Harvard University to implement digital online Learning for all students, tuition remains $50,000

Harvard University announced Monday it will implement digital online learning for all its courses during the coming academic year, while tuition for the prestigious Ivy League school will remain at about $50,000. Harvard’s endowment is currently valued at over $40 billion, making it the largest of any academic institution.

In a statement posted Monday on Harvard’s website, the school said up to 40 percent of undergraduate students will be cleared to live on campus this fall, including all incoming freshmen. All Harvard seniors will be allowed to return to campus in the spring semester, with freshmen returning home. However, even those students who choose to live on campus will be required to take part in online instruction.

After careful deliberation and informed by extensive input from our community, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced plans to bring up to 40% of our undergraduates to campus, including all first-year students, for the fall semester. Assuming that we maintain 40% density in the spring semester, we would again bring back one class, and our priority at this time is to bring seniors to campus. Under this plan, first years would return home and learn remotely in the spring. We also will invite back to campus those students who may not be able to learn successfully in their current home learning environment.

The announcement also includes information about remote teaching and learning and extra steps for students. According to the interim planning report provided by the school, all course instruction (undergraduate and graduate) for the 2020-21 academic year will be delivered online. “Students will learn remotely, whether or not they live on campus,” the university said.

Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, clergyman John Harvard, an alumnus of the University of Cambridge who had left the school £779 and his library of some 400 volumes. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and one of the most prestigious in the world.