Bentley university in Massachusetts has made the news as one of the first US universities to provide its students with the option of paying tuition in cryptocurrency.
The school has decided to ride on the modern wave of digital assets to ensure that students and their families can pay tuition with convenience. To allow the smooth operation of the new payment method, the university is partnering with Coinbase, a major crypto exchange platform.
For a start, the school is only accepting three different cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum and USD coin as a form of stablecoin. However, as an added feature, the school plans to accept donations from the public in the form of cryptocurrencies.
“Bentley University is a pioneer in developing business executives with the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive in today’s rapidly changing global economy,” Bentley President E. LaBrent Chrite said in a statement. “We are happy to welcome the technology our students are studying since it will shortly revolutionise the global corporate landscape they will soon enter.”
Moving with the future
The action of Bentley university goes in line with the research conducted by Pew Research Centre, stating that about 16% of US adults, equivalent to 41 million Americans, are involved in cryptocurrency either by trading or investing. Furthermore, there are projections that the global cryptocurrency market will double in value by 2028, as reported by Fortune Business Insights.
In addition to this recent development by the university, the school has also created a new crypto finance course that will kickstart this Fall. The course that focuses on the critical area of blockchain technology and decentralised finance will also foster the students’ interest in cryptocurrency.
One of the university students, Alex Kim, is an early adopter of cryptocurrency and started investing in Bitcoin early. This promoted Kim to launch a Bentley Blockchain Association last Fall. Kim is on track to obtain a master’s degree by 2023 and will also be a speaker at NFT.NYC – a popular global NFT event.
This is not the first time Bentley university will be interfacing with cryptocurrency. Just last year, the university was regarded as one of the first academic institutions to create NFT in a bid to celebrate the induction of Barbara Stevens into the Hall of Fame of Naismith Memorial Basketball.
