Austrade and FutureLearn agreement
This pilot with FutureLearn will enable us to provide free online access to a wide range of courses from leading Australian education institutions.
Rebecca Hall (Austrade Global Education Lead)
Following the success of the Study with Australia campaign introduced in April 2020 between the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) and social learning platform, FutureLearn.com, the institutions agreed to a 5-year strategic partnership.
The aim is to provide free online courses and make the higher education of Australia more accessible by delivering online short courses through the FutureLearn platform.
The initial program featured free online short courses offered by 20 Australian education providers and the new agreement is a continuation of this allowing the Australian education providers to participate and offer their high-quality courses. This will help them to be more visible globally.
Austrade Global Education Lead Rebecca Hall said about the partnership when it launched last year: “This pilot with FutureLearn will enable us to provide free online access to a wide range of courses from leading Australian education institutions, leaving the door to learning open while international travel is restricted.”
The free short courses have been promoted as a way to trial a free course before committing further to long term paid programmes. Austrade said they were options to earn study credits towards longer qualifications.
The pilot program set to reach a 1% conversion rate of enrolments from short courses to full-time qualifications and it exceeded it with a 1.7% conversion rate.
The highest number of enrolments were from India, UK, Australia, Colombia and Brazil. The interest was highest in courses in the subjects of industry career-related skills, sustainability, teaching and psychology.
FutureLearn chief content and partnerships officer Justin Cooke stated that the company was proud to work with Austrade and the Australian education institutions to support professionals and students around the world and that they are pleased to continue the partnership.
The initiative received the 2020 Excellence Award for Innovation in International Education by the International Education Association of Australia.
