Transcriber: Saskia O'Neill Reviewer: Denise RQ
How many Einsteins are there in the world?
Where are they?
I bet most of you would say, in the developed countries.
Maybe somewhere in the US, maybe in Germany, maybe in Japan.
But how about the developing countries?
Could the next Einstein be in South Sudan, in Haiti, in Bangladesh?
How many Albert Einsteins,
Marie Curies, and Stephen Hawkings
are waiting to be discovered in other developing countries?
When I talk about them,
I mean exceptionally bright and gifted young individuals,
who are capable, if given the opportunity, to change our world.
Do you know the answer?
I don't.
But the only way to find out is by giving everyone
the chance to be the next Einstein.
And the only way to do it is through education.
This is exactly what I am going to talk about.
This is University of the People.
We're opening the gates to higher education to everyone.
And by doing so, we let the next Einstein or Curie maybe to surface.
When I said that we open the gates to higher education to everyone,
let me give you a few examples.
First, meet Sabukware from Rwanda.
He's a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda.
In the genocide, he lost his father, he lost his land, and lost his livestock.
The livestock supplied the livelihood to the family.
Now the family was left only with Subakware to care for them.
He had the responsibility to look after his siblings and his mother.
With so many responsibilities on his shoulders,
he still managed to graduate high school.
But nothing more, no hope, no chance for a bright future
until he discovered University of the People.
Now, he's studying towards a BS in business administration
with the University of the People.
Now his future looks a lot brighter.
Next, meet Naylea from Peru.
She was on her way to her university, got into a devastating car accident,
spent a year and a half in the hospital only to come out in a wheelchair.
She wanted to resume her higher education, but she couldn't afford, nor find,
a handicapped-accessible university
in the small town in the developing country she lives in.
No hope, no chance for a bright future
until she discovered the University of the People.
Now she's studying towards a BS in business administration.
Now Naylea's future looks a lot brighter.
Last, let me introduce you to Assan from Uganda.
He was born to a polygamous family, to never educated parents,
who manually worked the land.
His father had three wives.
Using Assan's own words,
"I have at least 24 brothers and sisters."
Can you imagine having 24 siblings?
Well, then his father died.
Assan was left to take care of his brothers and sisters,
pay for their school fees, and for the family livelihood.
He ate a meal a day, hardly surviving, but never gave up
and still managed to graduate high school.
He is the most educated person in his family.
But it would have cost him a full year's salary
to pay for one semester.
He couldn't afford it.
No hope, no chance for a bright future
until he discovered the University of the People.
He's now studying towards his BS in computer science.
The future looks now a lot brighter.
If I'm asked if we will find
the next Einstein among our students,
the answer is this is not our objective.
We have a much grander objective:
we're looking to open the gates to higher education to everyone,
to let everyone get a chance to be educated;
maybe then, the next Einstein or Curie will surface by his or her own.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to education.
The first is selecting the best,
investing in them, pushing them, the selected few.
The second is letting everyone have the opportunity;
those who want to get higher education,
and discover along the way, the exceptionally talented among them.
Most people would agree that education should be available for everyone.
But most of them will also say
it's questionable whether it's achievable, whether it is a realistic goal.
Well, this is a valid question.
The price of higher education is skyrocketing as we all know.
UNESCO stated that in the year 2025,
98 million people will not have seats in the existing universities.
Again: close to 100 million people will be deprived from higher education.
So this is a valid question:
can quality education be available and accessible to everyone?
My answer is: yes, it can.
Higher education can be affordable and accessible to everyone.
And the way to do it is through online education.
There is room for everybody, there is no limit on seats.
My own personal experience taught me that.
For over 20 years, I was in for-profit education.
Among others, I was responsible for educational programs
for hundreds of thousands of students from kindergarten to college.
I was responsible for starting the first online university
outside of the US in Europe.
That's where I learned how powerful online learning can be.
We had students from all over the world.
They stayed at home, they kept their job,
and still got this great European education.
But while having this great success, deep inside, I felt uncomfortable.
Because for most people,
this great education was nothing but wishful thinking.
They couldn't afford it, it was too expensive.
I ended up selling this university and the rest of my business
and went into semi-retirement.
That's the time when I started dreaming
of reaching those who were left out from higher education.
This desire came from a very basic belief.
Think about it:
if you educate one person, you can change a life,
but if you educate many, you can change the world.
It was during that time that I started realizing
that things had been changing the virtual world.
And all the ingredients that were needed
to have an impact on education, existed.
Almost everything that was needed to open the gates to higher education
is available and for free.
Open source technology, technology that everyone can use for free,
open educational resources,
content that people produce and put on the net
for the rest of the world to use for free.
And the new internet culture of social networking
where people share, teach, and learn from each other for free.
All I had to do was to put it all together, so I did.
But if I'm pushed, if I would be asked or pushed to say
what is the one reason,
why I believe that quality education
can be available and affordable to everybody,
I would answer, "It is because we're already doing it."
The University of the People is the first ever
non-profit, tuition-free online University.
(Applause)
The gates to higher education are now open to everybody.
We started --
It was created three years ago and look at what we have achieved.
We have accepted 1,500 students,
most of them, over 95% of them,
say they would recommend the university as a good place to study,
I guess we're doing something right.
These students are coming from 132 countries:
from the United States to the United Arab Emirates,
from Indonesia to Micronesia, from South Sudan to Afghanistan,
literally, from every corner of the world.
We offer our students only Business Administration and Computer Science,
and the reason for that
is that our students come to us to have a better chance for their future;
and these are the two programs that are most likely to help them find a job.
For these 1,500 students, we have 2,900 volunteering professors.
2,900 volunteering professors--
(Applause)
jumped on board to help our students.
We have a ratio of about two professors for each student,
not very common in our higher education world.
And they're coming from the best places.
Our President's Council consists of the Vice Chancellor of Oxford,
the President of NYU,
the Rector of the Academy of Paris, another great institution,
our Provost is from Columbia University,
our Deans are from NYU, and we have many more.
We are research partners with the Yale Law School.
We are partners with NYU to accept
our best students to study with NYU,
and we are partners with HP to enable our students to have online internships.
We have over 1 million supporters on Facebook.
We're the second largest university in the world on Facebook after Harvard.
We are number two, I guess we should try harder, right?
(Laughter)
What we are most proud of
is that compared to other similar American universities,
we were able to cut down almost the entire cost of higher education.
All we ask our students is to cover the cost of exams.
100 dollar per end-of-course exam.
And even that, only if they can afford it.
We are just at the beginning,
we just started three years ago, we're just at the beginning.
But I would like to share with you and conclude with a success story.
Next week a young person, named Joe Jean,
is going to start his studies
in one of the most selective universities in the world:
New York University Abu Dhabi.
He was selected
to be one of a group of 150 students
out of 15,000 applicants who tried to get a seat.
It is the most selective university in the world,
only 1% of the applicants are being accepted to NYU Abu Dhabi.
Joe Jean has been accepted.
Not only that, he's receiving a full scholarship, living, and travel expenses.
What makes Joe Jean so unique
is that Joe Jean is a survivor of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
He lost everything in the earthquake, but not his hope.
Four months after the earthquake, he applied to University of the People,
got accepted and started his studies.
While studying, he had to work multiple jobs.
Juggling between his multiple jobs and his studies,
this incredible young man also found time
to volunteer helping his peer students.
He was doing very well.
When we announced our partnership with NYU,
where our best students can be accepted to NYU Abu Dhabi,
Joe Jean applied.
He got accepted.
From the rubble of Haiti
to one of the most selective university in the world.
Joe Jean has made it.
Who knows what's next for him?
Maybe he's going to lead one of the Fortune 500 companies?
Maybe he's going to start his own venture to change the world.
This is Joe Jean, this is University of the People.
Not every day will the world find the next Einstein, Curie, or Hawking.
But every day, thousands of ambitious students
are walking through the gates of the University of the People,
waiting to show us what they have.
Let's release our human potential.
Remember, when you educate one person,
you can change a life,
when you educate many, you can change the world.
We can change the world.
If you believe this is an idea worth spreading,
then please, help us spread the word.
Thank you.
(Applause)