A group of Oxford professors are seeking full-degree granting powers in the EU for the world’s first “blockchain university”, according to an email shared with Cointelegraph today, June 14.
According to the team of academics behind Woolf Development, led by Joshua Broggi from the Faculty of Philosophy at Oxford, blockchain tech and smart contracts can help democratize the traditional structure of higher education.
The proposed “blockchain university” will adopt the traditional Oxbridge course and collegiate structure by focusing on individual tutorial-led modules that will be available to students either on- or offline. The project’s design is “geographically agnostic,” prioritizing a “borderless” academic community over local or national ties.
Woolf’s whitepaper suggests that a blockchain-powered university can address many of the issues currently affecting universities worldwide, including sky-high tuition fees for students, cumbersome bureaucracy and administration costs, and precarious and underpaid academic teaching posts.
As the whitepaper outlines, the immutability of blockchain can function to prevent students from falsifying their academic records, with smart contracts automating students’ attendance, credits and academic paper submissions.
Dr. Broggi told CoinTelegraph that Woolf is now seeking full degree-granting powers in the EU and has been offered “a clear pathway to full accreditation in two European jurisdictions,” continuing:
“We are using a blockchain to enforce regulatory compliance and provide high degrees of data security, so that regulators have the confidence to provide global teaching activities with accreditation in Europe. So a Woolf student in Madras with a Woolf teacher in New York will earn an EU Woolf degree.”
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Read Full: Oxford Profs Plan Launch of World’s First Blockchain-Based, Decentralized University
