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Transcript/Script((PLAYBOOK SLUG: University of the People – Adams
HEADLINE: Online University Provides Tuition-Free Education to Students Worldwide
TEASER:
PUBLISHED: 02/xx/2024 at
BYLINE: Maxim Adams
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE:
VIDEOGRAPHER: Dana Preobrazhenskaya
VIDEO EDITOR: Dana Preobrazhenskaya, Anna Rice
SCRIPT EDITORS: KEnochs; Reifenrath
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA News + Agencies TBD
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV __ RADIO __
TRT: 3:20
VID APPROVED BY: KE
TYPE: TVrPKG
EDITOR NOTES: Please return to Anna Rice and copy to HFR when done.))
((INTRO))
[[The University of the People, a tuition-free online university, was founded in 2009 and accredited in 2014. The game-changing goal of the U.S. nonprofit is to make education accessible to some 140,000 students from 200 countries. Maxim Adams has the story.]]
((NARRATION))
((Mandatory courtesy: Kateryna Glubochenko))
Kateryna Glubochenko is from Mykolaiv, Ukraine. When Russia invaded her country, she was just three months away from getting her undergraduate degree.
((End courtesy))
((RADIO TRACK: She says everyone started leaving town in a panic. Businesses closed and everything stopped.]]
((Kateryna Glubochenko, UoPeople Graduate (female, RUS))) ((Zoom))
"Everyone started leaving town in panic. All businesses closed. Literally everything stopped.
((NARRATOR))
((Mandatory courtesy: Kateryna Glubochenko))
But Glubochenko didn’t give up on her education. She worked toward her degree and graduated, sometimes studying in bomb shelters.
((End courtesy))
((Kateryna Glubochenko, UoPeople Graduate (female, RUS))) ((Zoom))
It was a total disaster, except for UoPeople [[You-oh-people]]. I still had that.”
[[Radio: She Says it was a total disaster except for UoPeople.”))
((NARRATION))
((Mandatory courtesy: UoPeople))
University of the People, or UoPeople, bills itself as the first tuition-free U.S.-accredited nonprofit online university. The university isn’t completely free, however. Students must pay between 140 and 400 dollars for every class they take. Students end up paying about 5 thousand dollars to earn a bachelor's degree, and less than that for some of the University’s master's degree programs.
In addition, the University offers a system of scholarships for people who can’t pay anything. If students qualify, and about 50 percent do, a degree costs nothing.
According to bestColleges.com, in 2022, the average cost of tuition and fees at a four-year public university in the United States was about nine thousand six hundred dollars a year.
((Mandatory courtesy: UoPeople))
UoPeople was founded in San Francisco in 2009 by American Israeli businessman and entrepreneur Shai Reshef, who says the university accepts students from around the globe.
((Shai Reshef, UoPeople Founder and President (male, English))) ((Zoom)) ((05:30))
"In the U.S., we have
((End courtesy))
the homeless, we have undocumented students, we have stay-at-home moms… //
((Mandatory courtesy: UoPeople))
But we also have a lot of people who are coming from harsh
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background.
((NARRATION))
((Mandatory courtesy: Khadija Amini))
Afghan refugee Khadija Amini is a UoPeople student living in Albania as she awaits her U.S. visa. Her parents worked for the Afghan government,
((End courtesy))
but after the Taliban came to power, they fled. UoPeople gave Amini
((Mandatory courtesy: Khadija Amini))
not just a shot at the education the Taliban would have denied her, but much more.
((End courtesy))
((RADIO: She says that other Afghan girls want to study, and that she started teaching them online from home as a volunteer. She told her friends and students about UoPeople.”))
((Khadija Amini, UoPeople Student (female, ENG)) ((Zoom)) ((07:47))
"Other Afghan girls, they want to study. I just started to teach them
((Mandatory courtesy: Khadija Amini))
online from the home as a volunteer. // Also, I started to teach them how to find viable resources."
((End courtesy))
((NARRATION))
((Mandatory courtesy: UoPeople))
Today, some 130,000 students from 200 countries study at UoPeople. The staff – about 26,000 people – are all volunteers, and the university provides degrees in business administration, information technology, health science and more.
((End courtesy))
((Shai Reshef, UoPeople Founder and President (male, English))) ((Zoom)) ((08:57))
"I believe that education is a basic right, and every person in the world should deserve the
((Mandatory courtesy: UoPeople))
opportunity. And that's exactly what we do. We develop a model of higher education to show that higher education can be accessible and affordable to all.”
((End courtesy))
((NARRATION))
((Mandatory courtesy: UoPeople))
UoPeople works with a number of the world’s leading institutions of higher learning, including Edinburgh and McGill universities. It also receives support and aid from nonprofits such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and tech giants like Google and Intel.
((Maxim Adams, VOA News, Washington))
((End courtesy))
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