University of the People UoPeople accreditation: the ultimate guide
First of all, before you read this article, we recommend its introduction in the homepage.
Fake news about WASC regional accreditation
WASC Senior College and University Commission, also known as WSCUC, is a serious regional accrediting body, unlike UoPeople's DEAC. In February 2020, UoPeople claimed to be going to receive WASC regional accreditation. WASC didn't issue any statements but UoPeople started to bombard Internet forums, social networks, YouTube etc. claiming that they were going to be accredited. Fake news! You just have to read WASC's official page instead of UoPeople's fake articles: University of the People is just a candidate, which means it is not accredited by WASC because UoPeople's application was rejected. UoPeople can try again in a few years, but nobody really knows when it will be accredited (assuming it will be accredited). Besides, accreditation is a long process — unless you get accredited after a couple of days by accreditation mills such as DETC-DEAC. DEAC, which is the previously defunct DETC, is not a regional accreditation body and has nothing to do with WASC. In the USA, regional accreditation is the most reputable form of accreditation, which allows students and graduates to transfer credits from an institution to others, or to qualify for state licensure. This means that UoPeople.edu is not regionally accredited in America, and the reason is very simple: unlike other universities including — online universities — which have real headquarters, real facilities, real professors and instructors etc., University of the People doesn't have anything, and almost no one considers it a real and legitimate school.
Besides, UoPeople reps now claim that "national accreditation is the same as regional accreditation, because they are both legal". First of all, nobody said that national accreditation is illegal — technically it is not illegal — but the point is that UoPeople's ridiculous national self-accreditation, namely DETC-DEAC, has no credibility in academia, in business or in the workplace. It is no accident that UoPeople also tried to get regional accreditation through WASC (without success): if national and regional accreditation were the same thing, why would UoPeople seek regional accreditation too?
UoPeople fake worldwide accreditation
University of the People sells many degrees in Africa and Asia. Unfortunately, people in those countries don't know that UoPeople degrees are not accredited there and are therefore useless: very few (important) universities in the world have multiple international accreditations, which allow them to issue degrees in more than one country. This is not the case with the tiny University of the People, which is barely accredited in the US and is unaccredited in the rest of the world. For the sake of clarity, UoPeople is not accredited in Europe, Africa, Asia or Oceania.
Comprehensive list of countries where University of the People UoPeople.edu is either accredited or unaccredited
USA, including Puerto Rico: UoPeople is nationally accredited but not regionally accredited. More specifically, not accredited by WASC, which rejected the first request for accreditation: UoPeople now has five years to comply with WASC directives. Not recognized by WES.
European Union: UoPeople is not accredited
Austria: UoPeople is not accredited
Belgium: UoPeople is not accredited
Bulgaria: UoPeople is not accredited
Croatia: UoPeople is not accredited
Cyprus: UoPeople is not accredited
Czech Republic: UoPeople is not accredited
Denmark: UoPeople is not accredited
Estonia: UoPeople is not accredited
Finland: UoPeople is not accredited
France: UoPeople is not accredited
Germany: UoPeople is not accredited
Greece: UoPeople is not accredited
Hungary: UoPeople is not accredited
Ireland: UoPeople is not accredited
Italy: UoPeople is not accredited
Latvia: UoPeople is not accredited
Lithuania: UoPeople is not accredited
Luxembourg: UoPeople is not accredited
Malta: UoPeople is not accredited
Netherlands: UoPeople is not accredited
Poland: UoPeople is not accredited
Portugal: UoPeople is not accredited
Romania: UoPeople is not accredited
Slovakia: UoPeople is not accredited
Slovenia: UoPeople is not accredited
Spain: UoPeople is not accredited
Sweden: UoPeople is not accredited
Afghanistan: UoPeople is not accredited
Albania: UoPeople is not accredited
Algeria: UoPeople is not accredited
Angola: UoPeople is not accredited
Anguilla: UoPeople is not accredited
Antigua and Barbuda: UoPeople is not accredited
Argentina: UoPeople is not accredited
Armenia: UoPeople is not accredited
Aruba: UoPeople is not accredited
Australia: UoPeople is not accredited
Azerbaijan: UoPeople is not accredited
Bahamas: UoPeople is not accredited
Bahrain: UoPeople is not accredited
Bangladesh: UoPeople is not accredited
Barbados: UoPeople is not accredited
Belarus: UoPeople is not accredited
Belize: UoPeople is not accredited
Benin: UoPeople is not accredited
Bermuda: UoPeople is not accredited
Bhutan: UoPeople is not accredited
Bolivia: UoPeople is not accredited
Bosnia and Herzegovina: UoPeople is not accredited
Botswana: UoPeople is not accredited
Brazil: UoPeople is not accredited
British Virgin Islands: UoPeople is not accredited
Brunei: UoPeople is not accredited
Burkina Faso: UoPeople is not accredited
Burundi: UoPeople is not accredited
Cambodia: UoPeople is not accredited
Cameroon: UoPeople is not accredited
Canada: UoPeople is not accredited and not recognized by WES
Cape Verde (Cabo Verde): UoPeople is not accredited
Cayman islands: UoPeople is not accredited
Central African Republic: UoPeople is not accredited
Chad: UoPeople is not accredited
Chile: UoPeople is not accredited
China (People's Republic of China): UoPeople is not accredited
Colombia: UoPeople is not accredited
Comoros: UoPeople is not accredited
Congo (Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo): UoPeople is not accredited
Costa Rica: UoPeople is not accredited
Curaçao: UoPeople is not accredited
Djibouti: UoPeople is not accredited
Dominica: UoPeople is not accredited
Dominican Republic: UoPeople is not accredited
Ecuador: UoPeople is not accredited
Egypt: UoPeople is not accredited
El Salvador: UoPeople is not accredited
Equatorial Guinea: UoPeople is not accredited
Eritrea: UoPeople is not accredited
Eswatini: UoPeople is not accredited
Ethiopia: UoPeople is not accredited
Fiji: UoPeople is not accredited
Gabon: UoPeople is not accredited
Gambia: UoPeople is not accredited
Georgia: UoPeople is not accredited
Ghana: UoPeople is not accredited
Grenada: UoPeople is not accredited
Guatemala: UoPeople is not accredited
Guinea: UoPeople is not accredited
Guinea-Bissau: UoPeople is not accredited
Guyana: UoPeople is not accredited
Haiti: UoPeople is not accredited
Honduras: UoPeople is not accredited
Hong Kong: UoPeople is not accredited
Iceland: UoPeople is not accredited
India: UoPeople is not accredited
Indonesia: UoPeople is not accredited
Iran: UoPeople is not accredited
Iraq: UoPeople is not accredited
Israel: UoPeople is not accredited, which is remarkable
Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire): UoPeople is not accredited
Jamaica: UoPeople is not accredited
Japan: UoPeople is not accredited
Jordan: UoPeople is not accredited
Kazakhstan: UoPeople is not accredited
Kenya: UoPeople is not accredited
Kyrgyzstan: UoPeople is not accredited
Kuwait: UoPeople is not accredited
Laos: UoPeople is not accredited
Lebanon: UoPeople is not accredited
Lesotho: UoPeople is not accredited
Liberia: UoPeople is not accredited
Libya: UoPeople is not accredited
Madagascar: UoPeople is not accredited
Malawi: UoPeople is not accredited
Malaysia: UoPeople is not accredited
Maldives: UoPeople is not accredited
Mali: UoPeople is not accredited
Mauritania: UoPeople is not accredited
Mauritius: UoPeople is not accredited
Mexico: UoPeople is not accredited
Moldova: UoPeople is not accredited
Monaco: UoPeople is not accredited
Mongolia: UoPeople is not accredited
Montenegro: UoPeople is not accredited
Morocco: UoPeople is not accredited
Mozambique: UoPeople is not accredited
Myanmar: UoPeople is not accredited
Namibia: UoPeople is not accredited
Nepal: UoPeople is not accredited
New Guinea: UoPeople is not accredited
New Zealand: UoPeople is not accredited
Nicaragua: UoPeople is not accredited
Niger: UoPeople is not accredited
Nigeria: UoPeople is not accredited
North Korea: UoPeople is not accredited
North Macedonia: UoPeople is not accredited
Norway: UoPeople is not accredited
Oman: UoPeople is not accredited
Pakistan: UoPeople is not accredited
Palau: UoPeople is not accredited
Panama: UoPeople is not accredited
Papua New Guinea: UoPeople is not accredited
Paraguay: UoPeople is not accredited
Peru: UoPeople is not accredited
Philippines: UoPeople is not accredited
Qatar: UoPeople is not accredited
Russia: UoPeople is not accredited
Rwanda: UoPeople is not accredited
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha: UoPeople is not accredited
Saint Kitts and Nevis: UoPeople is not accredited
Saint Lucia: UoPeople is not accredited
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: UoPeople is not accredited
Samoa: UoPeople is not accredited
São Tomé and Príncipe: UoPeople is not accredited
Saudi Arabia: UoPeople is not accredited
Senegal: UoPeople is not accredited
Serbia: UoPeople is not accredited
Seychelles: UoPeople is not accredited
Sierra Leone: UoPeople is not accredited
Singapore: UoPeople is not accredited
Solomon islands: UoPeople is not accredited
Somalia and Somaliland: UoPeople is not accredited
South Africa: UoPeople is not accredited
South Korea: UoPeople is not accredited
Sri Lanka: UoPeople is not accredited
Sudan and South Sudan: UoPeople is not accredited
Suriname: UoPeople is not accredited
Swaziland: UoPeople is not accredited
Switzerland: UoPeople is not accredited
Syria: UoPeople is not accredited
Taiwan (Taipei, Republic of China): UoPeople is not accredited
Tajikistan: UoPeople is not accredited
Tanzania: UoPeople is not accredited
Thailand: UoPeople is not accredited
Togo: UoPeople is not accredited
Tonga: UoPeople is not accredited
Trinidad and Tobago: UoPeople is not accredited
Tunisia: UoPeople is not accredited
Turkey: UoPeople is not accredited
Turkmenistan: UoPeople is not accredited
Tuvalu: UoPeople is not accredited
Uganda: UoPeople is not accredited
Ukraine: UoPeople is not accredited
United Arab Emirates (UAE): UoPeople is not accredited
United Kingdom: UoPeople is not accredited
Uruguay: UoPeople is not accredited
Uzbekistan: UoPeople is not accredited
Vanuatu: UoPeople is not accredited
Vatican City: UoPeople is not accredited
Venezuela: UoPeople is not accredited
Vietnam: UoPeople is not accredited
Yemen: UoPeople is not accredited
Zambia: UoPeople is not accredited
Zimbabwe: UoPeople is not accredited
all other countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, North America, Central America (including the Caribbean), South America: UoPeople is not accredited.
Bottom line: when UoPeople's owner and reps aka ambassadors claim it to be fully accredited, they are blatantly lying.
University of the People has published a long list on Reddit (List of international universities accepting UoPeople credentials) claiming that hundreds of real and accredited universities accept credits transferred from UoPeople.edu. That list is completely false. Just as an example, UoPeople claims that you can transfer credits to the Sapienza Università di Roma Italia, which is one of the largest universities in Europe and in the world. We phoned this university, but they had never heard of University of the People. They also said that any foreign university that wants to transfer credits to Rome Sapienza — or any other Italian university — must be recognized by the competent Italian embassy or consulate (in this case, it would be the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles). Since University of the People is not recognized by any embassies or consulates, transferring credits would be illegal and its degrees are invalid in Italy. Besides, UoPeople's blog, which we described here, in an article titled "Will my degree be relevant in my country?", claims that "Upon graduation, UoPeople students are ready and prepared to continue studying in high-quality educational institutions. They have continued their education at Carnegie Mellon University of Australia, University of Nairobi, Sapienza University of Rome, University of Newcastle in Australia, University of Waikato in New Zealand and elsewhere." As we have seen, these kinds of claims are all false, because Sapienza University of Rome confirmed that the institution never accepted students from the unknown University of the People, and it is no accident that UoPeople does not show any documents.
The unaccredited laughable UoPeople MBA
There exist four important accrediting agencies for MBA programs: the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB, chiefly American), the Association of MBAs (AMBA, chiefly British), the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP, chiefly American), and the EFMD Quality Improvement System (EQUIS, chiefly European). The best MBA programs hold accreditation from one or more of these accrediting bodies.
Since UoPeople.edu is not accredited by any of them, its "MBA" is just a ridiculous piece of paper, devoid of recognition in the business world, which you could have printed yourself without paying thousands of dollars to the Israeli University of the People Education Ltd diploma mill.
UoPeople claims that other MBAs are "too expensive", while UoPeople's MBA is a bargain and an "education revolution". However, after attending a legit business school, accredited by a legit business accrediting body, you will receive a respectable and accredited real MBA. Operating a business school — not a tiny offshore virtual diploma mill — is expensive, which is why a real MBA program is "expensive".