A group of University of Oxford academics have launched the world’s first “blockchain university”, an Oxbridge-style institution that they describe as “Uber for students, Airbnb for academics”.
Woolf University will not have a physical campus and will instead be based around an app that allows academics to advertise their expertise to prospective students, who can in turn select modules to suit their needs and interests. Blockchain, the increasingly popular digital ledger, will be used to regulate contracts and payments and also to record academic achievement.
In time, students would be able to acquire credits towards undergraduate degrees, which would be placed on the blockchain and which are likely to be accredited by traditional higher education institutions in the first instance.
Joshua Broggi, Woolf’s director and a junior research fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford, said that the aim was to allow academics to take control of their employment and to lower tuition fees for students.
“The advantage of working with blockchain is that we can automate a range of administrative procedures and reduce overhead costs,” he told Times Higher Education. “A second advantage is that you can have a decentralised, autonomous organisation in which people have security with respect to their contracts.
“Our ultimate aim is for this to be a driver of job opportunities and security for academics, as well as a low-cost alternative for students.”
Read more:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/oxford-academics-launch-worlds-first-blockchain-university#survey-answer (Oxford academics launch world’s first ‘blockchain university’)