But the 89-year-old Michigan alumnus said it builds on other ideas, including a large graduate student housing complex he funded at Stanford University.
They are a new bus interchange at the Grosvenor Centre, the Castle Railway Station, St Peter's Waterside, the office development Project Angel, a hotel and student accommodation complex at St John's and the Avon Nunn Mills university campus.
As pointed out by WCET, a partner to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, student authentication is a complex and frequently misrepresented issue and one that is not unique to online education providers.