Developing a Global Online University

The U.S. has built great systems of freedom and free markets.?And when these have been used wisely, they have produced results that have been a boon for humankind.?But our nation has also perpetuated the opposite of its values through the genocide of Native Americans, the slavery of African Americans, and the interference and paramilitary action in developing countries throughout the world.?While we cannot change these unjust actions of our past, we can use the best of our national character to help those whom we have historically wronged.?The concept of a global online university laid out in this article seeks to do just that, by finding true win-win solutions to problems faced by various groups.

The idea is simple on the surface, and uses economic principles that have been effective in other markets: Reduce the cost of goods and/or services by producing these goods and/or services in a lower cost area of the world. In the case proposed here, the services would be that of university education, which would be provided by professors in one or more developing nations, which could be provided to U.S. students via the Internet.

The time appears to be ripe for this to occur, as many universities in the U.S. and developing nations have turned to online instruction during the COVID pandemic, and thus both professors and students have become more amiable to such arrangements. Further, this could be a huge opportunity for the developing nations who are involved, as it would tap them into a $580.7 billion higher education market (IBISWorld, 2021), in which even prior to the pandemic, over 5 million U.S. students were enrolled exclusively in distance education courses (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). And this is not just the theoretical, as there are clear examples of financially successful online universities in the United States in which their revenues were significant. For instance, the University of Phoenix generated over $1 billion per year from students exclusively in online courses (Losh, 2017). This is an amount that is greater than 1% of many developing country Gross Domestic Products.

Indeed, by being part of a global online university, the developing nation(s) will be solving two complementary problems, and thus has the potential for great success. First, U.S. students need a more cost effective way of completing their university education, in which the average cost of attending college is?$35,720?per year (Hanson, 2021). A global online university that hired professors from developing nation(s) would be able to offer a lower cost option, with highly qualified faculty. At the same time, this university could pay more and make more than from serving purely the domestic students of the countries involved.

And the scale of financial gain for the developing nation(s) could be quite significant, thus helping them to solve their need for economic growth. One only needs to look to how India has capitalized on providing IT services to the United States and other countries to see how providing intellectual services can have a major positive impact on a national scale. Further, India is a good example of how once a country has been able to gain significant market share, with the right policies, they can retain their competitive lead.

Which Developing Nation(s) Should Do This?

While any developing nation could potentially take advantage of this opportunity, those which are least developed at the present, would have the most to gain from starting a global online university. Of those countries that are least developed, nearly three quarters of them are on the African continent (United Nations, 2021). Further, as Dr Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organization, has noted recently: "Africa has not really been as well integrated into the world trading system as it should be." (Okonjo-Iweala, 2021) Thus many African nations do not already have industries that are significantly gaining revenue through global trade.

There are then two potential strategies to how many developing countries should be involved. One strategy is to have a single developing nation move quickly to develop such an institution, and thus potentially gain a "first mover effect" in the marketplace. This strategy would have the advantage of that nation having greater incentive to do what it takes to have the global online university be a success, and thus might be able to streamline getting its national accreditation for the institution, and providing more capital to the project.

But, if only a single developing nation was to create this institution, it would clearly not help other developing nations (at least not at first), and there might be a lack of sufficient qualified faculty to grow the university. Further, with Africa as an example, many investors are only interested in businesses that spread regulatory risk across multiple national markets (Yembra et al., 2021). Similarly, many philanthropists are only interested in ideas that are not limited to a single nation. So the university could also be developed separate from any single country, but instead involve several of them. But, in this scenario, it may be more difficult or slower to get developing countries to accredit the university as they would not have as much of a vested interest.

How Would the Technology Work?

There are many options for how to do the technology, and determining which specific technologies would be best to use, would need to occur while developing the global online university. But, with that said, some of the basics are likely to be as follows. First, for regulatory purposes and reliability, it would be best to have the servers located in the United States. Specifically, as will be discussed in another paper, it would probably be best have them on an American Indian reservation or other official Native American lands, although this is not absolutely required, and the servers could be located other places as well, with each type of decision having regulatory and technological tradeoffs.

The professors from the developing nation(s) could either connect to these servers from a central location, like an existing university, that had sufficient bandwidth on a sufficiently reliable internet connection, or if the bandwidth and reliability were sufficient, could also even be done from the homes of professors. Given the general lack of reliable internet infrastructure in many developing countries and that it may be easier to manage the operation if everyone was together, then having one or more central locations would probably be most desired.

The specific software to be used is very wide open. There are several very good open source Learning Management Systems (LMSes), such as Moodle, Canvas, and Open edX. There are also a wide range of commercial options. Each one of these have various educational and technological tradeoffs, and the decision of which to use would be best to determine during the development process.

What Program(s) and Curriculum(s) Would Be Used?

Initially, it would be easiest to have programs and curricula used that were already being offered in the developing nation(s) involved. Further, it would be important that these programs would be appropriate already for U.S. students, such as offering International Masters of Business Administration (MBA) programs, computer science programs, etc.

It is recommended that the initial programs offered be at a postgraduate level. There are several reasons for this. First, these programs would generate the most revenue. Second, in the United States there are usually no government grants the cover the cost of postgraduate education, so postgraduate students are often more price conscious. And, finally, there is likely to be more students at the postgraduate level who would be more open to attending an international online university. This is because there are often misconceptions that U.S. students may have about other parts of the world. For example, many students in the United States may think that most Africans live in huts. Students at the postgraduate level would likely have less of these misconceptions.

How to Gain U.S. Students?

The global online university could be quite scalable, with an initially small size, and then can grow as word of mouth, and advertising increased. But, growth would be predicated on students' consumer choice. The first obstacle to overcome is to ensure that the education provided by the global online university is considered legitimate in the eyes of potential students. This is generally done through accreditation by a U.S. approved accrediting body, but such accreditation generally will not occur until there has been sufficient time that the university has been in operation with the specific program(s). To overcome this "chicken and egg" problem, it would be critical that the global online university have the full backing of the developing nation(s)' accreditation, and further that a partnership be formed with a U.S. education evaluation service, so that all graduates would automatically have their degrees evaluated, so they would be recognized as being equivalent to a U.S. accredited degree.

The brand identity of the developing nation could also be a positive or negative factor. A country could utilize how they are viewed in U.S. popular culture to benefit them. But, there is also the potential for negative brand identification. For example, a country that has been in the U.S. news due to repression of its citizenry may have more difficulties gaining students..

Pricing is another important variable. The cost to U.S. students should be less than what they would pay for a domestic degree, but not at such a low price point that it demeans the value of the education. Further, at first, the global online university would not be able to provide any U.S. Federal Student Aid, and thus its pricing might not be as competitive for undergraduate degrees (which are the only degrees that U.S. student can usually gain federal grants). This is why it would be important to setup the legal structure of the university in such a way that it would have the best chance of being able to offer U.S. Federal Student Aid in the future, and one reason why it would be recommended to offer postgraduate degrees first, such as Masters and Doctorates.

But, with the right structure, right marketing, right pricing, and good quality, it is highly likely that many students would be very interested in attending this type of university.

What could Cause Failure?

There are political, cultural, and technological factors that many underdeveloped countries have, that if not addressed, could cause failure. First, there must be sufficient political stability that a project like this could be built. If corruption and/or nepotism occurs to too great of a degree, it can cause failure for any institution. And the relevant bureaucracies of the country could hinder the success of the global online university, by either delaying the project to such an extent that competitors have beat them to the market, or stop the project all together.

Culturally, to serve the U.S. market, the professors in the developing nation must speak English sufficiently similar to U.S. students, and have an accent that is sufficiently understandable to most U.S. students. Further, if professors could not adapt to U.S. cultural norms such as the equality of women, and the acceptance of LGBTQ students, this could cause issues with the success of the institution.

Technologically, as discussed, there would need to be an internet connection that had sufficiently high bandwidth and be reliable to be able to not have issues in serving U.S. students with video. Although, there are ways that the need for high speed Internet could be reduced, by locating servers in the United States (which also could have potential U.S. regulatory benefit), and by using innovative educational methods, such as "flipping" the "classroom", where students watched educational videos first, and did educational activities, and the professors then supported the work of the students. Professors would also need to have sufficient skills in using the technology.

What are the Next Steps?

Based upon all of this, I am starting Global UniversityONE, which will be a U.S. University, partnered with universities from developing countries, with Africa being its main focus.

There have been a significant number of countries that have shown interest in working with Global UniversityONE. These include Ghana, Liberia, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. In several of these nations, top officials have been involved in initial dialogue.

If you are interested in seeing how you might become involved in this venture, as a partner, social investor, advisor, etc. please contact me on LinkedIn.

Works Cited

Hanson, M. (2021, June 26). Average Cost of College & Tuition. EducationData. https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-college

IBISWorld. (2021, February 9). Colleges & Universities in the US - Market Size 2004–2027. IBISWorld. https://www.ibisworld.com/default.aspx

Losh, E. (2017). MOOCs and Their Afterlives: Experiments in Scale and Access in Higher Education. University of Chicago Press.

National Center for Education Statistics. (2019). 2018-19 Provisional Survey Results from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/tablefiles/zipfiles/IPEDS_2018-19_Provisional.zip

Okonjo-Iweala, N. (2021, June 29). Editor’s conversations: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Z. Minton Beddoes, Interviewer) [The Economist live digital events webcast]. https://www.economist.com/films/2021/07/01/editors-conversations-ngozi-okonjo-iweala

United Nations. (2021, February). LDCs at a Glance. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/least-developed-country-category/ldcs-at-a-glance.html/

Yembra, N., Kisadha, P., Aboyeji, I., Simmons, H., Grin, S., Kefela, L., Barry, D., Ly, A., Fu, A., Muscarella, C., & Gabriele, M. (2021, June 20). Tech in Africa: An introduction to the continent’s ecosystem. The Generalist. https://www.readthegeneralist.com/briefing/africa