Institute of Coding

The Open University (OU) has been announced as a major partner in the UK’s new £40 million Institute of Coding, which aims to train the next generation of digital specialists. The Prime Minister outlined the plans in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

OU takes lead on key area of Institute of Coding

The OU will lead on one of the key strands of the Institute’s work – boosting graduate employability, and the teaching of computer science, cyber security and data science in universities. It will use more than 50 years’ experience in delivering innovation in higher education and driving social mobility to help devise ways of drawing people of all backgrounds into studying IT and computing.
FutureLearn, the OU's wholly-owned social learning platform, will host a bespoke hub that supports the Institute and makes available online courses from industry and academic partners.

OU role will encourage more people into computer science

Project lead at the OU, Professor John Domingue, Director of the Knowledge Media Institute, said:
“We need an extra letter to add to the three Rs – C for Coding. Coding is used in all sorts of sectors – from health and retail, to the production of cars (some modern cars have more than 100 million lines of computer code) - and learning this skill is as important at university level as it is in schools.

“The demand is huge, and increasing, for people skilled in key computer science areas. The UK needs coders for existing industries but also for emerging sectors such as Artificial Intelligence.

“The OU will be helping universities to develop flexible ways for students to learn, enhancing diversity at scale so that far more people can study computer science in a way which suits them. We will be producing new courses in key areas such as Data Science and Cyber Security, and sharing our expertise in new learning technologies such as using blockchain (which underpins Bitcoin) and learning analytics.”

For more detail on the OU's involvement in the Institute of Coding, read the full story on OU News.