Universities in online bid to challenge US

BBC 16 December 2012

A partnership of UK universities is launching an online project, challenging US universities that have dominated this emerging market. They aim to give the public access to higher education courses via computers, tablets or smartphones, writes Sean Coughlan for the BBC.

The partnership will include the Open University, King's College London, Bristol, Exeter, Warwick, East Anglia, Leeds, Lancaster, Southampton, Cardiff, Birmingham and St Andrews. Courses will be offered from next year. This could "revolutionise conventional models of formal education", said Universities Minister David Willetts.

The project will represent the biggest UK response to rapidly growing online universities – with these universities planning to offer courses through a shared online platform. Martin Bean, vice-chancellor of the Open University, said that the arrival of online courses meant that UK universities could either "stick their heads in the sand" or rise to the international challenge.
Full report on The BBC site

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