The founders of Peterson Academy, renowned psychologist and author Dr. Jordan B. Peterson and his daughter Mikhaila, believe they can shake up the education system and offer a bachelor’s-level equivalent education for US$2,000.
On September 9th, Peterson and Fuller launched the beta version of Peterson Academy, an online learning and social media platform that the duo hope will soon rival traditional universities. According to Fuller, 30,000 pupils have enrolled thus far.
“We are launching a full curriculum equivalent to an undergraduate general education degree in the next 18 months,” Fuller told True North. “We have massive plans.”
With the slogan “Education, Devoid of Ideology,” Peterson Academy offers a catalogue of classical liberal-oriented online courses in science, finance, psychology, health, politics, and the humanities for US$499.99 (CA$675) a year. Each self-paced course is 8 hours long, composed of pre-recorded lectures. Courses are accompanied with AI quizzes to test knowledge upon completion, though quizzes and essays are not mandatory.
In 2025, Fuller’s plan is to have Peterson Academy courses translated into multiple languages.
“We’re hoping to make top-tier education available internationally to everyone regardless of their background and financial situation,” said Fuller. “We definitely plan on competing with traditional universities once we have a full curriculum.”
The Petersons have the goal of reducing the cost of a university education by 95%, but also providing an alternative to the institutions that Fuller says are “infiltrated by an ideology that forces the student to agree with the professor’s political beliefs or face serious repercussions.”
“A university shouldn’t be like this. A university should be a place you go to grow, become more sophisticated, become more verbally fluent, make connections, and learn how to debate and think for yourself.”
Among the professors who have already recorded lectures for Peterson Academy are Dr. Eric Kaufmann of the University of Buckingham, Dr. James Orr of the University of Cambridge, and Dr. John Verveake of the University of Toronto, as well as Dr. Jordan Peterson himself.
“The quality of our instructors surpasses even the top universities. These professors were chosen very carefully from a variety of different institutions and a student can learn more in 8 hours from one of these professors than the average semester-length course in the average college from the average professor,” Fuller stated.
However, the question of accreditation still looms – whether a student who completes a “degree” at Peterson Academy will have transferable credits, the opportunity to apply to graduate school, and a generally recognized credential.
“We’re working with a number of jurisdictions for accreditation but will only continue to pursue that if it makes sense. We’re not willing to lower the quality of our education to fit into an archaic mold if that’s what’s required to get accredited,” Fuller said.
“Most accrediting bodies require a certain number of class hours regardless of course quality and don’t measure what the student has learned, or what the quality of the professor is. We’re not going to adhere to that standard of education just to become accredited, we’d rather focus on quality. Degrees are becoming less and less relevant so we’re not focused on accreditation and don’t think it’s necessary, but if it works out, that’s great.”
According to Fuller, half of the enrolled pupils are using Peterson Academy as a “continuing studies” platform rather than to obtain an undergraduate-like education.
“Ideally university should be geared toward people who want to improve themselves and learn to become more sophisticated and verbally fluent and knowledgeable and less naive, not just to get a piece of paper so they can get a job they don’t like.”
