German University of Digital Science (100% online, non-profit)

[Voldigoad]

Today I learned about German University of Digital Science which aims to provide 100% online teaching for various Bachelor and Master programs focusing in the Digital world to tackle the lack of IT professional. As a non-profit organisation, they apparently also aim to cater to what they refer to as "the global south", but also people anywhere in the world at an affordable rate. They will also offer a sort of MOOC environment with digital courses. The university programs appear to be scheduled to start in Q3 2024.
If really non-profit and affordable this could provide a huge chance for people globally to earn a probably soon to be accredited (apparently they already got in touch with the Wissenschaftsrat) German Bachelor/Masters degree 100% online.
Link: https://german-uds.de

[bjcheung77]

That's awesome, I really wonder what the pricing is on this, they don't have any details on that yet as the program isn't authorized in Germany and they're looking at probably Fall 2024 start... Hopefully they get enough traction and get this off the ground by Fall 2024, even a Winter 2024 start would be great...

[Voldigoad]

That's awesome, I really wonder what the pricing is on this, they don't have any details on that yet as the program isn't authorized in Germany and they're looking at probably Fall 2024 start...  Hopefully they get enough traction and get this off the ground by Fall 2024, even a Winter 2024 start would be great...

Yes. I am from Germany, but even as a german I excited about this because so far the only public (=affordable) Uni I know of that is 100% online is Fernuni Hagen here, which has a sort of limited catalog and the digital subject matter advertised by UDS looks really intriguing. You can request their 5 year whitepaper somewhere on the website in order to get a bit more insight on them. I already received it, just need the time to browse through it. I also signed up to receive an email once their MOOCs launch and just hope I signed up for a newsletter in general, because I'd really love to stay up to date on this school. I read about them on some german IT news site ("Golem") and once googling it found some more news-sites talking about them. I really hope they succeed.

They also seem to have scheduled "finishing accreditation with the state of Brandenburg" by Q3 2024, so I assume a more realistic start of studies would be Q4 or Q1 25. That said, MOOCs may start earlier, just like early bird signups.

[Tomas]

It seems they are at it for a couple of years already, also very experienced and well connected founders, that increases chances of going by the schedule, also state of Brandenburg quite eager to welcome new universities. Wondering what the cost for students will be though, while they claim the platform and concept can scale very well, the bottleneck could be number of students per professor possibly required by accreditation commitee?

[Tomas]

I've got the 5 year plan, not much info in it for prospective student (nothing about degrees nor areas they wish to offer study in, no timelines,...). It surprised me (in a good way) that they put high importance on research, obviously main goal of German UDS is to become a research university (of international importance).

[bjcheung77]

Cool, I'll just wait for the accreditation to be finalized before investing energy, time into the university... for now, it's a great option for backup until they get it.

[Voldigoad]

Indeed, I am also thrilled how this will play out.

[indigoshuffle]

Today I learned about German University of Digital Science which aims to provide 100% online teaching for various Bachelor and Master programs focusing in the Digital world to tackle the lack of IT professional. As a non-profit organisation, they apparently also aim to cater to what they refer to as "the global south", but also people anywhere in the world at an affordable rate. They will also offer a sort of MOOC environment with digital courses. The university programs appear to be scheduled to start in Q3 2024.
If really non-profit and affordable this could provide a huge chance for people globally to earn a probably soon to be accredited (apparently they already got in touch with the Wissenschaftsrat) German Bachelor/Masters degree 100% online.
Link: https://german-uds.de

Is there a lack of IT professionals? I kinda think it's saturated. Aren't those type of jobs always laying ppl off?

[nykorn]

I filled out their form to pre-register.

The first two-week online courses offered by the German-UDS.Academy will introduce you to the topics of
-        "Digital Science",
-        "AI - Artificial Intelligence",
-        "Digital Identities",
-        "Digital Privacy" and "Programming".
A course on the innovation method of "Design Thinking" is also in preparation. Please register so that you can find out the exact course dates and enroll in the courses later.

Seems strange that they are just offering 2 week courses, and no mention of credit.

[Tomas]

I doubt 2 week courses could result in any credits. They are simply offering a couple of free MOOC courses for the starters, before they roll out degree programs.
(I could only guess but most likely those would be first 2 weeks of full course that will later appear as part of the degree program.)