Shai Reshef
Doctor of Humane Letters
Following a highly successful career in the for-profit education sector, entrepreneur Shai Reshef has dedicated himself and his resources to transforming higher education from a privilege into a basic human right.
From 1989–2005, Reshef served as chair of the Kidum Group, an international for-profit educational services company. From 2001–04, he also chaired KIT eLearning, a subsidiary of Kidum and the online partner of the University of Liverpool, creating Europe’s first online university. In 2005, he sold Kidum to Kaplan Inc. and set his sights on opening the gates to education for the millions of people worldwide who face financial, cultural, political and other barriers.
In 2009, Reshef founded University of the People, or UoPeople, the first nonprofit, tuition-free, accredited American online university dedicated to opening access to higher education globally. UoPeople harnesses technology and volunteerism to make high-quality, low-cost higher education accessible to all qualified students, especially disadvantaged, displaced or underserved individuals. Today, UoPeople has a pool of 47,000 volunteer educators and serves 170,000 students in more than 200 countries — including refugees, Afghan women and internally displaced people. Based on a “learning to earning” model, UoPeople offers in-demand, job-related degrees, making graduates highly employable.
Reshef is widely lauded for his pioneering work in democratizing higher education. His numerous honors include the Yidan Prize for Educational Development, informally known as the “Nobel Prize for Education,” and an Ashoka fellowship. Named to Fast Company’s list of the 100 Most Creative People and to Wired Magazine’s Smart List of 50 People Who Will Change the World, he has given several influential TED Talks and is a frequent speaker at international conferences, including the World Economic Forum and The Economist’s Human Potential Summit.