Kaplan and the University of Essex Launch New Online Foundation Degree

New higher education opportunities in the UK will be opened up to many thousands of potential students following plans jointly unveiled today by Kaplan, a global provider of education and training, and the University of Essex to provide a wholly online Foundation degree course. The course will offer multiple start dates throughout the year with a continuous 52-week academic calendar, and will allow students to study wherever they have access to the Internet. Students without the time or opportunity to engage in a full-time Foundation course will now be able to pursue a higher-education qualification focused on helping them develop relevant and practical work-based skills. The University and Kaplan have agreed to establish an affiliated college of the University, named "Kaplan Open Learning”, which will deliver the courses with degree awards being made by the University. Students will be able to pursue a degree without disrupting their work or family life. Thus the courses offer participants far greater flexibility than traditional full-time and part-time degrees that require attendance on campus. Scheduled online classes connect staff and students through both live audio and chat rooms to encourage active discussion and interactive learning in real time. Students can contact their own dedicated academic adviser and tutors outside regular class hours. The first course accredited by the University of Essex for Kaplan Open Learning, Business Studies, will begin in July. There are four Business Studies course pathways: Business and Management; Entrepreneurship; Marketing and Sales Management; and Internet Marketing. It is expected that students will be able to earn a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Essex if they successfully complete a third year top-up course. Further courses are expected to follow. Professor Sir Ivor Crewe, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Essex, welcomed the development: "The University of Essex is delighted to have entered into a partnership with such an internationally successful and experienced provider of online higher education as Kaplan. The online Foundation degrees that we shall be offering are a major step forward in making excellent university courses available to those who have the ability and ambition but for reasons of work and family cannot attend university in the conventional way.” William Macpherson, CEO, Kaplan International, said: "Kaplan Open Learning offers an innovative way to make higher education available to students throughout the UK who have previously not been able to participate. The course will closely replicate a traditional campus classroom except that students will have far greater choice when it comes to how they study, when they study, and where they study. Many with jobs or young families will now be able to take their first step on the higher degree ladder when it is convenient for them. "The Government has called for innovative ways to widen participation in higher education and raise the skill levels of the UK workforce. We are proud to work with such a prestigious university as Essex to contribute to that goal.” The course leader is David Dixon, formerly course leader of Leeds Metropolitan University’s Foundation degree course in Business and Management, as well as a former Lecturer in Management at University of Leeds. Online degree courses are becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. In the US alone, online enrolment jumped from 1.98 million in 2003 to 2.35 million the following year, accounting for 7% of postsecondary education.1 The partnership between Kaplan and Essex combines Kaplan’s global reputation as a provider of education and training for the past 70 years with the University of Essex’s excellent academic standing and reputation for high-quality research and teaching excellence. Kaplan Open Learning will benefit from the expertise Kaplan has gained in running US-based online Kaplan University, which currently has an enrolment of 26,000 students. About Kaplan, Inc. Kaplan, Inc. is a leading international provider of educational and career services for individuals, schools and businesses. Kaplan, which had 2006 revenue of nearly $1.7 billion, is a subsidiary of The Washington Post Company (NYSE:WPO). For more information, please visit www.kaplan.com. About the University of Essex The University of Essex is one of the UK’s leading academic institutions, consistently ranking among the top 12 universities in the country for the quality of its research and teaching. Founded in 1964, it has more than 8,000 students drawn from around 120 countries. For more information, please visit www.essex.ac.uk. About Foundation Degrees Introduced in 2001, Foundation degrees are a distinctive higher education qualification combining academic study with work-based learning. Typically taking two to three years to complete, they can lead to entry into a Bachelor’s degree programme. In 2006, more than 60,000 students were registered for Foundation degrees in the UK. 1 Eduventures.