many university online which is non accredited in the world,but when i recognized the uopeople is accredited im try to fill the application then im locky to get this university.becaurse is higher education in the world.im totally changing my life becaurse of uopeople. as now im expiriance too in my feild at uopeople. im happy to get uopeople in my life. and also thank to my programme advisor,which is farhanaz.
• kahlanf 6y ago
  My name is Kahlan, I am an ambassador and student for the university of the people. I have had nothing but a positive experience there as well as have been fortunate enough to receive a scholarship. The quality of education is fantastic, the professors and peers are so respectful and friendly, and I never thought I would even be able to attend a college due to lack of flexible time as well as finances. I feel so lucky to be apart of and to have found this wonderful university.
• 38530706 6y ago
  hi,good day all. i am sadiq abubakar idriss from nigeria. i am so glad to be student at prestegious univrsity. i love uopeople becaurse my life has change and also i meet the peoples around the worlds becaurse of university. i have get many expiriance at univrsity. additionally the reason why i always love this univrsity is free education،accrediation online american university,schollership are availble. concern to much about the complain of the student. thank all.
• AlvesCla 6y ago
  University of the People is changing the way we face our educational system. Firstly, it is showing that education is freedom and hence it should not be the privilege of a few, but rather something anyone can have access to. Secondly, it is showing that the traditional educational system is outdated to keep up with nowadays worlds demands and we need to come up with something new!
• foligeorge 6y ago
  UoPeople has given me an opportunity that the universities here in my country would never have given me. I really appreciate it in the sense that students are given the opportunity to assess their peers. I have really picked a lot of ideas from assessing my peers most of the time. I can also confidently say that I have gotten the opportunity to meet new friends from different countries, which has given me the idea of how they also relate to issues or how they approach things in general.
  • dryaks 6y ago
    Hello how did u send the link
• dryaks 6y ago
  University of the people is giving opportunities for people who previously were not able to secure admission into college. I am a medical doctor currently pursuing a bachelors in community health and i must admit the institution is up to date and top notch!
• AlvesCla 6y ago
  University of the People is changing the way we face our educational system. Firstly by showing that education is freedom and should not be the privilege of a few. Secondly, by showing that the traditional educational model is outdated and not enough to keep up with the changes of modern world. It is accredited and I saw some people saying the level is very basic. Well, it might seem like that, but it really gives one the basics they need for a given degree. In today´s world it is impossible to expect to learn everything in the class. It is more important to know how to filter and deal with the astonishing amount of information we can get in a safe, critic and ethical way.