University of the People

= a project still

Description

From the IHT:

"An Israeli entrepreneur with decades of experience in international education plans to start the first global, tuition-free Internet university, a nonprofit venture he has named the University of the People.

"The idea is to take social networking and apply it to academia," said Shai Reshef, an entrepreneur and founder of several previous Internet-based educational businesses. "The open source courseware is there, from universities that have put their courses online, available to the public, free. We know that online peer-to-peer teaching works. Putting it all together, we can make a free university for students all over the world, anyone who speaks English and has an Internet connection."

The University of the People, like other Internet-based universities, would have online study communities, weekly discussion topics, homework assignments and exams. But in lieu of tuition, students would pay only nominal fees for enrollment ($15 to $50) and for exams ($10 to $100), with students from poorer countries paying the lower fees.

Reshef said his new university would use active and retired professors - some paid, some volunteers - along with librarians, master-level students and other professionals to develop and evaluate curriculum, and oversee assessments."

He plans to start small, capping enrollment at 300 students when the university begins in the autumn, and at first offering only bachelor's degrees in business administration and computer science. Reshef said the university would apply for accreditation as soon as possible.

Reshef said he hoped to build enrollment to 10,000 over five years, the level at which he said the enterprise should be self-sustaining. Start-up costs would be about $5 million, Reshef said, of which he planned to provide $1 million. He said he was currently trying to raise the other $4 million." (http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/25/technology/university.4-415520.php)