Online 'university of anywhere' opens to refugees - Sean Coughlan, BBC

An online university is offering 500 refugees from Syria's civil war free places on its degree courses. The University of the People, based in California, is a fast-growing, non-profit project designed to provide higher education for those with the academic ability to study, but without the ability to pay or without any practical access to a traditional university. "There isn't a better reason for the invention of the internet," says the university's founder and president, Shai Reshef. The university offers fully accredited four-year degrees, completely taught online, with students scattered across 180 countries. "We open the gates to higher education. We are an alternative for those who have no other alternative - survivors of the genocide in Rwanda, refugees from Syria, the earthquake in Haiti," says Mr Reshef, speaking to the BBC in London. http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36738442