U of Edinburgh to offer free courses online

It's big news today, here in Scotland, that the University of Edinburgh will announce tomorrow that they are the first in the UK to join Stanford in an international consortium offering free online courses, starting with six in math and computer science this fall. In Scotland, university education is completely free for Scots who attend Scottish universities . . . but the fees are stiff for people from other places. No university credit will be given, but a certificate of completion is available for a small fee which "demonstrates competency to study at the university level" and may well be credit-worthy at other institutions.

--John Bear, in the shadow of the
Standing Stones of Callanish

 

We were just talking about this annoncement in another thread. http://www.degreeinfo.com/general-distance-learning-discussions/41941-https-www-coursera-org.html

So you're in Scotland now? Just visiting?

 

Say hi to Professor Lumsden for me!

 

So you're in Scotland now? Just visiting?
Aye. 9 days of dancing at the Findhorn Foundation. 2 weeks of roaming around the Outer Hebrides (Lewis, Harris, Rum, Eigg). And a couple of days visiting the Edinburgh Business School. Sadly Professor Lumsden is having some medical issues in the aftermath of knee replacement surgery and is not available.

 

My first visit to the Edinburgh Business School building. What a huge and impressive place. Spacious, filled with fine art, ultra-modern lecture halls, excellent (subsidized) dining hall . . . and (I had been unaware of this) their new venture to buy and restore the Adam Smith's Edinburgh home, where he wrote "Wealth of Nations." Professor Lumsden was at his desk (against doctor's orders) and sends greetings.

 

Excellent! Sounds like a great trip. I'd love to see Adam Smith's house and Edinburgh someday too.

 

Probably was surprised me the most was that the dining hall had a full bar!

 

And they are once again selling their own private-label Heriot-Watt University Scotch. I'm pretty sure no other university can make that statement.