Five more universities join Futurelearn  

Five more British Universities have signed up as partners in Futurelearn, the UK’s first provider of free, open online courses from multiple top-ranking institutions.

The announcement was made as six of the Futurelearn partners were participating in the recent business and skills mission to India, led by Prime Minister, David Cameron.

Futurelearn, which is owned by The Open University (OU), has signed an agreement with the British Library (BL) to develop online courses using BL resources. In addition, Queen’s University Belfast and the universities of Bath, Leicester, Nottingham, and Reading have now joined the existing partners bringing the total number to 18.

Delighted that Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales all now have representative institutes in the project the Prime Minister said: "Britain boasts some of the best universities in the world. This innovative new offer led by The Open University will mean that Indian students can access some of the best teaching and learning online from their home in Mumbai or Delhi. I'm delighted that Futurelearn is expanding to include more British universities and the British Library. I hope it will encourage many more Indian students to take the next step and study with a UK university."

Launched on 14 December 2012 Futurelearn will establish the UK as a global leader in online higher education (HE), offering world-class UK university courses to students throughout the world. The new member universities join existing partners from the universities of Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Anglia, Exeter, King’s College London, Lancaster, Leeds, Southampton, St Andrews and Warwick.

The first Futurelearn courses will be open to students in the second half of 2013.