The world's first tuition-free, non-profit online university began enrollment this month, with a major boost from Chinese students, said the president of the University of the People (UoPeople) in a press briefing on Tuesday.

"We do not advertise but apparently something happened in China because over 20 students registered in the last 48 hours," the university's president Shai Reshef told Xinhua.

In fact, during the last two days, 27 students from across China registered with UoPeople, which provides higher education to anyone with a computer and Internet connection. The students come from 20 different Chinese cities and towns, from Handan in north China to Shanghai in the east to Harbin in the northeast part of the country.

"For hundreds of millions of people around the world higher education is no more than a dream, a dream that can never be materialized," Reshef said. "Financial constraints make it impossible to go to higher education and for others there are not enough institutions in the place they live."

Currently, about 200 students from over 51 countries are enrolled in the only two undergraduate programs the university offers -- Computer Science and Business Administration. Reshef, who is an Israeli entrepreneur, said he hopes to expand the program to include 15,000 students in four years.

UoPeople, which has the backing of the United Nations' Global Alliance for Information and Communications Technology (GAID), incorporates a pedagogical model which draws on e-learning, social networking coupled with open-source technology.

As developing countries continue to invest heavily in improving broadband infrastructure, online universities have a unique opportunity to reach populations who typically would not have access to higher education.

From September 2 to 4, GAID will host a conference in Monterey, Mexico, to address this very issue. The conference, which was postponed because of the outbreak of A/H1N1 flu in Mexico, will focus on the nexus between Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and education.

UoPeople is perhaps one of the leading innovations in ICT and education development. Reshef said he came up with the idea when he started working as chairman for Cramster.com, a free online study community, where students help each other with their homework.

At a time when more people have access to information via the Internet but the cost of higher learning continues to skyrocket, Reshef said a low-cost online university made the most sense.

To gain eligibility, students must have a high school diploma and demonstrate proficiency in reading and writing English. And ofcourse, students must have a computer and Internet connection.

Reshef admitted that the university was unable to cater to many rural populations without access to the Internet but added that the courses did not include audio or video to ensure that even the slowest broadband connection would work.

Reshef said he hoped to raise US$6 million for the Pasadena, California-based institution. While he is speaking with potential donors, he is currently the only private donor with an investment of US$1 million.

While UoPeople might be "tuition-free," students do pay a nominal application fee, which runs between US$15 to US$50, and examination fees, which run between 10 dollars to 100dollars per exam. Students must take around 40 exams during the course of their degree. The sliding scale, which is based on the World Bank's Standard of Living, is not the most ideal system, Reshef admitted, but it keeps administration costs manageable.

But even if students pay the most possible, US$450, the fee is leagues below the average cost of higher education which has ballooned across the world in the past decade.

"This very limited amount of money will make the university sustainable because we use open-source technology, open-source course work, and we are based mainly on volunteers," Reshef said.

The university's faculty includes a prestigious list of volunteer professors, including Jack Balkin, who teaches Constitutional Law at Yale Law School, and Russell S. Winer, who chairs the department of marketing at New York University's Stern School of Business.

Speaking to reporters, Bangladeshi Ambassador to the UN M. Humayun Kabir, who also serves on the university's advisory committee, said he believes UoPeople is "an innovation that will be remembered for a long time."

(Xinhua News Agency May 20, 2009)