I was interested in attending University of the People since hearing about it a few months ago and finally decided to give it a shot since just one year of "regular" college set me back 30k in student loans. I sent my first email asking about transferring my credits about 3 months ago, got an automatic response saying they were getting higher than normal email traffic and please be patient; well I never received an email back all these months later.
Despite that fact I figured I could just start taking classes and I'd figure that part out later so I made my application and paid the $60 and waited for an email confirming my account and giving my my login info. I waited a full day and got an email saying due to a technical glitch my application wasn't proccessed and to try again but don't pay, just send an email saying I finished the application again. So I did that and then waited another day to get the same email this time also telling me to send the PayPal receipt which I did.
This was the last contact I ever got from this organization, this was a MONTH ago.
So I'm short $60 with no information about what happened and nobody to talk to. I've sent mutiple emails and called and zero response. I understand they're a volunteer organization but if you're going to take my money then you need to put some priorty on me and get me to the point where I can actually take the classes. I've been left hung out to dry for a month and that is why I'm filing this report, to hopefully get some contact back.
If you're thinking about this a school I'd highly reccomend you wait until they figure out how to solve these high priorty issues within a reasonable amount of time.
University of the People (UoPeople), falsely claim to be tuition-free or low cost university, they charge $60 for application fee, $100 for each courses in Associate and $200 for MBA, they claim they have students from 180 countries its not true, they devalue your previous degree no matter from which university you studied. They say it will cost £4060 for bachelor degree its not true, you have to take another 11 foundation courses and $100 for each course. their course material is just an internet link to the wikipedia and other websites. they bomb you with loads of internet links, they hire people from third country in a very minimum wages to work online for them 8 hrs a day, monthly payment is $170, no one can question anything about them, if you question you will be fired, even if you ask why you are not getting your salary on time the same day they will fire you (I am saying this as this happened to me). they say they provide scholarship but only for associate degree, and if a bachelor student ask for a scholarship than they suggest to enroll in the associate degree, they are wasting valuable time of the students and also robbing money from the poor students. Why they are claming all these nonsense and no one is raising voice against them. they are making money from the poor students from the underdeveloped countrries. They are cheating many charity organizations promising they will provide scholarship to the student, if they provide scholarship to any students from underdeveloped countries how the students have the access of very strong internet. just be aware of this fraud.
The college is denying my $100 refund for a test that I did not get to take. I'm currently on overseas orders, which I left for within 30 days of the final. I was unable to take the proctored final through a third party service that they recommend due to access of limited computer and internet.
Finals become available Thur-Sun, but that only leaves Thur and Fri to sort out proctor issues which I emailed them Friday morning about. Now they won't even give me the courtesy of a decision on my late withdrawal request before the start of the next term.
UoPeople has taken the world by storm in how presents itself as what’s known in business science as a disruptive innovation- where something comes along and changes the way something is traditionally done. Do not believe the hype. Uopeople isn’t an actual university who’s degree will be taken seriously. Starters: They are not headquartered in the United States. The address they use is a P.O. box. Headquarters are actually located in Israel. Their poorly paid program advisors are located in Africa and, despite working in this allegedly American university, generally speak poor or bizarre English. Their degrees are not generally recognized with regard to credit transfer. DEAC accreditation just means an institution offers some academic program via distance learning. If you tried to use your UoPeople bachelor degree to get into a master’s degree at any legitimate institution, you would be considered a joke. Their MBA is worse than even their standard degrees. Such qualifications are only considered valid when accredited by one of three accrediting boards. AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS. UoPeople boasts about DEAC again here.
Good luck getting a career with a UoPeople MBA. Such courses should also come with GAMA- which uopeople does not. Grades are assigned through peer assessment which means that it’s possible you could write an excellent essay (as many students there with American, British, or European high school diplomas do, and then get zero marks just because a student who’s previous education was attained in a third world country and doesn’t understand the course material couldn’t understand your essay. Peer assessment in circumstances like this undermines what little academic credibility they already have. Whilst a grade appeal option does exist, it’s only theoretically possible- actually appealing your grades will get nowhere because it relies on your program advisor bothering to pass on your appeal paperwork and emails with your course instructor.
Good luck with that, as the poorly paid Kenyan program advisors are unlikely to remember to do that. Their advertizing is unethical and their poorly paid Kenyan program advisors and their student unpaid volunteer representatives spam discussion threads with creepy hyperbole about how UoPeople is 'the greatest university ever with the GREATEST instructors and the only university with a truly academic concern with the greatest courses ever’. This advertizing is grossly unethical conduct. If institutions have to resort to grossly disgusting unsolicited hyperbole in order to advertize themselves, you know they are not legit. If you want to get a degree you don’t have to pay in order to get, consider learning in some European countries where all students including international students do not have to pay- don’t waste your time attaining meaningless and unworthy paper by the diploma mill UoPeople.
University of the People is not a legitimate university. It is fraudulent. They advertise accredited classes and degrees at very low cost, but they have no interest in actually awarding degrees. Instead, they want your money. It's not a lot-- about $200 per class with a $59 application fee. But they are very happy to take your $259 and send you packing--you then being very confused and frustrated with their inability to answer even the most direct questions. Simply put, it's a scam. Don't believe it.
University of the People Reviews
I was interested in attending University of the People since hearing about it a few months ago and finally decided to give it a shot since just one year of "regular" college set me back 30k in student loans. I sent my first email asking about transferring my credits about 3 months ago, got an automatic response saying they were getting higher than normal email traffic and please be patient; well I never received an email back all these months later.
Despite that fact I figured I could just start taking classes and I'd figure that part out later so I made my application and paid the $60 and waited for an email confirming my account and giving my my login info. I waited a full day and got an email saying due to a technical glitch my application wasn't proccessed and to try again but don't pay, just send an email saying I finished the application again. So I did that and then waited another day to get the same email this time also telling me to send the PayPal receipt which I did.
This was the last contact I ever got from this organization, this was a MONTH ago.
So I'm short $60 with no information about what happened and nobody to talk to. I've sent mutiple emails and called and zero response. I understand they're a volunteer organization but if you're going to take my money then you need to put some priorty on me and get me to the point where I can actually take the classes. I've been left hung out to dry for a month and that is why I'm filing this report, to hopefully get some contact back.
If you're thinking about this a school I'd highly reccomend you wait until they figure out how to solve these high priorty issues within a reasonable amount of time.
University of the People (UoPeople), falsely claim to be tuition-free or low cost university, they charge $60 for application fee, $100 for each courses in Associate and $200 for MBA, they claim they have students from 180 countries its not true, they devalue your previous degree no matter from which university you studied. They say it will cost £4060 for bachelor degree its not true, you have to take another 11 foundation courses and $100 for each course. their course material is just an internet link to the wikipedia and other websites. they bomb you with loads of internet links, they hire people from third country in a very minimum wages to work online for them 8 hrs a day, monthly payment is $170, no one can question anything about them, if you question you will be fired, even if you ask why you are not getting your salary on time the same day they will fire you (I am saying this as this happened to me). they say they provide scholarship but only for associate degree, and if a bachelor student ask for a scholarship than they suggest to enroll in the associate degree, they are wasting valuable time of the students and also robbing money from the poor students. Why they are claming all these nonsense and no one is raising voice against them. they are making money from the poor students from the underdeveloped countrries. They are cheating many charity organizations promising they will provide scholarship to the student, if they provide scholarship to any students from underdeveloped countries how the students have the access of very strong internet. just be aware of this fraud.
The college is denying my $100 refund for a test that I did not get to take. I'm currently on overseas orders, which I left for within 30 days of the final. I was unable to take the proctored final through a third party service that they recommend due to access of limited computer and internet.
Finals become available Thur-Sun, but that only leaves Thur and Fri to sort out proctor issues which I emailed them Friday morning about. Now they won't even give me the courtesy of a decision on my late withdrawal request before the start of the next term.
UoPeople has taken the world by storm in how presents itself as what’s known in business science as a disruptive innovation- where something comes along and changes the way something is traditionally done. Do not believe the hype. Uopeople isn’t an actual university who’s degree will be taken seriously. Starters: They are not headquartered in the United States. The address they use is a P.O. box. Headquarters are actually located in Israel. Their poorly paid program advisors are located in Africa and, despite working in this allegedly American university, generally speak poor or bizarre English. Their degrees are not generally recognized with regard to credit transfer. DEAC accreditation just means an institution offers some academic program via distance learning. If you tried to use your UoPeople bachelor degree to get into a master’s degree at any legitimate institution, you would be considered a joke. Their MBA is worse than even their standard degrees. Such qualifications are only considered valid when accredited by one of three accrediting boards. AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS. UoPeople boasts about DEAC again here.
Good luck getting a career with a UoPeople MBA. Such courses should also come with GAMA- which uopeople does not. Grades are assigned through peer assessment which means that it’s possible you could write an excellent essay (as many students there with American, British, or European high school diplomas do, and then get zero marks just because a student who’s previous education was attained in a third world country and doesn’t understand the course material couldn’t understand your essay. Peer assessment in circumstances like this undermines what little academic credibility they already have. Whilst a grade appeal option does exist, it’s only theoretically possible- actually appealing your grades will get nowhere because it relies on your program advisor bothering to pass on your appeal paperwork and emails with your course instructor.
Good luck with that, as the poorly paid Kenyan program advisors are unlikely to remember to do that. Their advertizing is unethical and their poorly paid Kenyan program advisors and their student unpaid volunteer representatives spam discussion threads with creepy hyperbole about how UoPeople is 'the greatest university ever with the GREATEST instructors and the only university with a truly academic concern with the greatest courses ever’. This advertizing is grossly unethical conduct. If institutions have to resort to grossly disgusting unsolicited hyperbole in order to advertize themselves, you know they are not legit. If you want to get a degree you don’t have to pay in order to get, consider learning in some European countries where all students including international students do not have to pay- don’t waste your time attaining meaningless and unworthy paper by the diploma mill UoPeople.
University of the People is not a legitimate university. It is fraudulent. They advertise accredited classes and degrees at very low cost, but they have no interest in actually awarding degrees. Instead, they want your money. It's not a lot-- about $200 per class with a $59 application fee. But they are very happy to take your $259 and send you packing--you then being very confused and frustrated with their inability to answer even the most direct questions. Simply put, it's a scam. Don't believe it.