That is the view of Open University vice-chancellor Martin Bean, who framed FutureLearn ¨C which launches tomorrow ¨C in the language of 60s counter-cultural rebellion when he spoke today at the Liberal Democrats conference in Glasgow.

Vince Cable, the business secretary, also told the same fringe meeting, titled ¡°Exporting UK Education: can it deliver economic growth?¡±, that education exports are ¡°a key part of our industrial strategy¡±.

He noted overseas university campuses such as that established by the University of Central Lancashire in Sri Lanka, while adding that overseas students entering the UK constituted the lion¡¯s share of the nation¡¯s education exports.

Without pointing the finger directly at colleagues in the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø Office for their tightening of student visa rules, Mr Cable warned that ¡°people obsessed with the numbers game around immigration are talking down one of Britain¡¯s most valuable export industries¡±.

ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø

Mr Bean told the meeting, hosted by the CentreForum thinktank and the OU, that online education was vital because the world ¡°cannot build enough bricks and mortar universities¡± to satisfy demand for higher education in the emerging economies.

And while the UK could not compete with emerging economies in a ¡°race to the bottom¡± on wages, it could export knowledge to those nations, he added.

ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø

Turning to the structure of FutureLearn, Mr Bean dismissed the common critique of Moocs that points to their high drop-out rates.

¡°Isn¡¯t it just so incredibly sad, that when you¡¯ve [got] all this disruptive innovation that¡¯s going to unbundle higher education and make it accessible in ways never before dreamt of, that we perpetuate terms like failures [and] drop outs,¡± he told the meeting.

He asked ¡°why wouldn¡¯t we want to celebrate anybody¡¯s participation in any piece of learning or progression¡±.

FutureLearn would be ¡°modularised¡± and involve ¡°a completely different way of structuring¡± courses, Mr Bean continued. ¡°We¡¯re not going to talk about failures. We¡¯re going to let people set their own targets ¨C god forbid ¨C and measure themselves against their own targets.¡±

ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø

Students, he said, would be able to ¡°benchmark¡± themselves against peers rather than always having to be subject to what he termed ¡°The Man¡±, ¡°the university saying: ¡®You¡¯re a failure because you didn¡¯t do what we said¡¯. I challenge the whole outdated paradigm.¡±

Mr Bean added: ¡°One thing that FutureLearn will never do is to confer university credit. That will always be the domain of the university.¡±

But he predicted that ¡°the university of the future will no longer characterise [itself] by trying to protect all of its content as if that¡¯s a secret source¡±.

Universities would grant free access to their best ¡°content¡± but find ¡°differentiation¡± between Moocs and traditional learning via ¡°the power of their brand, the power of their teaching, the power of their pastoral care and the power of the employment outcomes for the students they teach¡±, Mr Bean said.

ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø

john.morgan@tsleducation.com