Cambridge Education Group has established a partnership with Falmouth University to offer part-time online master’s programmes, with the first intake of students expected this year.
The courses, which are aimed at professionals, will be taught online, with the option for students to attend face-to-face workshops.
“We think there is a huge amount of demand and UK HE in particular doesn’t have a lot of high quality product offerings to address that demand”
The partnership is the first of its kind for the recently launched CEG Digital division, and will also help to enable Falmouth University to grow its student numbers.
Geoff Webster, managing director at CEG Digital, said that the global, part-time, flexible market is currently underserved by the UK higher education sector.
“We think there is a huge amount of demand and UK HE in particular doesn’t have a lot of high quality product offerings to address that demand,” he said. “So we’re really looking to address that through this public-private partnering model we’ve developed with Falmouth.”
The university will offer master’s courses in advertising and marketing, creative app development, creative events management, and photography.
The tuition fees for the programmes are £12,250, and students will receive a degree identical to those studying on-campus.
The courses will begin enrolment in September this year, with more expected in January 2017 and May 2017.
Geoff Smith, senior deputy vice chancellor at Falmouth University, said that the institution aims to enrol 8,000 students by 2020.
“1,500 of these are off-campus distance learning,” he said. “The CEG partnership plays a very important part for us achieving those numbers.”
As studying takes place online, there is no requirement for a UK visa – something that is “part of the package of difficulties that potential students might face”, according to Smith.
“These courses are to help people enhance their careers and we are removing numerous barriers that may be holding them back from applying for a UK masters course,” he added.
Cambridge Education Group launched its digital arm in January, as part of a “new strategic direction” for the company.
“I think if we do succeed in getting five to 10 partnerships in the next 18 months to two years, then we can really start to address some of that exploding demand in emerging markets for UK higher education,” Webster added. “And of course the benefits to the students are very significant.”
