The University of Pennsylvania will accept cryptocurrency as tuition payment for a new online program at the Wharton School, making Penn the first Ivy League institution and Wharton the first U.S. business school to allow students to pay their tuition using the digital currency, reports the Philadelphia Business Journal.
The option is limited to the Economics of Blockchain and Digital Assets course, a six-week certificate program developed in partnership with Prysm Group, a blockchain economic consulting firm. Wharton will accept tuition payments for the course in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and USD Coin, according to a university statement.
Although limited to the one program, Penn's move puts it on a short list – both nationally and across the globe – of colleges and universities to accept digital currency as payment for education. King's College in New York became the first U.S. college to do so back in 2014. In July, California Intercontinental University, an online college, announced that it would accept Bitcoin and Ethereum for tuition payments.
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The University of Nicosia in Cyprus became the first accredited university in the world to accept Bitcoin for tuition payments in 2013. It was followed by the University of Cumbria in the United Kingdom in 2014, which became the first public university in the world to do so, according to Analytics Insight.
PBJ.com has details on the university's recent $5 million gift from Bitcoin and how it deals with cryptocurrencies when they are received.
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