Education Business January 21, 2010, 4:42PM EST

Tuition-Free University Gains a Following

(page 4 of 4)

Shai Reshef

Story Tools

Partnership with Yale

Students are not the only ones intrigued by the school's model. The university has attracted the interest of a virtual army of academics and subject enthusiasts around the world. In September the school announced a research partnership with Yale Law School's Information Society Project. The two schools plan to work together on research projects based around digital education, as well as advocacy and social networking.

In addition, dozens of professors have volunteered to help design courses for the school and provide students with academic support, many of whom are well-known names is U.S. academic circles. For example, the provost of the school is David Harris Cohen, the former vice-president and dean of Columbia University's Faculty for Arts and Sciences. Heading up the computer science department is Alexander Tuzhilin, currently a professor of information systems at New York University's Stern School of Business (Stern Full-Time MBA Profile), while the business administration department is being led by Russell Winer, chair of Stern's marketing department.

Winer, who also joined the school's advisory board in October, says he signed up as a volunteer because he liked the idea of being able to reach students in developing countries who otherwise couldn't afford a business education. His primary role is to develop courses for the school, but he's also helping the school with its accreditation process and other initiatives.

"In my career, I've been mainly teaching people who could afford to either pay for expensive MBAs or take out large amounts of loans and then hope to pay them back," he says. "The concept of the school really struck me as worthwhile because I recognized we could have a big impact on some individual who we would never see apply to NYU or any top business schools."

Winer's zeal appears to be contagious. There are more than 800 academics and subject enthusiasts around the world who have volunteered to help with the school, whether by assisting students with assignments or developing the curriculum, Reshef says. The outpouring of interest has taken Reshef by surprise. He who says he gets an e-mail almost every day from someone in the higher education community who wants to volunteer their time.

"It's a great feeling. It happened to be that we are here at the right time doing the right thing and people seem to love it, so we've gotten a great welcome," Reshef says. "I don't know how else to describe it, but the world is hugging us."

Damast is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com.