New Hampshire has approved the state’s first new university in six years - and it’s not your typical college.
Signum University offers online classes on sci-fi and fantasy literature, with topics ranging from Anglo-Saxon language to J.R.R. Tolkien.
It currently has 85 students in the MA program. The students pay tuition per course, with each course costing $650.
Corey Olsen founded the university in Delaware in 2011 and has since moved to Nashua. He says the target students are professionals who’ve been wanting to study these topics for “personal enrichment.”
The university also organizes moots (Anglo-saxon for "meetings") throughout the country on topics ranging from dragons to speculative fiction.
Approval from the New Hampshire Higher Education Commission is one of Signum University’s steps in getting national accreditation. It’s also waiting on approval from the legislature to start conferring Masters’ degrees in the state, in the form of SB 138.
In a press release on Friday, Commissioner of Education Frank Edelblut praised Signum.
"Now using the online format, students around the globe interested in science fiction and fantasy literature will not have to travel to a galaxy far, far away to take courses," he wrote.
