University of the People (UoPeople) has announced its official accreditation by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC), marking a major milestone for the world’s first non-profit, tuition-free, online academic institution and representing a significant breakthrough for alternative education models and innovative learning environments.
Dedicated to the democratisation of higher education, the university believes accreditation not only will help increase its capacity to serve more students, but also inspire other institutions to offer greater global access to low-cost, high-quality education.
“Accreditation is critical to UoPeople’s mission, attesting to the quality of education for our prospective students and their prospective employers,” said Shai Reshef, founder & president, UoPeople. “We have pursued this stamp of approval since day one, and are confident it will help pave the way for greater adoption of alternative models in education across the globe.”
UoPeople currently has 700 students enrolled, but now that it has received accreditation from the DETC, a national accrediting group, Mr. Reshef expects the university to expand significantly. He’s anticipating it will grow to have 5,000 students by 2016.
‘With the development of technology, we now can provide a quality higher education to able students in the United States and around the globe who, until now, did not have available to them the possibility of a college or university degree,’ said John Sexton, NYU President and the Chairman of UoPeople’s President’s Council. “It’s thrilling to think that with this accreditation, more students, employers and leaders will begin to recognise the worth of a UoPeople degree.”
Founded in 2009, UoPeople enables students otherwise excluded from higher education due to financial, geographic, societal or personal constraints to attain an accredited business administration or computer science degree through an extremely low cost (tuition-free) and highly scalable model.