There was no welcoming party for incoming freshmen when the University of the People offered its inaugural slate of classes last September. Indeed, most students enrolled in the world’s first online, tuition-free university will never meet face to face. But friendships “are already going strong” among learners who live in Colombia, Indonesia, Sudan, and 50 other countries, says University of the People founder Shai Reshef.

With a goal of dramatically increasing access to higher education, the University of the People is taking advantage of open education content as well as new modes of learning. Around the world, Reshef says, “demand for higher education is so much greater than supply.”

Thanks to the Internet, information that was once sequestered on university campuses has become freely available. Since the Massachusetts Institute of Technology started putting lectures and course notes online, the OpenCourseWare Consortium has grown to include lectures, exams, and other content from 200 higher education institutions. Meanwhile, college students are showing an increasing interest in e-learning. In the United States, 12 million students currently take at least some of their postsecondary courses online.

“The Internet lets this information flow all over the world,” says Reshef, an Israeli entrepreneur with extensive experience in online learning. “Why should anyone who wants to study be excluded?” His most recent for-profit venture, a homework help Web site called Cramster.com, convinced him that today’s students will readily use social networking tools to help each other. “That’s the new social behavior— sharing your life and helping each other online,” he says. “We are just bringing their lifestyle into academia.”

Although not yet accredited, the University of the People hopes to grant degrees eventually. Its first courses, offered in English only, are in business administration and computer science. Not by accident, these two fields are “culturally neutral,” Reshef says. “Computer science is the same all over the world.” Students study in cohorts of about 20. They log on regularly to listen to lectures, have discussions, post to forums, and work through problems together.

Unlike traditional lecture halls with the teacher up front, the virtual learning environment casts the professor as more of an advisor. “The professor’s role is to be there when the community fails,” Reshef explains. “Our instructors jump in if students can’t help each other answer a question.” Volunteer instructors write and review course materials, review student work, grade exams, and, eventually, will be available for virtual office hours. With about 800 professors, librarians, and graduate students signed on to help, experts currently outnumber students.

The University of the People deliberately started small, with 300 students the first term. But Reshef predicts rapid expansion. The business plan keeps tuition at zero, but charges a small fee for registration and online exams. Reshef himself put up the first $1 million to get the nonprofit launched, and aims to raise $5 million more. The model is projected to be financially self-sustaining once enrollment reaches 15,000.

An all-star international advisory committee includes members from Yale Law School, INSEAD, the Confederation of Indian Industry, UNESCO, and the government of Bangladesh. Such votes of confidence can’t hurt. “But ultimately, the success of any online community comes down to the particpants,” says Gary Lopez, executive director of the Monterey Institute for Technology and Education. “Will they dive in, start teaching each other, and working in study groups? It’s difficult to predict,” he says.

Reshef remains optimistic, especially when he reads the letters that arrive daily from students in Brazil, Kenya, and other countries around the globe. He says, “They all say the same thing: ‘You are my only chance in life.’ That’s exactly why we opened this university.”

Read more stories by Suzie Boss.