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UO People is an accredited and tuition free college that offers full degrees and certificates (www.uopeople.edu)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by ericbomb@lemmy.world to c/youshouldknow@lemmy.world

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If you're considering doing online college, check to see if they offer your program!

They also offer certificates!

So check it out, and make sure to let other folks know who are interested in these types of programs. At least in the US, it can save tens of thousands of dollars, so it's worth researching!

EDIT: To clarify, their accreditation is national, which will mean you won't be able to transfer credits to regionally accredited intuitions. This is not entirely unusual for online only college, but should be considered. So I will leave this as my parting word, if you are considering an online college that only has national accreditation, please consider this one instead of that one, as this one I will bet money is cheaper.

And here is estimated fees: According to the University of the People, they charge no tuition fees but students must pay some administrative fees to cover course assessments, ranging from $2,460 for an associate’s degree (two years) to $4,860 for a bachelor’s degree (four years). These include processing fees for applications and final exam assessments.

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[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 138 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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”

[-] athos77@kbin.social 36 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I wish I could upvote/boost this more than once each. I'm also amused by proud proclamations that

They also offer certificates!

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.

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] Got_Bent@lemmy.world 20 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I have no horse in this race either way. According to wiki:

Two years later, the university was accredited for degree-granting programs through the Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC)

Currently the DEAC is recognized by Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the United States Department of Education as an accreditor of institutions of higher education.

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.

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

Currently the DEAC is recognized by Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the United States Department of Education as an accreditor of institutions of higher education.

This is NOT a regional accreditation body.

It looks like there are potential issues with transferring credits to more traditional schools.

Without being regionally accredited, I would suspect a student would have major difficulties transferring any credits they received from UO People.

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

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:

Alongside the Berkeley logo is the logo of the University of Edinburgh. And like Berkeley, it’s an actual college. Also like Berkeley, it seems that its “partnership” with University of the People isn’t much of anything either. So far, exactly zero students have moved from UoPeople to Edinburgh – zero.

“Although we have yet to welcome any students through our partnership, this track remains open and we look forward to collaborating with University of the People in the future.” Ranald Leask, the International PR & Media Manager at The University of Edinburgh, said by e-mail.

Even further, it appears the Edinburgh/UoPeople partnership is limited anyway, a detail not disclosed on the UoPeople site. “Health Science graduates from University of the People can apply to Edinburgh to complete a bachelor’s degree in Health, Science and Society,” Leask said.

So, it appears the arrangement is limited to health graduates and so far, no one has benefited from it. That’s some partnership. But the logo looks pretty.

The more I look into UO People the more scammy it looks.

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

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!

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Maybe I am wrongly interpreting your comment but

Are the programs accredited?
University of the People is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission. The Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC) is listed by the U.S. Department of Education as a recognized accrediting agency.

Source: https://www.uopeople.edu/programs/certificate/computer-science/

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

That is NOT a regional accreditation body.

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 21 points 10 months ago

They seem pretty up front

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.

[-] Nemo@midwest.social 8 points 10 months ago

So, nationally accredited, which is considered a lower bar than regional accreditation.

[-] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 10 months ago

As someone from abroad this reads incredible stupid and should be reversed in logic.

[-] Nemo@midwest.social 4 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] Instigate@aussie.zone 2 points 10 months ago

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?

[-] Nemo@midwest.social 3 points 10 months ago

No, your degree is fine and respected everywhere the institution is. The institution is the one that gets accredited.

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 9 points 10 months ago

I still wish I had gone through here instead of the for profit college

I'll agree that I wouldn't recommend most for-profit universities either.

I went to that was so expensive and was utterly trash despite having accreditation.

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.

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

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.

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 8 points 10 months ago

You are way too optimistic about the value accredited colleges have these days.

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.

But I will also say having only this accreditation is not unusual at all for online only learning universities,

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.

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.

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.

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

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/

[-] trident_burger@mander.xyz 18 points 10 months ago

I hope their mascot is the Human Being

S05E12-Human_Being_last_appearance

[-] soyagi@yiffit.net 17 points 10 months ago

UoPeople doesn’t charge for online college courses, course materials, or annual enrollment. Pay our minimal fees as you go, never upfront.

What are these minimal fees, and what are they for? I'm always skeptical of these online learning providers that imply they are free but don't quite say as much.

[-] HowShouldIKnow@lemm.ee 12 points 10 months ago

Per Wikipedia:

According to the University of the People, they charge no tuition fees but students must pay some administrative fees to cover course assessments, ranging from $2,460 for an associate's degree (two years) to $4,860 for a bachelor's degree (four years). These include processing fees for applications and final exam assessments.

The university does not participate in federal financial aid programs, but it does offer scholarships to eligible students

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 6 points 10 months ago

If you click through to their courses they list a fee for assessment. So part of it, at least, is that you can get the course materials for free but if you want them to assess you for a certificate, you pay a fee.

[-] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Right? Tuition was a fraction of what I paid every year at a real massive university

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

ranging from $2,460 for an associate’s degree (two years) to $4,860 for a bachelor’s degree (four years)

I don't wanna talk about how much money I spent on my associates degree, so while it's not free, it certainly is super cheap.

[-] ZenGrammy@lemmy.world 11 points 10 months ago

Hi there! Thanks for posting in YSK. It seems at the moment, this post is coming across as less than accurate. Will you do me a favor and update it to include the fact that accreditation is not the same as traditional colleges and the estimated prices that were found in the Wiki? That way it won't get reported and possibly removed.

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

Added that it's national which is more common for online and would mean you can't transfer to standard most likely, and added the blurb on costs!

[-] ZenGrammy@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

I appreciate it.

[-] sumofchemicals@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

I'm a fan of the concept. Two notes:

While the name has noble intentions, it's a horrible choice in terms of conveying "this is a respectable institution and you should hire this person." Obtaining the knowledge should be enough, but we all know part of why we choose the educational institutions we do is to help get a job, and some schools are viewed more favorably than others. "University of the People" sounds hippy dippy and fake.

Second, if you like this model you might consider looking at Western Governor's University. It's regionally accredited (ie. the kind you want), online, and the name seems like it would be more appealing at first glance to employers.

[-] Sketchpad01@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I had no idea "hippy dippy" was a real phrase, I thought the lego movie just made that up

[-] sumofchemicals@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Yeah, I guess it is kind of an old phrase. Basically something a more conventional or conservative person might say about something that's impractical/naive/overly idealistic. You can imagine like a 60s American dad saying it about tie dye kids

[-] ericbomb@lemmy.world -1 points 10 months ago

Western governor's, at a glance, appears to be about 8 times more expensive, just on the tuition alone. Who knows how much the rest is.

So in this case you pay less, but you get a lesser accreditation. Might not work for everyone, but I wish more people were aware of UOPeople as an option since I feel like there are a couple type of people that could benefit from it.

People who don't know what they wanna do but feel like they need to get into college (May as well do it cheap as dirt)
People who due to financial situation won't go to college any other way (Millions of people are begging for debt forgiveness because their degrees didn't help them at all)
People who were planning on going to online college with a similar level of accreditation, can save like 40 grand by going here instead.
Those who want the more structured learning experience of college as that's how they learn, but aren't as concerned with the name.
Industry vets who are required to get some sort of degree for whatever reason like it's required by stupid HR and need to check a box.

So my main note to anyone reading this, DO NOT pay full college prices to any university with only the national accreditation. There are a ton of them. If you're going to one with only the distance learning accreditation, it better be at a STEEP discount (like my beloved UOpeople).

As for the name I can only shrug. Fingers crossed they are able to get their regional accreditation that they dream of and then some positive coverage makes them a house hold name, cause yeah the name sounds a "little" fake.

[-] briongloid@aussie.zone 7 points 10 months ago

However, to keep our mission alive we do ask for a one-time application fee and minimal assessment fees per course to help fund general university operations and provide excellent services to our students.

We ask all applicants for a one-time, non-refundable application fee of $60 for all programs except English as a Second Language.

For each certificate course, there is an assessment fee of $200, to be paid at the end of each course.

For each undergraduate course, there is an assessment fee of $120, to be paid by the end of each course.

For each graduate course, there is an assessment fee of $300 for MBA/M.Ed/MSIT, to be paid by the end of each course.

The total approximate costs to earn a degree at >UoPeople are the following:

Associate Degree: $2,460 Bachelor’s Degree: $4,860 MBA: $3,660 M.Ed.: $3,960 MSIT: $3,660

Transfer Credit

It costs only $17 for each accepted course. To learn more about the transfer credit process, visit our transfer credit page.

this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2023

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