FutureLearn has welcomed five more of the world’s most prestigious universities to create massive open online courses (MOOCs) on its social learning platform.
Free online courses from Complutense University of Madrid, Durham University, Keio University, the University of Manchester, and UNSW Australia (The University of New South Wales), will become available to FutureLearn’s global community of learners from October.
Complutense University of Madrid, one of Spain’s oldest and most respected universities, joins as FutureLearn’s latest European partner. Its first course, ‘Viral Diseases in Animals’, will launch on FutureLearn at the beginning of 2016.
Durham University, the first of two new additions from the UK, has been a leading European centre of learning for over 1000 years. Its first course, focussing on open innovation across the supply chain’, will also become available on FutureLearn in 2016.
Keio University joins as FutureLearn’s first Japanese partner. Founded in 1858, it is Japan’s earliest modern institution of higher learning, and remains one of the country’s premier universities. Its first course will explore Japan’s history of book production, beginning in the 8th century, and drawing on Keio University’s extensive collection of rare books. The course will open on FutureLearn in 2016.
Also from the UK comes the University of Manchester, the UK’s largest campus university. Its first course, ‘Clinical Bioinformatics for Healthcare Professionals’, will launch on FutureLearn at the beginning of 2016.
UNSW Australia, one of the country’s leading research-intensive institutions, becomes FutureLearn’s newest partner from the Asia-Pacific. Its first course, “Maths for Humans: Linear, Quadratic & Inverse Relations”, is available now for learners to sign up for, and will commence in October 2015.
Simon Nelson, Chief Executive of FutureLearn, said: “The addition of these five distinguished names in the global Higher Education sector not only reflects the international reach of our learner base, but crucially, reinforces the high quality of courses available on our platform. Social learning has made great strides through FutureLearn and I know our global community of learners will relish the opportunity to engage with leading educators from these five institutions as they pursue their goals for professional development and further study.