School data & stats
Outcomes
Cost
Community
Overview
University of the People is a nonprofit, accredited online university founded by education entrepreneur Shai Reshef and built around tuition-free instruction, students pay modest per-course assessment fees rather than tuition, making it one of the most explicitly access-focused institutions in American higher education. It has drawn support and academic partnerships from established universities and companies since its founding, positioning itself as a genuine degree-granting alternative for students worldwide who could not otherwise afford one.
Academics
Degree offerings concentrate on business, computer science, health science, and education, delivered through asynchronous coursework designed to work around students' jobs and time zones across the world. Courses are typically small and peer-discussion-based rather than lecture-driven, given the fully online, text-based format, and volunteer academic advisors from established universities have supported the model since its early years.
Getting in
Admissions is intentionally low-barrier, reflecting the university's mission to reach students, many international and working adults, who could not otherwise afford a U.S.-accredited degree. The main ongoing requirement is the modest per-course fee rather than a traditional tuition bill.
Worth knowing
The largely international, working-adult student body and entirely asynchronous, text-based format make this a fundamentally different experience from a traditional campus-based college, and it's best understood as a mission-driven access institution rather than a conventional university choice.
Admissions
Deadlines (2026–27 cycle)
Applying
uopeople.edu ↗High school coursework
RequiredHigh school diploma or home-school equivalent (or 24+ transferable college credits); no specific high school course pattern published -- open admission
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