Enlarge Courtesy of University of the People

Students work at the University of the People student computer center in Haiti. Students from 129 countries are currently enrolled with the institution.

Students work at the University of the People student computer center in Haiti. Students from 129 countries are currently enrolled with the institution.

Naylea Omayra Villanueva Sanchez, 22, lives on the edge of the Amazon rain forest in Tarapoto, northern Peru.

"Where I live, there's only jungle," Villanueva Sanchez says through an interpreter. "A university education is inaccessible."

And that's true in more ways than one. Villanueva Sanchez is in a wheelchair, the result of a motorcycle accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down.

She is now enrolled in the University of the People, an online institution that claims it is "the world's first, tuition-free, nonprofit, online university." It's aimed at poor students around the globe who would otherwise not have access to higher education.

Villanueva Sanchez came upon the University of the People while surfing the Internet during her recovery. When she applied for admission, she had to verify she was at least 18 years old, had finished high school and knew English. She paid a one-time $35 application fee, but her business administration courses are free. She pays no tuition or book costs.

"Of course, you see 'free' and right away you're suspicious," Villanueva Sanchez says. But after reading the organization's mission statement, she understood why it was free: She says it's for people like her, who don't have the opportunity or the money to attend college.

Making The Inaccessible Accessible

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Online University For All Balances Big Goals, Expensive Realities