42 is a French school whose approach to education is very different from the rest of the pack: there is no teacher, no structured course material and no tuition fees. To graduate in software development, you will have to devote 3 to 5 years of your life.

For the last three years, residents of Paris had who wanted to learn programming have had access to 42, a school which provides technical education with a radical approach: there are no teachers, no tuition fees and no planned lessons. The only criteria is that as long as you fall within the age group of 18 to 30 and are willing to take a 4 weekly coding challenge, you will be welcome to spend the next 3 to 5 years mastering software development in very flexible terms and at no costs.

If this sounds too good to be true and you are thinking of moving to Paris, you might as well hold on to your horses. 42 has now announced that it will be opening a 200,000 square feet campus in Silicon Valley, Fremont. The first classes are scheduled to begin in November this year.

42 has undertaken this move in the U.S. since the country has a skill imbalance. Although the United States has taken steps to improve its education in computer science, 42 believes the American educational system deprives companies of programming-savvy people. It feels startups and Silicon Valley could do with a steady stream of highly motivated coders.

Although its hard to say how many, if any, Parisian students have graduated from 42, or how well its methods have worked, the concept, created by Xavier Niel who founded Free a French telecom, may not be all that farfetched.

It turns out a few existing students are so committed to the learning process that they even sleep in the hallway. Although that may not be a very healthy way of living, it nonetheless shows the kind of commitment that is pretty rare in colleges.

Thus, if you suddenly notice a surge of Bay-area tech talents, a few years from now, you will know who to thank.