Bitcoin Adoption: Universities now Accepting Bitcoin for Tuition Payment?

[globalcitizen]

As a passionate fan of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, it has always been my desire to see bitcoin become a payment of choice for many businesses and organizations around the world. Judging by recent developments across the world, I can say that the desire is gradually coming to fruition.

source: https://www.goldeneaglecoin.com/

With Bitcoin now being accepted by some major universities in different countries and businesses like Overstock, Microsoft and others, I feel confident that crypto adoption is going in the right direction and in no distant time, cryptocurrencies with $BTC taking the lead will become major contenders in the payment ecosystem as medium of exchange. I can't wait to see $BTC become a popular means of payment, not just a speculative tool and store of value that it's been mostly serving the purpose.

Recently, as I was researching the web, I came across some universities that have since being accepting Bitcoin for school fees payment and I decided to write on the topic here in order to get insights on others that are doing same across the world which I'm yet to come across.

Kindly add to this conversation by listing any university, colleges, or any institutions of learning in any part of the world that is allowing tuition and fees payment by $BTC. Let's keep the list going.

source: unic.ac.cy

Below are some of the universities that have opened doors for students to pay fees using Bitcoin:

1. University of Nicosia in Cyprus (the first in the world to do so since December 2013)
   https://www.unic.ac.cy/you-can-now-pay-your-university-tuition-with-bitcoins-wired/
   https://ecoin4dummies.com/university-of-nicosia-receives-tuition-payment-using-bitcoin/

2. The University of Cumbria Carlisle in the United Kingdom (since January 2014)
   https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/bitcoin-to-be-accepted-by-university-for-fee-payment/2010698.article
   https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/about/news/articles/articles/university-of-cumbria-professor-to-tell-united-nations-about-the-future-of-money-.html

3. The Kings College New York in the United States (accepting since June 2014)
   https://www.tkc.edu/stories/kings-is-first-u-s-college-to-accept-bitcoin/

4. ESMT Berlin in Germany (accepting since December 2016)
   https://esmt.berlin/knowledge/esmt-berlin-bitcoin-pays

5. Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland (since October 2017)
   https://www.hslu.ch/en/lucerne-university-of-applied-sciences-and-arts/about-us/medien/medienmitteilungen/2017/10/03/bitcoin/

6. FPT University in Vietnam (accepting since 2017)
    http://international.fpt.edu.vn/fpt-university-accepts-bitcoin-payment/#
    https://www.tun.com/blog/universities-accepting-bitcoin-for-tuition/

7. Financia Business School France (accepting since 2018)
    https://news.bitcoin.com/french-university-accepts-fees-in-bitcoin-for-blockchain-technology-courses/
    https://www.studyrama.com/formations/specialites/finance/actualites/financia-business-school-accepte-le-bitcoin-en-guise-105119

[Josefjix]

The whole adoption we have been seeking is gradually gaining the mainstream attention, educational institutions, financial institutions. What more do we need? It is left for governments of several countries to lower their pride and decentralize their economies; by leveraging on the growing of the digital freedom. Bitcoin isn't just a coin, it is an economy to reckon on.

[Sterbens]

Regardless of which university accepts cryptocurrency as a tuition payment system. I personally think that the university has identified Bitcoin as the spearhead of new technology. however, even when using a third-party system, in fact the additional fee involved is only one percent if paying with Bitcoin, which is much lower than if they were using traditional payment methods.

[kentrolla]

BTCs dominance is out of mind the mass adoption is growing because of the increasing use in primary sectors like institutions, businesses etc.

Well these type of news is boosting the rebel of BTC, the popularity of BTC is enormous and we are going to see a new revolution in crypto currency with the help of BTC, I would quote BTC as king for a reason

[globalcitizen]

The whole adoption we have been seeking is gradually gaining the mainstream attention, educational institutions, financial institutions. What more do we need? It is left for governments of several countries to lower their pride and decentralize their economies; by leveraging on the growing of the digital freedom. Bitcoin isn't just a coin, it is an economy to reckon on.

Great point you've made - 'government to lower their pride and decentralize their economies'. Unfortunately, it's not going to happen in real life. The governments I know would always want to restrict people's lives and deny them of their rightful freedom as humans. Government would tell you that a decentralized system would portray them as being weak in authority, which is a total fallacy. They would always want to control everything and that's why bitcoin seems like a big threat to them. Notwithstanding, bitcoin has come to stay and will defeat all its enemies at the end.

[globalcitizen]

Regardless of which university accepts cryptocurrency as a tuition payment system. I personally think that the university has identified Bitcoin as the spearhead of new technology. however, even when using a third-party system, in fact the additional fee involved is only one percent if paying with Bitcoin, which is much lower than if they were using traditional payment methods.

Absolutely, many universities across the world are realizing that fact that the potential of new technologies like blockchain can not be underestimated. And if any higher institution of learning must remain competitive then embracing such techs becomes paramount. That's why schools like Nicosia decided to jump in early into the cryptospace and is now taking the lead by even offering a master's degree in blockchain and digital currency. I'm excited that other institutions are now embracing the technology at a fast pace.

[avikz]

Slowly but surely, things are changing for better! It's a grand feeling to see these universities are accepting bitcoin for tuition fees and I am sure, many more universities will be joining the bandwagon shortly. But then the main questions is still unanswered. Even though there are many businesses around the world that accepts cryptocurrency as a payment method, are there more number of people willing to spend cryptocurrency as a store of value?

I had once found a barber in my city who accepts cryptocurrency for his services. I found him through the below website,

https://coinmap.org/

Once I visited that person and enquired about it, he says even after he is willing to accept cryptocurrency for his service, he could not found even a single person who is willing to spend cryptocurrency. In last 3 years, he didn't have even a single person paid in cryptocurrency for his services. I happen to be the first person in his list as I had paid through ETH due to the relatively smaller amount. But that's the harsh reality!

[Poker Player]

Although I see the list of those universities as positive, I'm sorry to say that I think the adoption of those kinds of payments in the rest of them is going to be very slow.

I understand that the ones that have accepted these types of payments are private institutions at least in their majority and have very open-minded people among the governing board.

In public universities, the acceptance of this type of payment is not going to happen soon and much less in mass, because they can not make their payments in bitcoin, and accepting that currency is like investing in a high-risk asset, with high volatility especially in the short term.

[Lorence.xD]

Regardless of which university accepts cryptocurrency as a tuition payment system. I personally think that the university has identified Bitcoin as the spearhead of new technology. however, even when using a third-party system, in fact the additional fee involved is only one percent if paying with Bitcoin, which is much lower than if they were using traditional payment methods.

The only one benefiting in this side of transaction is the universities. You see, when the price of bitcoin is lower, they will increase tuition to match the fiat value of that tuition and when the price is high, they do not have to do anything about it because they still have a degree of authority to the point that it will be difficult to ask for a rollback in tuition. The only I see that benefits the students is creating a system where you can choose whether you want to pay crypto or fiat, this is difficult too as universities will want their big piece of the pie and will do anything in their means to profit.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

As the link that you have posted, some universities have been accepting bitcoin as payment way before this bull run in 2020, so yeah it's closer to mainstream adoption as you can get. And there could be more universities that we are not aware that started as well, in 2018-2019. And maybe you can add this one to the list,

https://news.bitcoin.com/french-university-accepts-fees-in-bitcoin-for-blockchain-technology-courses/

[michellee]

The university's movements to accept bitcoin for tuition payment is a great step in the education world. If that can integrate without any problem, the other universities will follow this step. We need more universities to accept bitcoin to be used for education or in schools and universities. We know that the young generation is now aware of the new technology. Maybe sooner or later, we will see that the university has a lesson about crypto to attract more young people to studied more about crypto. The popularity of bitcoin to young people will also increase because they will learn how to use bitcoin before using bitcoin to pay their tuition.

[bitterguy28]

really meaning Some university are almost part of early adopters?as they have accepted Bitcoin since 2013,2014 and 2017?

SOrry but i think i missed that part of crypto history.

It's always been so proud if Thread like this was being created because this boost my trust and longing to Have more bitcoin that i have now.

[Tessnik]

Bitcoin adoption is a gradual process and am happy to see new businesses and institutions accepting and allowing students to pay tuition fees in bitcoin, I wish to see this happening in my country soon.

[dothebeats]

Only a handful as of the moment but I reckon the number would be higher once most institutions and firms around academes start accepting bitcoin too. It will be some kind of a domino effect for this to happen, and it's really not that impossible to happen considering that huge companies already have something to say about bitcoin. Though that's the case, it's still good and refreshing to see that these universities up until now are still accepting bitcoin as-is with no additional catch whatsoever. Only a few dares to do that and I hope it paid off for these institutions.

[DdmrDdmr]

Perhaps there’s not that much of a big deal in the acceptance itself, which may not apply to all courses and grades (at least the University of Cumbria stated that they were running this as an experiment on a set of two courses – see https://99bitcoins.com/university-cumbria-uk-bitcoin/), as to the awareness that it could creates amongst university students, teachers and collaborators.

Nevertheless, I’ve tried to take a look into a couple of them, to see it the payment method is still accepted, global or delimited in scope, and the placement of this information on their information sites, but have come out empty handed …

[lifeforcepools]

I don't think many people will be interested in this offer, but why not?

[MWesterweele]

The university's movements to accept bitcoin for tuition payment is a great step in the education world. If that can integrate without any problem, the other universities will follow this step. We need more universities to accept bitcoin to be used for education or in schools and universities. We know that the young generation is now aware of the new technology. Maybe sooner or later, we will see that the university has a lesson about crypto to attract more young people to studied more about crypto. The popularity of bitcoin to young people will also increase because they will learn how to use bitcoin before using bitcoin to pay their tuition.

Its really great that step by step the world was now adopting bitcoin. For now even though its is only some universities that accepted bitcoin as a tuition payment hoping that sooner other universities will consider this alos.  It may took a lot more years for us to wait that the world may accept cryptocurrency or bitcoin as a whole, and a mode of payment and transactions and even became one of the worlds currency but knowing that there has some steps like this surely give a good sign to the huge potential ahead.

[kryptqnick]

1. University of Nicosia in Cyprus (the first in the world to do so since December 2013)
   https://www.unic.ac.cy/you-can-now-pay-your-university-tuition-with-bitcoins-wired/
   https://ecoin4dummies.com/university-of-nicosia-receives-tuition-payment-using-bitcoin/

2. The University of Cumbria Carlisle in the United Kingdom (since January 2014)
   https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/bitcoin-to-be-accepted-by-university-for-fee-payment/2010698.article
   https://www.cumbria.ac.uk/about/news/articles/articles/university-of-cumbria-professor-to-tell-united-nations-about-the-future-of-money-.html

3. The Kings College New York in the United States (accepting since June 2014)
   https://www.tkc.edu/stories/kings-is-first-u-s-college-to-accept-bitcoin/

4. ESMT Berlin in Germany (accepting since December 2016)
   https://esmt.berlin/knowledge/esmt-berlin-bitcoin-pays

5. Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland (since October 2017)
   https://www.hslu.ch/en/lucerne-university-of-applied-sciences-and-arts/about-us/medien/medienmitteilungen/2017/10/03/bitcoin/

It's a small list so far, but I really hope it'll get bigger because investing in education is my priority for the near future and it's also one of the reasons I tend not to hodl too much in BTC because I won't be able to use it when I need it. It would also be great if it applied to other areas, such as paying visa fees, purchasing accommodation and stuff like that. Who knows, maybe one day the scholarships would also be available in BTC, and it would be easy to spend them on regular things... What's sad is that the list of universities suggests these few started accepting BTC a while ago, and there doesn't seem to be much progress with others joining more recently.

[Asuspawer09]

Maybe as long as bitcoin would be accepted as payment in any kind of business it would be a big help in bitcoin adaptation as it would help and expose people to bitcoin.

So it's always great to have this kind of payment option but I guess it's not common for universities because if you are going to accept bitcoin as a payment I guess that just means you are also investing in bitcoin.

It might affect your business since the price is moving up and down in just a small time, it also depends on the country because not all country is exposed to this technology. But might not be as useful because I don't think bitcoin is suitable for spending but more like just for investment at this moment.

[shield132]

Perhaps there’s not that much of a big deal in the acceptance itself, which may not apply to all courses and grades (at least the University of Cumbria stated that they were running this as an experiment on a set of two courses – see https://99bitcoins.com/university-cumbria-uk-bitcoin/), as to the awareness that it could creates amongst university students, teachers and collaborators.

Nevertheless, I’ve tried to take a look into a couple of them, to see it the payment method is still accepted, global or delimited in scope, and the placement of this information on their information sites, but have come out empty handed …

Just checked and they state following:

Despite the open support to cryptocurrency, the university is<strong> warning future students against buying Bitcoin just to pay for the tuition</strong> due to the high volatility risk. The institution believes that students should only pay in cryptocurrency if they already own it.

From University of Cumbria is UK's first to step into the Bitcoin world
https://99bitcoins.com/university-cumbria-uk-bitcoin/

So it seems that they accept bitcoin but at the same time are against it's adoption. It's still good that they accept bitcoin but the proposal that comes after that seems like it's a bad coin and users should only use if they accidentally bought it. Personally, I think that while adopting bitcoin or accepting bitcoin payments, universities should add Bitcoin and Blockchain technologies as a subject for those who study finances and informational technologies. But university that accepts it but warns students against it, seems very illogical for me and such university will never include a quality syllabus for this subject.