Top UK universities are to begin offering free online courses open to anyone around the world.
More than 20 leading institutions, including Southampton, Warwick and Reading have signed up to provide short courses in subject areas such as science, maths and technology.
The degree-level courses will be accessed from Wednesday through an online hub called FutureLearn, a private firm owned by the Open University.
It says its aim is to "increase access to higher education for people worldwide by offering a diverse range of high-quality courses and content from great universities, educators and institutions".
Students in any country will be able to sign up for a course through the FutureLearn site and study for free.
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It is understood to be the first time that a UK-based organisation has been set up to offer what are known as "massive open online courses" (MOOCs).
MOOCs are already popular in the US where there are a number of established hubs, including Coursera, which carries classes from top Ivy League universities such as Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Brown, as well institutions in other countries, like the University of Amsterdam and Peking University.
FutureLearn has won support from the British government, with Universities Minister David Willetts saying it was an "exciting development for UK learning".
"I encourage all our institutions to explore the opportunities offered by new modes of technology, such as MOOCs. This will keep the UK ahead in the global race to deliver education in worldwide markets," he said.
