UK universities embrace the free, open, online future of higher education

The Open University launches a UK-based platform for massive open online courses (Moocs) that will rival established providers in the US.
Students from the UK and around the world will have free access to some of the country’s top universities thanks to Futurelearn Ltd, an entirely new company being launched by The Open University (OU). The universities of Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Anglia, Exeter, King’s College London, Lancaster, Leeds, Southampton, St Andrews and Warwick have all signed up to join Futurelearn.

Futurelearn will be independent but majority-owned by the OU. It will:
Bring together a range of free, open, online courses from leading UK universities, that will be clear, simple to use and accessible;
Draw on the OU’s expertise in delivering distance learning and pioneering open education resources to underpin a unified, coherent offer from all of its partners;
Increase accessibility to higher education (HE) for students across the UK and in the rest of the world.