Free BA by mooc

Amity.edu an accredited and respected uni is offering a free BA by mooc. There must be catch. It seems to good to be true.
Amity MOOC

 

This is from June, 2015: Amity MOOCs : Tution Free Degree & Certificate Programs

 

From the article, – "Indian students have to pay INR250 per paper while international students need to pay USD 5 per paper."

 

"per paper" not being explained. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled papers, for how many papers would Peter Piper pay?

A quick look at student reviews revealed some dissatisfaction with the school.

 

Well, the reviews I saw were for attended courses and not distance ed.

This is India so behind every "Good morning" is the specter of the caste system.

Some grumbling about the quality of education. More about costs, about the school being for wealthier students.

 

Five dollars per course is close enough to zero dollars for me to consider it to be free. However, we know that zero tuition does not mean zero cost. What about the fees?

 

It should be noted that this is a 3-year Bachelors. That could impact the equivalency for non-India based student.s

 

That British occupation had its pros and cons.

 

From the site:

"No, there are no registration fees. You can study completely, Tuition free."

Well, I'll be.... let's see if they confirm that.

J.

 

Division of Amity University. Amity has UGC affiliation, which is good.

They also have more options (not MOOC or free) at : Best Business School | Distance Education Universities for MBA - Amity University Online. Their tuition used to be low when I last checked, but it has shot up now. $10,000 is not worth imo.

 

Hmm... if it is grade A india university and the degree is at least 1st division, than WES will evaluate it as US undergrad degrees.

Source: http://www.wes.org/educators/pdf/indiapolicypacket.pdf

Your question prompt me to check my IGNOU MBA degree. The above documents specify IGNOU as "There are currently 10 Open Universities in India: Indira Gandhi National Open University (also considered a Central University (IGNOU)) and nine State Open Universities. Headquartered in Delhi, IGNOU was established in 1985 and offers a broad range of programs from certificate to master’s level in both the academic and professional tracks. IGNOU is responsible for coordinating and monitoring distance education throughout India. ".

A quick check with google support that with (Canada equivalency, also use WES in their immigration process): http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/anyone-with-a-3-yr-graduation-degree-assessed-by-wes-as-canadian-bachelors-t322770.0.html (see Kaiza 's answer).

Hence, I think have to check the grading of the university and ensure the degree is in 1st Division range. Meeting these two criterias should be able to qualify for US equivalence undergrad degree.

 

Some countries the A levels are considered first year university level credit.
So when a person earns Bologna 3 year Bachelors degree it still considered equal to US 4 year Bachelor degree.

 

There may be cases where that is true but if you earn a 3 year BA within te Commonwealth system and then apply to grad school within the Commonwealth system you can reasonably expect them to ask you to complete that fourth, Honors year prior to grad school.

 

In a real case my 3-year degree was twice evaluated as a eqivalent to a U.S bachelor. I went on to earned 2 masters from fairly decent universities.

 

Yeah, this doesn't surprise me and I think I've heard similar stories from others. That's why I specified within the Commonwealth system.