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A new agreement to provide leading online tertiary education to the world has been signed between The University of Western Australia and global online course provider Coursera.

Coursera, which has partnerships with 85 other universities on four continents and a learning community of 4.2 million students, will provide the technology platform to develop the first of a series of new high-quality online courses to be designed by UWA in coming months.

UWA Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) Alec Cameron said it would enable students anywhere in the world to access to high-quality online courses in areas that reflected the University's global research strengths and international market competitiveness.

"The courses will be free and - unlike for degree courses - no entry standard will be required," Professor Cameron said.

"The aim is to give all students - regardless of income or academic qualification - an experience of world-class study with leading academics in internationally significant areas of learning and research.

"The courses are not designed to provide an academic credit upon completion."

Professor Cameron, in Sydney today to launch the partnership with Coursera co-founder Daphne Koller, said UWA's first courses through the new partnership were expected to be available online in the first half of next year.

The University of NSW joined UWA today in signing a similar agreement, with both universities joining the University of Melbourne as three of Australia's leading Group of Eight (Go8) universities to form global partnerships with Coursera.

Media references

Professor Alec Cameron (Deputy Vice-Chancellor [Education])  (+61 8)  6488 2801
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563 /  (+614) 32 637 716