Liverpool Online unites academics, professional staff and student representatives, behind a shared mission to extend the University of Liverpool’s global impact by delivering transformative educational experiences and outcomes for their worldwide community of online students. Since 2000, 21,500 students in 204 countries have graduated from their master’s and doctoral programmes. In 2018, the University partnered with Kaplan Open Learning, leveraging Kaplan’s leading-edge learning technology and infrastructure to strengthen its position as a leader in online education. Collaboration is at the heart of the partnership, from engagement across every area of activity, to regular team meetings, joint forums and community touch points.
Between January 2021/23, the team launched 22 new Master’s level programmes and developed 132 unique modules; an outstanding achievement made possible by their collaborative approach which facilitates robust, speedy decision-making across disciplinary boundaries, leading to high-quality, innovative programmes including the cross-disciplinary programme, MSc Healthcare Leadership, led by the Management School and School of Medicine. The team are pioneer in quality online provision, delivering successful outcomes for students and stakeholders. 18 of the 22 programmes are accredited. They were the first to receive British Computer Society accreditation for fully online computer science programmes and launched the world’s first Advance HE accredited 100% online external PG CAP.
Liverpool Online programmes reflect the workplace, foster career advancement and encourage global interaction and peer-to-peer learning. In 2023, the MBA ranked in the Financial Times Top 10 Online MBA programmes and was first for ‘career progression’. The team work together to ensure that the ‘Liverpool Curriculum Framework’ including authentic assessment, digital fluency, active learning and global citizenship is embedded into every programme.
Interdisciplinary working enables the team to make significant improvements at a University-wide level. For example, integrating online students more closely into the university community and digitisation of the campus Library, study skills and research services. The team is committed to sharing experience and insights with the wider sector and their cross-disciplinary approach has enabled impactful international collaborative partnerships, providing in-depth support to the development of learning and teaching practice in other countries aligned to the Advance HE Professional Standards Framework.