It was announced today, Friday 14 December 2012, that the University of Warwick is joining other leading UK universities to give students from the UK and around the world access to free, open, online courses through 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.

The University of Warwick will able to add considerable experience to the project thanks to Warwick Business School.

The Warwick MBA by distance learning has been run by WBS for more than 25 years and is ranked number one in the UK and second in the world by QS. WBS has also set up the Teaching Shakespeare online learning platform in conjunction with the Royal Shakespeare Company. The Warwick Executive MBA also enables students to take modules online.

WBS will also be using its expertise through its elearning department to provide a course for Futurelearn.

WBS Dean Mark Taylor said: “We are delighted at WBS to be providing our expertise for this exciting new project. We have vast experience of creating and successfully delivering online learning through our Warwick MBA by distance learning, which continues to be very popular among students.

"The Teaching Shakespeare venture with the RSC has also been a great success, and we can bring what we have learned from this to Futurelearn. We are also pleased to be providing a course for the platform to allow even more people around the world to learn from the cutting-edge research and high quality teaching that puts WBS in the top one per cent of business schools in the world.”

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.

Professor Nigel Thrift Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick said:

“Warwick already has significant experience of creating and delivering innovative online teaching and learning such as its Teaching Shakespeare programme delivered in partnership with the RSC, its renowned distance learning MBA, and the work of its International Gateway for Gifted Youth. We are delighted to bring that experience, and add some of our innovative teaching, to this initiative. This will clearly be an exciting way for a global audience to experience the high quality teaching of a selection of the UK’s top ranked universities. Students will gain access of some of the most exciting teaching and learning opportunities offered by many of the UK’s leading universities.”

Futurelearn has been warmly welcomed by government. The Minister for Universities and Science responsible for higher education in England, David Willetts, said:

"The UK must be at the forefront of developments in education technology. Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) present an opportunity for us to widen access to, and meet the global demand for, higher education. This is growing rapidly in emerging economies like Brazil, India and China.

“Futurelearn has the potential to put the UK at the heart of the technology for learning agenda by revolutionising conventional models of formal education. New online delivery tools will also create incredible opportunities for UK entrepreneurs to reach world markets by harnessing technology and innovation in the field of education."

Martin Bean, the Vice-Chancellor of The Open University, said:

“MOOCs represent an enormous development in higher education, one that has the potential to bring about long-lasting change to the HE sector. The OU has decades of experience in world-class distance learning – each year we teach around 250,000 registered students, with literally millions of others accessing our free, informal, online offerings. Futurelearn will take this proud heritage and work with some of Britain’s best-known universities to write the next chapter in the story of British higher education.”

One of the key architects of the development of BBC Online, Simon Nelson, has been recruited to head up the company as Launch CEO. Nelson spent 14 years at the Corporation where he helped set up iPlayer and its forerunner Radio Player and led all digital activities, initially for its radio division and then across all television content. He said:

“There has been rapid and widespread growth in open online courses but until now UK universities have only had the option of working with US-based platforms. Futurelearn will aim to bring together the leading UK universities to create a combined and coherent offer for students in the UK and internationally. I look forward to using the OU’s proud history of innovation and academic excellence to create something the UK will be proud of and the world will want to be a part of.”

Futurelearn has been welcomed by ministers and education leaders from across the UK. Leighton Andrews AM, Minister for Education and Skills in the Welsh Government, said:

“The area of Open Educational Resources is a fast-moving field in which the power of the internet and information technology can transform access to learning globally. I have encouraged the higher education sector in Wales as a whole to engage with this in a serious way and I am delighted that this new initiative from the OU – an organisation which already has a pan-UK and global reach – takes a lead in charting an exciting path into the future from which learners in Wales will be beneficiaries. It is especially pleasing to see that the OU will be working with Cardiff University to explore new ways of providing learning opportunities that can take some of the best of HE in Wales to the world, and bring the world to learners and HE in Wales.”

In Scotland, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Michael Russell SMP said:

“I am pleased to note that Scottish institutions are involved in this new initiative which has the potential to open up research and learning to a wider group than before and contribute to our objectives around widening access.

This is an excellent example of universities embracing new technologies and teaching approaches, with the potential to share the benefits of higher education more widely.”

Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz, Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University said:

“Online education is becoming an important approach which may open substantial opportunities to those without access to conventional universities. This OU initiative is an exciting means to build on its established success and expand its mission.”

Futurelearn will announce future details of its structure and courses early in the New Year.