The prestigious university, named the world’s foremost further education institute earlier this year, has teamed up with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to launch a online eduction centre.
The project, beginning this autumn, will be called edX, and aims to offer education on a mass scale.
The universities have jointly ploughed £38 million in the project which will provide pupils with video lessons, embedded quizzes, online labs, and even the opportunity to engage with classmates and course instructors.
“Our goal is to educate 1bn people around the world,” he added. “We’re giving education on a mass scale and we’re really excited,” Anant Agarwal, president of edX, said.
“There is a revolution dawning in Boston and beyond. This revolution has to do with the pen and the mouse. It’s unbelievable. We will have students around the world all collaborating and working together.”
The not-for-profit organisation is set to raise questions as to how the universities will continue to justify their current fees structure.
“The universities will work to develop further the online learning platform already begun with MITx and to populate the edX website with courses from the MIT and Harvard faculty,” said an edX statement, indicating the courses would be aligned with those studied at the institutions.
“Today’s announcement brings the possibility of transformation through education to the world. edX gives Harvard and MIT an unprecedented opportunity to dramatically extend our collective reach by conducting groundbreaking research into effective education and by extending online access to quality higher education,” Harvard’s president Drew Faust said.
