The UK’s biggest online university project has been launched, with more than 20 universities offering free courses.

Students will be able to follow courses on mobile phones as well as computers.

The UK’s project, called FutureLearn, sees UK universities entering the global market in so-called Moocs – massive open online courses.

It could “revolutionise conventional models of formal education”, says universities minister David Willetts.

Mr Willetts, speaking at the British Library, said that the expansion of access to higher education was no longer necessarily about “bricks and mortar”.

— BBC News