An ultra-low-cost college degree

At the online University of the People, anyone with a high school diploma can take classes toward a degree in business administration or computer science — without standard tuition fees (though exams cost money). Founder Shai Reshef hopes that higher education is changing "from being a privilege for the few to a basic right, affordable and accessible for all."

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

that otherwise would be left behind.

Look at the world.

Pick up a place and focus on it.

You will find humans chasing higher education.

Let's meet some of them.

Patrick.

Patrick was born in Liberia

to a family of 20 children.

During the civil war, he and his family were forced

to flee to Nigeria.

There, in spite of his situation,

he graduated high school with nearly perfect grades.

He wanted to continue to higher education,

but due to his family

living on the poverty line,

he was soon sent to South Africa

to work and send back money

to feed his family.

Patrick never gave up his dream of higher education.

Late at night, after work,

he surfed the Net 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 her life,

pays taxes, supports herself month to month,

proud of the American dream,

a dream that just won't be complete

without higher education.

But Debbie doesn't have the savings

for higher education.

She can't pay the tuition.

Neither could she leave work.

Meet Wael.

Wael is from Syria.

He's firsthand experiencing

the misery, fear and failure

imposed on his country.

He's a big believer in education.

He knew that if he would find an opportunity

for higher education,

an opportunity to get ahead of the rest,

he has a better chance to survive

in a world turned upside down.

The higher education system

failed Patrick, Debbie and Wael,

exactly as it is failing

millions of potential students,

millions that graduate high school,

millions that are qualified for higher education,

millions that want to study

yet cannot access for various reasons.

First, financial.

Universities are expensive. We all know it.

In large parts of the world,

higher education is unattainable

for an average citizen.

This is probably the biggest problem

facing our society.

Higher education stopped being a right for all

and became a privilege for the few.

Second, cultural.

Students who are qualified for higher education,

can afford, want to study, cannot

because it is not decent,

it is not a place for a woman.

This is the story of countless women

in Africa, for example,

prevented from higher education

because of cultural barriers.

And here comes the third reason:

UNESCO stated that in 2025,

100 million students

will be deprived from higher education

simply because there will not be enough seats

to accommodate them, to meet the demand.

They will take a placement test,

they will pass it,

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 give an alternative,

to create an alternative to those who have no other,

an alternative that will be affordable

and scalable,

an alternative that will disrupt

the current education system,

open the gates to higher education

for every qualified student

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 accepted students

from 143 countries.

We — (Applause) — Thank you.

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 it.

We set out to build a model

that will cut down almost entirely

the cost of higher education,

and that's how we did it.

First, bricks and mortar cost money.

Universities have expenses

that virtual universities don't.

We don't need to pass these expenses

onto our students.

They don't exist.

We also don't need to worry about capacity.

There are no limits of seats

in virtual university.

Actually, nobody needs to stand

at the back of the lecture hall.

Textbooks is also something

our students don't need to buy.

By using open educational resources

and the generosity of professors

who are putting their material

free and accessible,

we don't need to send our students to buy textbooks.

All of our materials come free.

Even professors,

the most expensive line in
any university balance sheet,

come free to our students,

over 3,000 of them,

including presidents, vice chancellors,

professors and academic advisors

from top universities such as NYU,

Yale, Berkeley and Oxford,

came on board to help our students.

Finally, it's our belief in peer-to-peer learning.

We use this sound pedagogical model

to encourage our students from all over the world

to interact and study together

and also to reduce the time

our professors need to labor over class assignments.

If the Internet has made us a global village,

this model can develop its future leadership.

Look how we do it.

We only offer two programs:

business administration and computer science,

the two programs

that are most in demand worldwide,

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 get it.

Moreover, for every nine weeks' course,

they meet a new peer,

a whole new set of students

from all over the world.

Every week, when they go into the classroom,

they find the lecture notes of the week,

the reading assignment, the homework assignment,

and the discussion question,

which is the core of our studies.

Every week, every student

must contribute to the class discussion

and also must comment

on the contribution of others.

This way, we open our students' minds,

we develop a positive shift in attitude

toward different cultures.

By the end of each week,

the students take a quiz,

hand in their homework,

which are assessed by their peers

under the supervision of the instructors,

get a grade, move to the next week.

By the end of the course, they take the final exam,

get a grade, and follow to the next course.

We opened the gates for higher education

for every qualified student.

Every student with a high school diploma,

sufficient English and Internet connection

can study with us.

We don't use audio. We don't use video.

Broadband is not necessary.

Any student from any part of the world

with any Internet connection

can study with us.

We are tuition-free.

All we ask our students to cover

is the cost of their exams,

100 dollars per exam.

A full-time bachelor degree student

taking 40 courses,

will pay 1,000 dollars a year,

4,000 dollars for the entire degree,

and for those who cannot afford even this,

we offer them a variety of scholarships.

It is our mission that nobody will be left behind

for financial reasons.

With 5,000 students in 2016,

this model is financially sustainable.

Five years ago, it was a vision.

Today, it is a reality.

Last month, we got the ultimate

academic endorsement to our model.

University of the People is now fully accredited.

(Applause)

Thank you.

With this accreditation,

it's our time now to scale up.

We have demonstrated that our model works.

I invite universities and, even more important,

developing countries' governments,

to replicate this model

to ensure that the gates of higher education

will open widely.

A new era is coming,

an era that will witness

the disruption of the higher education model

as we know it today,

from being a privilege for the few

to becoming a basic right,

affordable and accessible for all.

Thank you.

(Applause)