Since we started Blue Marble University around 2010, nothing much has changed concerning the tuiiton cost of computer based education. Traditional colleges and universities continue to overcharge for the delivery of cheap online courses. They have the Accreditation “stamps” in their hands and use it to keep everyone else out of the education industry so as to keep their tuition fees high. And a for-profit industry it is!
When we started, our idea was to offer quality, innovative programs for as low a tuition as we could. And now, almost 10 years later, our annual tuition expenses, including all learning materials, runs from only $2700 to a max of $3450. And we offer no-interest payment plans too.
And although we are a foreign education institution based in the Commonwealth of Dominica, our degrees are deemed equivalent to regionally accredited US colleges and universities. So that means, you can use our degrees for employment in the US and elsewhere, just like many others use foreign degrees, including foreign medical degrees, for working in the US.
Blue Marble University, a virtual university with no classrooms and no buldings to maintain, is proof that quality education can be delivered on a small budget. Yet, the traditional universities continue to charge online students the same as they charge campus based students going to classes.
Nothing has changed since the amazing example of educational arrogance uncovered by Anya Kamenetz in 2010, when we observed:
“The lack of reduction of tuition costs reflective of increased technology has been seen also for all the existing not-for-profit well known universities. Students have yet to enjoy the cost savings technology can offer. Even for online programs, the existing pattern has been to charge tuition not based on cost of delivery to the student, but rather based on what is the maximum government loan the student can obtain!! As another example, consider this note by Anya Kamenetz in her book: “DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education” (Chelsea Green Publishing 2010), at page 90:
“USC’s MAT program (online master’s program in teaching) is innovative in terms of the students’ experience, but not in terms of institutional structure. They still charge the same for the online programs as they do for the in-person ones, for example, avoiding the key question of whether technology can cut costs. In fact, the dean of the education school, Karen Gallagher, seemed a little defensive that I was even asking: ‘I don’t know if I’d use that word-efficiency’, she said. ‘We actually haven’t sat down to do a one-on-one cost comparison. If you want a USC degree you have to pay USC tuition.‘ ” [Emphasis supplied]
[Excerpted from “Blue Marble Review of Post-Secondary Education”, October 1, 2011, https://bluemarbleuniversity.com/about/blue-marble-review-of-postsecondary-education-in-america-as-related-to-the-founding-of-blue-marble-university/
We were happy to see that even as late as December 2018, the United States Department of Education, in their report reviewing accreditation and the need for reform, stated specifically:
“Postsecondary accreditation is a voluntary process
in that a college or university need not be accredited
in order to provide instruction or confer academic
degrees”
“Rethinking Higher Education-Accreditation reform”, December 2018, U.S. Department of Education.
Another side point made in the government report: “The aim of accreditation is not to ensure that all institutions accredited by a given agency are identical or that all students who attend those institutions reach for the same goals or achieve the same outcomes.” Of course that is exactly what you have now. EVERY college and university still has general education courses required, as well as second language courses required. Blue Marble University has neither!!!
Blue Marble University
NON-ACCREDITED….NON-TRADITIONAL…
BUT EQUIVALENT
Blue Marble University 