University of the People Launches MBA Program

tribilin80,

I am an undergraduate Business Admin student, so I can't tell you specifically regarding the MBA courses (sorry).

SteveFoerster,

I've also been thinking about the whole DEAC ordeal and what it could mean for the future of UoPeople. I've asked UoPeople what their thoughts and concerns are regarding the issue but have not heard back yet. I will pass on what I find out. I spoke with another student earlier today about the situation who said he had read somewhere that UoPeople was seeking regional accreditation anyway, but I have not been able to validate that information for myself. I would assume should this case affect UoPeople that they would seek accreditation else where anyway. But who knows, Hopefully they figure something out, because they are helping a lot of people that have it even worse off than me financially.

 

This story that is unfolding regarding WLC and DEAC may be an ordeal for WLC but I'm not sure that it's an ordeal for DEAC. They have a legal team. They will map out the options, the pros and cons, and in all likelihood there will be a settlement. There is no reason to believe that DEAC is mortally threatened by this. Organizations are sued all the time. Maybe someone will lose their job but the organization will continue, perhaps with some changes.

 

It's not just the lawsuit (which could take them down not simply because of whatever court decision happens in that case, but because of the hammer that could be dropped if they are found to be violating federal law), there is also the public urging from respected scholars to have their charter cut.

I've always been a big supporter of the DEAC and I really liked where they were going over the past few years, but they are in deep doo-doo right now.

 

Hi.I am following closely the UoPeople the past 3-4 years and I must say that especially the last year it seems it has gained some serious traction mostly due to its MBA program.They have also recently (last week) started doing credit transfers and their student body is 7600.Not bad!

Do you think that UoPeople will be the next big thing in online education?I mean it is so cheap ,accredited and there is huge interest internationally for online education

 

If they were going to develop a new degree program, what would you most like to see?

 

I would love if they could pull off a psychology degree or a psychology masters even but i am not sure if that will be helpful for people who aim to become licensed in the US.I reckon the US licensing system is very different in each state

 

A PhD in History

 

From their catalog, it will cost an estimated 4060USD for their business or computer science bachelor's degree. That makes it less of a bargain than expected.

 

That's been the UOTP Bachelor's cost from Day 1 - zero tuition, $100 per exam. ~40 exams = ~120 credits = ~$4,000. What were you expecting, anyway? :shock:

J.

 

Freeee!!! Freeee!!!

 

Well, here are 20 free ones, then. Good luck. 20 Tuition-Free Colleges - Affordable Schools

J.

 

Almost all 20 of those require students to work some set number of hours on campus each work.

CUNY doesn't, but it's only for in-state locals, and they require some other things like campus event participation, demonstrated financial need, and doing a set number of community service hours. That CUNY program also allows only first-time freshman with no college experience at all before, and they must be a local resident on top of having never taken any college classes. So, that eliminates 99.9% of people.

Not applicable to online students at all, or truly "free" since you have to have a part-time job on campus, but a huge value for traditional students willing to work on-campus each week for free tuition.

I had sent that list to all the teenage traditional students we interact with who were willing to relocate and work on campus in exchange for tuition. Quite a bargain for traditional learners on-campus. Unbelievable bargain, really.

 

I know. Awful, isn't it? :smile:

No free lunch or (truly) free degrees. A lot of European tuition-free programs have dried up, too, at least as far as foreign students are concerned. I have heard of US students entering German on-campus tuition-free programs, but usually with some connection to the country - dual citizenship, EU-member citizenship or such. They still have living costs, of course. A popular tuition-free Swedish MBA program is now $15,000 for foreigners. "Free" has pretty well dried up.

Cheap or "strings attached" is as good as it usually gets. I'm OK with cheap. Not good with "strings" but that's just me.

J.

 

One German state (Baden-Würtemberg, just north of Switzerland) has ended tuition-free programs for non-EU students, with the exception of Switzerland, Norway and Iceland, but the other 15 states still offer it.

I think the real reason why only Americans with some connection to Germany take advantage of it is the American high school diploma. German universities sometimes do not recognise an US high school diploma. It's always a case by case decision. You have to choose the right courses in high school, and I'm sure only people with some connection to Germany know that.

Oh, and tuition-free doesn't mean free. There is always a semester registration fee between 80 and 350 Euro, depending on the school. Of course that's almost free, compared to the US. But UofP is a distance learning school, and tuition-free distance learning degrees do not exist in Germany. Even at about 4060 US-Dollar: UofP is still cheaper than German online degrees.

 

Yes - And cheaper than pretty well any other bona fide bachelor's degrees - at least in the Western world. Plenty of Big 3 degrees cost grads that and more.
$4,060 is roughly equivalent to paying $400 when I graduated from high school (1960). And back then, tuition at the local uni was around $460 per year.

I can hardly see UoTP's fee schedule as a disappointment. For a U.S. accredited school, it's revolutionary, disruptive and all that good stuff! And you don't have to work on campus! :smile:

J.

 

If I was interested in earning an MBA (which I'm not) or an IT degree (I've thought about it) then I would probably start my search at UPeople.

 

It's pretty impressive how quickly UoPeople has established themselves and relationships with strong brand name entities.

 

Indeed it is. Says great things about the founder and his team. A superb track record. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shai_Reshef

J.

 

Do you think their recent credit transfers will earn them more students?

 

Yes, I think so, but only a few more. UofP's main target group are people who never had the chance to go to college, either because of money or because of political reasons. (since many UofP students are from countries outside the free world) I think a name change would earn them more students, although that depends on the respective country of origin and political views of these students.