By Rebecca Ratcliffe. Elite institutions will team up with the Open University to offer free internet courses through FutureLearn, a new company that will rival US programmes Coursera and edX. Eleven top UK universities are joining the Open University to launch free internet courses, in a bid to catch up with the elite US institutions that have led the way online.King's College London, along with the Universities of Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Anglia, Exeter, Lancaster, Leeds, Southampton, St Andrews and Warwick have partnered with FutureLearn, a company set up by the Open University that will offer free, non-credit bearing courses to internet-users around the world.
The courses are modelled on the US phenomenon 'massive open online courses' (Moocs), which have attracted millions of users across the globe, and are especially popular in emerging economies – a key market place for UK universities.
FutureLearn will promote UK institutions to international students, said Prof Martin Bean, vice-chancellor of the Open University. Read more...
