Will students fork over $60K for UC Berkeley’s new online master’s degree in data science? - Ki Mae Heussner, GigaOM

Berkeley can reach students all over the world and people who want more education without giving up their jobs. With 2U, it hopes to offer a virtual experience that can justify the same price tag as an on-campus degree. “We wanted a partner that would be able to offer the level of rigor, selectivity, and quality of our existing campus based degrees,” said AnnaLee Saxenian, dean of UC Berkeley’s I School. Given space limitations on campus, an online degree also enabled the school to offer a new program without requiring additional space. The degree, which 2U expects students will be able to complete in 12 to 20 months, will cost $60,000 a pop. When compared to the free and low-cost massive open online courses (MOOCs) — like the online computer science degree offered by Georgia Tech and Udacity — that get the lion’s share of attention in online education, that’s bound to raise eyebrows. But 2U offers an entirely different flavor of online learning. http://gigaom.com/2013/07/16/uc-berkeley-now-offers-online-only-masters-in-data-science-for-60k/