Dive Brief:
- The University of the People, which was founded in 2009 and is accredited by three national agencies, has grown exponentially to serve more than 10,000 students around the world, according to an interview with President Shai Reshef conducted by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Reshef said it is a central mission to ensure that "no one gets left behind" due to an ability to pay, and a student may be able to attain a bachelor's degree for $4,000.
- Reshef said about half of the school's students are based in the United States, with the school servicing many undocumented students or individuals who had to leave other institutions due to an inability to pay the higher costs. The administrative work and curriculum creation is done on a volunteer basis, with educators given an honorarium for teaching a class.
- Reshef said many volunteer educators join out of goodwill, and also are attracted by the diversity of the student population, which could include Syrian refugees, undocumented American students and a variety of other populations in the same class. He said the primary challenges in the year to come included ensuring that their career services are able to help the widely-growing pool of the university's alumni.
Dive Insight:
The university's reliance on volunteers to help address administrative and curricular needs may point a way forward for how to further engage philanthropists and school supporters in how to help schools facing financial shortfalls. In a recent Education Dive interview, Stony Brook University President Samuel Stanley said colleges could try to engage recent alumni who may not be able to yet offer financial contributions to the university that they could give back in other ways, like offering their time and expertise in terms of mentorship experiences for students.
Numerous opportunities exist for colleges and universities to utilize their broader constituencies in support of unconventional ways to help plug gaps in what the institutions are able to offer, and schools like the University of the People have a potentially powerful approach in terms of framing the mission of the school as a charitable or altruistic in nature. Though philanthropy has grown significantly for educational institutions in the aftermath of the 2008 crash and subsequent recession, experts caution that such growth will not occur indefinitely; colleges and universities should start working now to develop new relationships and leverage the relationships they already have in new ways to find ways that alumni and other supporters can "give back" in ways that are not necessarily financial in nature.