Posted on 02/09/2015 2:18:58 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
I would like to share with you a new model of higher education—a model that, once expanded, can enhance the collective intelligence of millions of creative and motivated individuals who otherwise would be left behind. Look at the world. Pick a place and focus on it. You will find people chasing higher education. Let's meet some of them.
Meet Patrick. Patrick was born in Liberia to a family with twenty children. During the civil war, he and his family were forced to flee to Nigeria. There, in spite of his situation, he graduated from high school with nearly perfect grades. He wanted to continue on to higher education, but since his family lived on the poverty line, he was soon sent to South Africa to work and send money back to feed his family. Yet Patrick never gave up on his goal of higher education; late at night, after work, he surfed the Internet looking for ways to study.
Meet Debbie. Debbie is from Florida. Her parents didn't go to college, and neither did any of her siblings. Debbie has worked all of her life, pays taxes, supports herself month to month, and is proud of the American dream—a dream that, for her, won't be complete without higher education. But Debbie didn't have the savings for higher education. She couldn't pay the tuition. Neither could she leave work.
Meet Wael. Wael is from Syria. He is experiencing firsthand the misery, fear, and failure imposed on his country. A big believer in education, he knew that if he could find an opportunity for higher education, an opportunity to get ahead of the rest, he would have a better chance to survive in a world turned upside down.
Unfortunately, the current higher education system failed Patrick, Debbie, and Wael, exactly as it is failing millions of other potential students—millions who graduate from high school, millions who are qualified for higher education, millions who want to study yet cannot access higher education for various reasons.
The first reason is financial. Colleges and universities are expensive. We all know it. In large parts of the world, higher education is unattainable for the average citizen. This is probably the biggest problem facing our society. Higher education is not a right for all but is, rather, a privilege for the few. The second reason is cultural. Many students who are qualified for and can afford higher education, who want to study, often cannot because higher education is not a "decent" place for a woman. This is the story for countless African women, for example, who are prevented from higher education because of cultural barriers. And the third reason? UNESCO has stated that by 2025, 100 million students will be deprived of higher education simply because there will not be enough seats to accommodate them, to meet the demand.1 They will take a placement test, they will pass the test, but they still won't have access because there are no places available.
These are the reasons I founded University of the People, a nonprofit, tuition-free, degree-granting university: to create an alternative for those who have no other—an alternative that will be affordable and scalable and one that will disrupt the current educational system and open the gates to higher education for all qualified students regardless of what they earn, where they live, or what society says about them. Patrick, Debbie, and Wael are only three examples out of the 1,700 students, from 143 countries, who have been accepted to study at University of the People.
We didn't need to reinvent the wheel. We just looked at what wasn't working and used the amazing power of the Internet to get around the problems. We set out to build a model that will cut out, almost entirely, the cost of higher education.
First, brick-and-mortar institutions have expenses that virtual universities do not. So we don't need to pass these expenses on to our students. We also don't need to worry about capacity. There are no limits on the number of seats in a virtual university: nobody needs to stand at the back of the lecture hall. In addition, through the use of open educational resources and through the generosity of professors who are willing to make their materials accessible and available for free, our students do not need to buy textbooks. Even professors, the most expensive line in any university balance sheet, come free to our students. More than 3,000 higher education professionals—including presidents, vice chancellors, and academic advisors from top colleges and universities such as NYU, Yale, Berkeley, and Oxford—are on-board to help our students. Finally, we believe in peer-to-peer learning. We use this sound pedagogical model to encourage our students from all over the world to interact and to study together and also to reduce the time required from professors for class assignments.
If the Internet has created a global village, the University of the People model can develop its future leadership. We offer only two programs: business administration and computer science—the two programs that are most in demand worldwide and the two programs that are likeliest to help our students find a job. When our students are accepted, they are placed in a small classroom of 20 to 30 students to ensure that those who need personalized attention will get it. Moreover, for every course (nine weeks per course), students meet a new peer group, a whole new set of students from all over the world. Every week, when they go into the classroom, they find the lecture notes for the week, the reading assignment, the homework assignment, and the discussion question—all of which form the core of our studies. Every week, each student must contribute to the class discussion and also must comment on the contributions of other students. In this way, we open our students' minds, and we develop a positive shift in attitude toward different cultures. At the end of each week, students take a quiz and hand in their homework, which is assessed by their peers under the supervision of the instructors; they get a grade and move on to the next week. At the end of the course, they take the final exam, receive a grade, and progress to the next course.
Our model has opened the gates to higher education for every qualified student. Any student with a high school diploma, sufficient English-language skills, and an Internet connection can study with us. We don't use audio. We don't use video. Broadband is not necessary. We are tuition-free. The only cost we ask our students to cover is the cost of their final exams: $100 per exam. A full-time bachelor degree student taking 10 courses a year for four years will pay $1,000 per year, $4,000 for the entire degree. For those students who cannot afford even this, we offer a variety of scholarships. It is our mission that no prospective student will be left behind because of financial reasons. If we increase our numbers to 5,000 students by 2016, this model will be financially sustainable.
Five years ago, University of the People was a vision. Today, it is a reality. In February 2014, we were awarded the ultimate academic endorsement of our model: University of the People is now fully accredited. With this accreditation, it is time for us to scale up. We have demonstrated that our model works. I now invite colleges and universities and, even more important, the governments of developing countries to replicate this model to ensure that the gates to higher education will open ever more widely. A new era is coming—an era that will witness the disruption of the current model of higher education, changing the model from one that is a privilege for the few to one that is a basic right, affordable and accessible for all.
Note
1.See ISCED levels 5 & 6, UNESCO Institute of Statistics figures; British Council and IDP Australia projections; Jane Marshall, “UNESCO Debates Uses and Misuses of Rankings,” University World News, no. 172 (May 22, 2011).
This article is based on a transcript of Shai Reshef's talk at TED2014. Published by permission of TED Conferences, LLC.
Only a suggestion, but let’s get to a point of transparency. Let’s pick out one major university in America....force the chancellor to open his books, look at salaries, determine how many hours a week that a $90,000 a year professor works, and look at general operations cost of security, housing, and infrastructure. I think state legislatures would be fairly shocked at the spending levels and gimmicks built into the system.
When you fire a NCAA football coach...what’s the walk-away cost for the university? When you provide housing for some four-star basketball coach....what’s the actual yearly cost? When you bring in some noted professor at a salary of $150,000 a year....what else are you giving the guy in terms of benefits?
Once you understand the big picture....we can start to downsize, and bring a yearly tuition to around $8,000 max. The idea of a university being a minor-league sports complex is one of the ten things that we ought to agree upon and depart with.
When everyone goes to college it’s gonna be damned near impossible to get the peas picked!
No. You will just need a college degree to pick peas. For the engineering jobs and stuff you will need a PhD.
We are already seeing that with the high unemployment. I hire guys out of college (some with M.S.) to do part-time work. The full-time, entry level jobs are going to people with PhD’s and experience. And these are smart, hard-working guys. It is really sad to see them not be able to land good jobs.
I lined one of my guys (MS) up with a more steady part-time job, on the condition that I can use him when I need to. The owner of the company took me aside and was exclaiming all about the kid “smart, hard-worker, needs little instruction, finds things himself to get started on, etc.”
so an Associates or Bachelors will be worth the same as a High School diploma was 20 yrs ago...nice...
IT security and cyber warfare is the big ticket right now - and probably will be into the future...not alot of kids are going into that - and the few people that are - have jobs - well paying jobs - and recruiters have a limited pool of people with degrees and IT security related certificates...the younger generation think that because they can surf the Internet and score high on some war game on their Xbox - they have convinced themselves that are computer savvy...last estimate I saw was like 80,000 IT security positions are open right now and growing...
Our troubles with education and employment are nearly entirely caused by government. Government rules on employment, welfare, education, licensing, permitting and zoning literally create poverty and an ignorant population.
We’re getting disintermediation via the market place. Now we just need to apply it to that most diabolical of middle-men: Government.
That day came and went years ago.
Which is why industry clamors for more H1-Bs.
My mentor in graduate school worked late hours every day. In addition to teaching classes (every professor was required to teach a couple every quarter, but I don't remember how many), he sat on various boards, he reviewed scientific articles submitted for publishing, he had to travel to sit on grant review committees, he testified before Congress on the topic of our lab's research, he traveled overseas on a fact-finding mission, etc. He used to complain that he had so many other things to do that he had no time to actually do any research in the lab.
I saw how busy he was, and decided not to go for a university position. I want to have a life outside of work.
Assume tuition is free. That still leaves student activity fees, registration fees, application fees, book and computer requirements, fees, fees, fees,......
“Once you understand the big picture....we can start to downsize, and bring a yearly tuition to around $8,000 max. The idea of a university being a minor-league sports complex is one of the ten things that we ought to agree upon and depart with.”
The big picture is to send money to supporters and to have a respectable place to repay political employees who have burned themselves in your service. That and keeping the universities as liberal training camps who promote your political and social philosophy by offering fully funded educations in women’s studies or racial inequality, which also lends credence and acceptability to those philosophies.
Incidentally, I agree with you, but think of all the unemployed (at our local university mostly black office workers) if they suddenly had to explain why there are thirty three desk “workers” in an office with no real job. (I used to entertain myself at neighborhood gatherings in my capital city by asking people what their actual job was. They’d usually describe their day...”I answer emails, I make copies...”)
My former workout buddy was a state worker. Governor Jeb Bush outsourced his department to a contractor. All of the former state workers became supervisors of the private sector workers now doing their jobs. He listens in to their phone calls for quality control. He said, “I don’t really have a job but I have invested 25 years in the retirement system and I just want to hang on for another five.”
However, you are dead right about universities. When I was a student we called a tenured professor “retired.”
And how much will FREE college cost us?
They already screwed things up by offering federally backed student loans.
How, you ask?
Make loans available to students via the college financial aid office.
The college then can raise tuition (and their own salaries) because more money is available.
Students then need more money and borrow more so that the schools can raise the tuition again.
Vicious circle that grows and grows.
When I went to school, I needed to borrow about eight hundred per year. My daughter who is a nurse is paying off an $80K student loan debt. Because she has this monster debt, I had to co-sign for her house.
I disagree. Of course we need more info to be sure but I didn't seen where any government funding was being used in this at all.
This is an example of using the internet to gain an education. No brick, no mortar, no ivy covered walls, no football team, no expensive faculty, just getting the knowledge into the students hands.
If private entities set this up and maintain it, then it is a HUGE advancement in education. The students come out with accredited degrees and no debt.
This seems to be exactly what so many of us have been calling for for years.
I didn't either, but I'm cynical enough so it smells like a means of collecting money either private or public to me
And remember its the adjuncts with no office, no benefits, working on contract semester to semester who do most of the teaching. If not adjuncts, then the grad students getting their feet wet and building their teaching skills
College credit is not always expensive, and there are many ways to bring it down.
Sources of Free College Credit and Continuing Education Classes
http://hubpages.com/hub/Alternative-Sources-of-College-Credit-and-Continuing-Education-Classes
Serving up content over the commodity internet does require far less infrastructure and overhead than a brick and mortar university, but it still is not free. The creators of that content probably won’t work for free to author, maintain and update the content.
I get what you are saying, that it should be possible to offer courses for free to the student. But if the student isn’t paying for serving up that content, someone else is.
If there is some way to make a free-to-the-student online degree-program economically worthwhile to the content creators, owners & maintainers and the IT organization that buys, maintains & supports the infrastructure, then winner-winner-chicken-dinner! It just seems like a losing proposition if it ultimately has to rely on taxpayer funding to happen. Tax revenue comes with strings, oversight and control that always reduces things to the lowest common denominator. Look at the bonafides (or lack of) that you gain from having only a high-school diploma from most any public school system today. An HSD no longer carries the guarantee you can read, write and do basic addition and subtraction. No guarantee a taxpayer-funded online degree program will deteriorate into a “common-core” molded abomination, but looking at the deterioration of education since as recently as the 60’s... Yikes...
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