Mooc providers expand

Coursera, a private for-profit Mooc provider, has announced 29 more university partners, taking the total number in its stable to 62. EdX, a not-for profit organisation run by Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has added six new institutions, bringing its total to 12.

Among the new Coursera partners are 16 non-US institutions, including The Chinese University of Hong Kong and The University of Tokyo (see full list below). This expansion will see the organisation offer courses in multiple languages for the first time. Moocs will be available in French, Spanish, Chinese, and Italian, the company said.

“With the addition of so many new courses across a wide range of disciplines, languages and academic approaches, we are now able to meet the needs of a more diverse student body, and give students more academic options to explore,” said Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng. “We are equally excited about the prospects of bringing higher education to places where access is limited, and of giving established educational institutions opportunities to raise their impact both on and off campus.”

The edX partners, meanwhile, include universities from Canada, the US, the Netherlands, Australia and Switzerland.

“We have had an international student community from the very beginning, and bringing these leading universities, from North America and Europe and the Asia Pacific into the edX organization will help us meet the tremendous demand we are experiencing,” said Anant Agarwal, president of edX.