Unit 1: Learning Guide

Site: University of the People Printed by: Satyam Kumar

Course: UNIV 0001 New Student Orientation Date: Monday, 28 July 2025, 2:55 AM
Book: Unit 1: Learning Guide
 Description

Your learning journey begins here in this first of four short Units. Read through each page of this Learning Guide, then proceed to
check your understanding in the Unit 1: Quiz.
 Table of contents

Overview
Welcome to University of the People
What is UoPeople?
Our Mission, Goals, and Values
 Overview

Unit 1: Welcome to the University of the People - Getting Started - Mission, Goals, and Values
Topics
What is University of the People (UoPeople)?
Our Mission, Goals, and Values
Learning Objectives
By the end of this unit, you will be able to:

1. Recall the UoPeople Mission

2. Describe UoPeople's Goals and Values
Tasks
Read through the Learning Guide
Take the Quiz to check your understanding

Navigating this Course

Please note that there are arrows on the right side of each page (upper and lower) of the Learning Guide. These arrows will
navigate you forward and backward through the Learning Guide. It is highly recommended that you use them to go through each
page of the Learning Guide.
 Welcome to University of the People

Introduction

Let's begin!
Be sure to go through the entire Learning Guide.

In this unit, you will be learning about the founding of the University of the People, its mission, goals, values, and what makes it different
from other universities. You will also be introduced to the large global community that has been built around the University of the
People.

When you educate one person, you can change a life; when you educate many, you can change the world.
— Shai Reshef President of the University of the People
 What is UoPeople?

The University of the People (UoPeople) is the Education Revolution. It is the first non-
profit, tuition-free, American, accredited, online university. Dedicated to opening
access to higher education globally, UoPeople helps students overcome financial,
geographic, political, and personal constraints keeping them from college studies.

UoPeople was founded in 2009 and accredited in February 2014. The University
offers certificates, associate and bachelor’s degree programs in Business
Administration, Computer Science, and Health Science, as well as master’s
degree programs in Business Administration, Information
Technology, and Education. University of the People in Arabic was launched in 2020, offering associate and bachelor’s degrees
in Business Administration. An English as a Second Language (ESL) program was also introduced to help students improve
their English language abilities. There presently are more than 117,000 students enrolled from more than 200 countries and
territories.

UoPeople has built a sustainable and scalable model to serve those millions whose talent and creativity is being lost today.
Courses are delivered online to a group of typically 20-30 students who study the material together under the direction of a
faculty member. A bachelor’s degree requires completion of 40 courses. Each nine-week course is based on a curriculum
drawn from Open Educational Resources (OER) materials, so there is no textbook or materials cost. The only time a student is
asked to pay any amount is at the end of a course. For students who can afford it there is an assessment fee of $120 for an
undergraduate course, $200 for a certificate program course or $300 for a graduate-level course.

Watch: Welcome to the New Academic Year

While this video is a bit older, it will give you the opportunity to hear from President Shai Reshef.

It seems your browser is blocking 3rd party session cookies which are required for the Kaltura application. To resolve
this issue, please update your settings to allow 3rd party cookies.

NOTE: We are University of the People or UoPeople for short. We never use the acronym UoP as this a reference to another
university that is not associated to us in any way.
 Our Mission, Goals, and Values

A mission statement, or simply a mission, is a public declaration that schools or other

educational organizations use to describe their founding purpose and major
organizational commitments.

Our Mission
The mission of University of the People is to offer an accessible, quality education to any qualified student through flexible,
affordable, online, accredited degree-granting programs that give graduates the potential to lead successful, fulfilling lives as
individuals and members of society.

Our Goals
Select each goal to reveal how it is supported.

To provide the opportunity for higher education to students from diverse backgrounds through:

To offer quality programs that:

To provide students with services that contribute to the achievement of the desired learning outcomes by:

To assist students in developing, evaluating, and implementing employment decisions and plans by:

To ensure institutional financial stability and growth through:

Our Values
Opportunity
UoPeople is based on the belief that education at a minimal cost is a basic right for all qualified applicants, not just for a privileged
few. The University works to open the gates of higher education to qualified students anywhere in the world by offering its
programs through distance learning and by making this opportunity affordable.
Community
UoPeople creates a global community by making its academic programs, educational services, and employment opportunities
available to qualified individuals from all over the world, and by providing learning opportunities that engage students and faculty
from diverse backgrounds.
Integrity
UoPeople grounds its institutional culture in candor, transparency and best professional practices, and expects all students,
faculty, staff, and administrators to uphold the highest standards of personal integrity, honesty and responsibility. Additionally,
the University expects its students to take responsibility for their education, and to pursue their studies diligently and with
seriousness of purpose.
Quality
UoPeople provides a high-quality, online liberal arts education suitable in scope and depth to the challenges of the 21st century.
The University assesses and evaluates all aspects of its academic model on an ongoing basis.