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this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023
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You Should Know
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First, education, in any form is valuable. I knew nothing about this UO People before seeing this post, and if they are offering free or very cheap educational curricula, then there is inherent value in just the ability for people to learn. HOWEVER.....
When most people, in the USA at least, think about college and university it is with the understanding that it is an accredited institution. UO People makes many claims on their website about being accredited, but I could find nowhere on their site where they say which accrediting body they are under. This is a huge red flag. Any properly accredited college or university would proudly display who they are accredited with. Further, in the USA at least, when a student is looking for an accredited college or university they are looking for a regionally accredited one. UO People doesn't NOT appear to be regionally accredited.
So if you're signing up with this organization to learn free or cheaply, it maybe a great way. Again, I'd never heard of them before this post so I can't speak to their offerings or education. If you're looking for a college or university degree as recognized by most people, organizations, and employers, this isn't it.
EDITING TO ADD: Lots of discussion has occurred on this place, and I encourage any reading this to form you own conclusions. The more I look at the place the more scammy it looks. Here are two sources. One apparently to be an actual former UO People student detailing their difficulties and surprise extra fees.
sources:
University of the People uopeople.edu, also known as "University of the Scammers"
Another Odd University of the People “Partnership”
I wish I could upvote/boost this more than once each. I'm also amused by proud proclamations that
I mean, my company offered certificates, too, when you completed training courses. Our receptionist, Dawn, made them up real fancy on her computer, then printed them out on high-quality paper and our manager signed them. I suspect these "certificates" may be just as valuable as Dawn's were.
I mean I was mostly pointing out that if you wanted to test it out you could very easily and do a short certificate.
But I still don't understand the hostility, as many online only colleges only have national accreditation. I specifically said if you're looking at online schooling you should check it out, because it's probably equivalent and much cheaper.
I have no horse in this race either way. According to wiki:
It looks like there are potential issues with transferring credits to more traditional schools.
If I were a hiring manager, I would certainly raise an eyebrow to see that school on a resume.
Edit: While there is no tuition, there are fees from a couple thousand for an associates up to slightly under five thousand for a master's.
This is NOT a regional accreditation body.
Without being regionally accredited, I would suspect a student would have major difficulties transferring any credits they received from UO People.
Okay I know I'm late, like very.
BUT, while they are working on their regional accreditation, they do have agreements with several different schools to accept their credits.
https://www.nyu.edu/admissions/undergraduate-admissions/how-to-apply/transfer-applicants/articulation-agreements.html
I am able to find forum posts of other universities accepting either all/partial credits in the US, but I can't verify those so won't bother.
Some other institutions that recognize them are: https://www.uopeople.edu/about/partners/academic-partnerships/
Most notably is probably Mcgill and University of Edinburg. So while it's not great not being accredited regionally, it might be the perfect solution for some folks.
UO People claims it. With regard to University of Edinburg, as of the post in 2019 ZERO UO PEOPLE STUDENTS HAVE DONE IT. Its not a partnership between the UO People and University of Edinburg, is apparently the same process any non-student can apply to get knowledge recognized as credits.
source
Here's the relevant part:
The more I look into UO People the more scammy it looks.
Berkely is no longer listed I will say, as for Edinburgh, Edinburgh announced their partnership so it is official.
https://www.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/atoms/files/partnership_opens_doors_for_students_from_adverse_backgrounds_01.11.2017.pdf
And as part of the agreement this gentlemen joined the UOpeople board.
https://www.uopeople.edu/about/leadership-team/sir-timothy-oshea/
So even with that post, all the people they claim they are partnered with, have released press releases that they do in fact have a partnership. If their courses were not up to snuff, I would hope those colleges would have taken those down and made a statement by now and had their names removed from the website. Again, that's the hope.
Honestly now I'm curious how many of the leadership team have active roles, because they have a pretty star studded cast. If people from top colleges are even semi regularly auditing courses that's a big security. But it could be they're on a yearly mailing list and they forget their name is on the UOpeople website for most of the year.
But I suppose the real test will be in the next couple years as they currently have an open application to get regionally accredited. So fingers crossed that either they get accepted, or the regional accreditation office rips them a new one and sends them spiraling into bankruptcy if they are scammy. As either way that should be the end of UOpeople drama one way or another.
I apparently have nothing to do but look into UOPeople, so I emailed a few of their partners to ask if they should still be listed on the website. If I get a "WTF Who are those people" as a response I'll let you know!
Okay I know I’m late, like very.
BUT, while they are working on their regional accreditation, they do have agreements with several different schools to accept their credits.
https://www.nyu.edu/admissions/undergraduate-admissions/how-to-apply/transfer-applicants/articulation-agreements.html
I am able to find forum posts of other universities accepting either all/partial credits in the US, but I can’t verify those so won’t bother.
Some other institutions that recognize them are: https://www.uopeople.edu/about/partners/academic-partnerships/
Most notably is probably Mcgill and University of Edinburg. So while it’s not great not being accredited regionally, it might be the perfect solution for some folks. So just trying to bring awareness to people, because it might just be the perfect solution for them.
Also you only pay the fees when you test to get credits for the class, so you can take your first semester for just 60$ and see if you're learning anything from it.
Maybe I am wrongly interpreting your comment but
Source: https://www.uopeople.edu/programs/certificate/computer-science/
That is NOT a regional accreditation body.
They don't claim it's regional?
They seem pretty up front that it's national. Which I 100% understand is lesser, but it's the trade off.
They're preying on people not knowing the difference.
You're quite welcome to use this institution, but students looking for what people call actual college degrees will not get what they want from this school as it isn't regionally accredited.
So, nationally accredited, which is considered a lower bar than regional accreditation.
As someone from abroad this reads incredible stupid and should be reversed in logic.
Not at all. Think like a national chain versus a regional one; or the federal minimum wage which is often superceded by a higher local minwage.
The local government, or organization, or community, is more responsive to local needs than the distant national government, or organization, or community.
You’re really telling me that if I move from Maine to Arizona I suddenly have to get a new degree, because mine is only valid in my region? That sounds ridiculously silly. The vast majority of professionals (lawyers excluded) don’t have to learn different information to be able to do the same job in different states, do they?
Surely it makes more sense to have a national accreditation for the vast majority of courses, right?
No, your degree is fine and respected everywhere the institution is. The institution is the one that gets accredited.
Yep, many online colleges have that.
So my hope is if anyone is looking at online colleges, they at least consider this one as there is a chance that the one they are looking at has the exact same accreditation, but this will be far cheaper.
They are very up front with saying they are nationally accredited, which is a lower bar, I admit. But that's the trade off I suppose.
I still wish I had gone through here instead of the for profit college I went to that was so expensive and was utterly trash despite having accreditation.
Regardless of lack of ability to transfer credits, I will recommend this over any for profit university at this point.
I'll agree that I wouldn't recommend most for-profit universities either.
The huge difference in your trash for-profit regionally accredited school and one that is NOT regionally accredited, is your for profit expensive trash regionally accredited credits can transfer to a good school with good education and a respectable name that will let you get a job with it for places that look for good education. You may have paid too much, but what you got has value.
That likely wouldn't be the same from an employability standpoint as this UO People place.
You are way too optimistic about the value accredited colleges have these days. It's basically a meme for my generation that college degrees don't mean much at all and don't earn back their value at all.
But I will also say having only this accreditation is not unusual at all for online only learning universities, and the main target was people looking at online schooling anyway. So if you're looking at online only college, this probably is equal to any of them in terms of value, but probably a fraction of the cost.
If you're going to college just to learn a subject, and you have the capacity for self study you may not even need college at all and spending thousands a place like UO People is a waste too. If you're going to college to come away with a piece of paper that says "I went to college" that you want an employer to accept, regionally accredited is it. A place like UO People isn't that.
That may be a factual statement, but hides the worse fact. Most online-only colleges and universities are crap. Likely not all, but most. The GOOD online only colleges/universities have.....REGIONAL ACCREDITATION! A great example of online-only yet still goodis Western Governors University.. Getting regional accreditation is hard. There are rigorous standards that have to be met, which is why most online-only schools don't have it. They can't meet the standards of education.
You're using "value" again. Do you mean to the person studying or other people besides the person studying that you're trying to convince you studied? If the former, sure..fine. If the latter, then no way.
I'm comparing value to other online colleges with the exact same credentials.
My soul point was to direct people from overly expensive online college with the same accreditation to at least look at this to see if they teach what they are interested in.
Perhaps a YSK that you would like to post is that not all accreditations are made equal, and that many online only have National, which if you're going into a competitive field will not look great, and also can not be transferred to regional accreditations.
It feels less like you have an issue with UO directly, but more with the fact that having the national online learning accreditation means you can claim accreditation, which may confuse people into thinking the degree from Online school X is held to the same standard as even their local community college. In the grand scheme of thing, I will 100% agree with you, so would be nice if it was called something more distinct.
Not to mention some with the same exact accreditation have the audacity to charge prices similar to brick and mortar schools like this nonsense: https://www.lionel.edu/tuition-basics https://lauruscollege.edu/dl/Laurus_College_Tuition_&_Cancellation_&_Refund_Policies.pdf https://taftu.edu/tuition/