Higher education 🇬🇧 London, United Kingdom Since 2012

FutureLearn

Online courses and degrees from universities and other institutions.

Visit futurelearn.com All companies
short courses in Unlimited
1,400+
online degrees listed, October 2026
247
ExpertTracks
75
on Trustpilot, 1,919 reviews
4.6

About FutureLearn

FutureLearn is a London online learning platform that The Open University set up in December 2012. It sells short courses, ExpertTracks, microcredentials and online degrees from universities and companies. Learners can join most short courses for free for the length of the course, and pay for a certificate and lasting access. The Unlimited subscription opens more than 1,400 short courses for €43.99 a month or €299.99 a year. Global University Systems has owned FutureLearn since late 2022.

FutureLearn publishes online courses made by universities, cultural institutions and companies. A short course runs for 2 to 8 weeks and is split into weeks and steps: videos, articles, audio and tests. Learners comment on every step and discuss the material with each other. The partners page lists 81 universities and 102 specialist organisations, among them the British Council, the British Museum, ACCA, AWS and Accenture.

The Open University registered FutureLearn Limited on 10 December 2012 and launched it with 12 UK university partners. The first courses opened in 2013. In 2019 FutureLearn launched the Unlimited subscription, and the Australian jobs group SEEK paid £50 million for a 50% stake. In January 2021 FutureLearn added ExpertTracks, series of courses paid by the month.

Global University Systems, a group of private universities and colleges, bought FutureLearn at the end of 2022. Jo Johnson, a former UK universities minister, became chair. Times Higher Education reported a £16 million loss for 2021. Since 2023 Ian Howell runs the company as managing director. In 2025 and 2026 FutureLearn launched the FLx platform for employers and machine translation of courses into Italian and Spanish.

History

  1. 2012 The Open University registers FutureLearn Limited on 10 December and announces 12 UK university partners.
  2. 2013 The first courses open. The University of East Anglia runs the first one, on the power of brands.
  3. 2016 Learners can earn credit towards a degree from a UK university on FutureLearn.
  4. 2019 Launches Unlimited in March, an annual subscription to short courses with certificates.
  5. 2019 SEEK invests £50 million for 50% in April. The Open University keeps the other half, and the deal values FutureLearn at £100 million.
  6. 2021 Launches 35 ExpertTracks in January at £36 a month.
  7. 2022 Opens free courses to women and girls in Afghanistan after the Taliban ban on education.
  8. 2022 Global University Systems buys FutureLearn. Jo Johnson becomes chair of the board.
  9. 2023 Chief executive Andy Hancock leaves in March. Ian Howell joins as managing director in June.
  10. 2025 Launches FLx in July, a learning platform for companies built with Viblio. Teesside University Online partners with FutureLearn to deliver its online courses.
  11. 2026 Releases courses in Italian in May and Spanish in June with an AI translation tool built on Amazon Bedrock.
  12. 2026 Signs a partnership with Yaaseer in September for digital education in Saudi Arabia.

Leadership

  • Jo Johnson Executive Chairman
  • Ian Howell Managing Director
  • Vitaly Klopot Director, from Global University Systems
  • Julia Buckingham Non-executive director
  • Elad Rachevsky Director, Chief Investment Officer of Global University Systems
  • Miguel Blazquez Director, Chief Technology Officer of Global University Systems
  • Rafael Marin Independent non-executive director

Roles from the FutureLearn leadership page. All seven are directors in the Companies House register. Ian Howell joined in June 2023 and became a registered director in July 2025.

Careers

Teamtailor job board
1London
1 open roles on 6 October 2026
  • Academic Registry1

Perks

  • Hybrid work
  • Mental health and wellbeing resources
  • Learning and development

How FutureLearn courses work

of steps to complete, plus all tests, for a certificate
90%
weeks per short course
2–8
course languages: English, Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese
5
  • Free limited access for the length of the course
  • Comments on every step
  • Progress page with test scores
  • Digital and printed certificates
  • Unlimited subscription
  • ExpertTracks by the month
  • Microcredentials with UK credits
  • Online degrees
  • AI course translation
  • Works in the mobile browser

Course subjects at FutureLearn

Work and technology3

  • Business & Management
  • IT & Computer Science
  • Law

Health, people and teaching4

  • Healthcare & Medicine
  • Psychology & Mental Health
  • Teaching
  • Study Skills

Science and nature2

  • Science, Engineering & Maths
  • Nature & Environment

Humanities and arts5

  • History
  • Literature
  • Language
  • Politics & Society
  • Creative Arts & Media

The 14 subjects on futurelearn.com/subjects on 6 October 2026, grouped by us. Each subject has topics, for example AWS, cyber security and data analytics under IT & Computer Science. Of the 48 certifications in the microcredentials catalogue, 30 are in Business & Management and 9 in IT & Computer Science.

Products

  • Short courses Courses of 2 to 8 weeks from universities and companies. Free access lasts as long as the course. A one-off upgrade adds tests, a certificate and lasting access, for example €49 for Innovative Leadership: Developing Curiosity. Browse courses
  • Unlimited One subscription for more than 1,400 short courses, with all weeks and tests open at once and a digital certificate on eligible courses. Learners keep the courses where they earned a certificate. Unlimited
  • ExpertTracks Series of 2 to 5 courses on one skill, paid by the month, with a 2-day free trial. Agentic AI from Edureka has 4 courses over 12 weeks at €36 a month. ExpertTracks
  • Microcredentials University courses with credits. Fundamentals of Project Management from Nottingham Business School runs 10 weeks, gives 10 UK level 7 credits and costs €784. Microcredentials
  • Online degrees Bachelor’s, master’s, MBA, PGCE and other awards from UK universities such as Arden, Falmouth, Roehampton, Brunel and Teesside. The degrees catalogue listed 247 programmes on 6 October 2026. Online degrees
  • Course discussions Every step of a course has a comment thread. Learners reply, like and bookmark comments, and educators join some discussions. How it works
  • FutureLearn for Business and FLx Course licences and the FLx learning platform for employers, with content from 120+ university partners and from AWS, Accenture and Microsoft. For business

How much is FutureLearn?

  • Limited access €0/mo €0, for the length of the course
  • Unlimited Monthly €43.99/mo €43.99, billed monthly
  • 30% off until 2 November 2026 Unlimited Annual €25/mo €299.99, billed yearly, €209.99 in the offer
  • Single course upgrade €49 one-off, Innovative Leadership course
  • ExpertTrack €36/mo €36 a month, until the track is complete
  • Microcredential €784 one-off, Fundamentals of Project Management

Is FutureLearn free?

Limited access is free: lessons open week by week for the length of the course, without tests, certificates or access after the course ends. Some sponsored courses include a free digital certificate. ExpertTracks start with a 2-day free trial.

Prices on futurelearn.com on 6 October 2026, in euros as the site showed them to a European visitor. Pages on futurelearn.com/info showed Unlimited Annual at £249.99, or £174.99 in the offer. The 30% offer on the first year of Unlimited Annual runs until 2 November 2026. Unlimited renews automatically. US dollar prices were not shown to us.

How to cancel FutureLearn Unlimited

Cancellation and refund policy
  • futurelearn.com ↗
    1. Open your Account page
    2. Click Subscriptions
    3. Under Unlimited, click Cancel subscription. Access stays until the end of the paid period
  • Cancel before the next payment date to avoid the renewal charge.
  • Refund requests for Unlimited go to orders@futurelearn.com.
  • Refund requests for microcredentials go to mc.support@futurelearn.com.
  • Purchases made through a third party follow that seller’s rules.

Refund rules

Unlimited and upgrades
14-day cooling-off period from the first payment, only if you have not attempted a test or downloaded a certificate. For Monthly it covers the first month only.
ExpertTracks
2-day free trial. A refund within 14 days of first access, if no test was attempted. Later monthly payments are not refunded.
Microcredentials
A refund until 14 days after learning begins on the first course. Some have non-refundable costs listed on the course page.
Monthly to annual
No refund when you switch from Monthly to Annual after the first refund period.

From the FutureLearn cancellation and refund policy and the help centre article updated on 5 October 2026, checked on 6 October 2026.

FutureLearn for Business

For business
  • 01Course licences for teams with content from 120+ university partners and from AWS, Accenture and Microsoft.
  • 02FLx, launched in July 2025, builds learning paths for each employee with AI from Viblio.
  • 03FLx adds video skills assessments, an AI career coach called Leo and a wallet for training budgets.
  • 04Admins see engagement, completion and user reports in one place.

FutureLearn does not publish business prices. Companies ask for a quote.

Apps and ratings

4.6Trustpilot · Excellent 1,919 reviews · company profile claimed in December 2019

Is FutureLearn worth it?

What learners like

What learners criticise

What learners write in reviews, not our rating. 1,837 of the reviews are in English. Free access does not include tests or certificates, and Unlimited costs €43.99 a month or €299.99 a year in Europe.

FutureLearn reviews

  • Free Certificates
    “You get a free certificate too, provided you pass the assessment and complete about 90% of the course.”
    Raymund B. · 27 September 2026 · App Store
  • I found the website a bit difficult to…
    “I found the website a bit difficult to navigate and it kept sending me back to areas that I had already done.”
    Janet Baldwin · 23 September 2026 · App Store
  • The course was advertised as a 4 week…
    “The course was advertised as a 4 week free online course but just found out that you won’t get a certificate unless you join and pay for membership”
    Mrs Johnston · 22 July 2025 · App Store

Latest news

  1. Yaaseer and FutureLearn announce a partnership for digital education in Saudi Arabia
  2. FutureLearn brings Spanish translation to more than 900 online courses
  3. FutureLearn releases hundreds of courses in Italian
  4. Free education initiative for women in Afghanistan reaches over 56,000 learners
  5. FutureLearn partners with 13 more universities for Campus for Ukraine
  6. FutureLearn launches the FLx learning platform for companies
  7. FutureLearn chief executive Andy Hancock exits after GUS takeover, Times Higher Education
  8. FutureLearn sold to GUS, Jo Johnson to chair, The PIE News

Contacts and company data

Legal entity
FutureLearn Limited, Buchanan House, 30 Holborn, London EC1N 2HS, United Kingdom
Company number
08324083, England and Wales
Incorporated
10 December 2012
Type
Private limited company, active
SIC code
85590, other education
Controlling shareholder
UK Academic Holdings Ltd (11104387), 75% or more, since 31 May 2024
Earlier owners in the register
Global University Systems B.V. from 30 November 2022, then GAH Education Holding Limited from 19 December 2022
Last accounts
Made up to 31 May 2025

FutureLearn vs Coursera, Udemy and others

FutureLearn Coursera Udemy Domestika Skillshare MasterClass
Founded 2012, The Open University201220102002, Madrid20102014
Headquarters LondonMountain ViewSan FranciscoBerkeleyNew YorkSan Francisco
Model Free access, per-course upgrades, Unlimited subscriptionPer course, certificate and Coursera PlusPer coursePer course and Plus subscriptionSubscription onlyAnnual subscription
Free option Limited access for the length of a courseFree courses, 7-day Plus trialSome free coursesPlus trial with one creditFree trial—
App Store rating, US No app4.9 (177K)4.7 (77K)4.9 (12K)4.8 (25K)4.9 (123K)

“—” means the public sources we checked do not say. Facts from Wikipedia, the companies’ websites and the App Store, checked on 6 October 2026. In December 2025 Coursera agreed to buy Udemy. The other platforms are outside the European catalogue.

Alternatives to FutureLearn

How we built this profile

  1. Sources. Facts come from the company’s own website, press room, imprint and careers page, from Wikipedia, the App Store, Google Play and Trustpilot. Every source is listed on the page.
  2. Checks. Kinescope checked every number on 6 October 2026. Prices, ratings and job counts change, and we refresh them with each update.
  3. Our words. Descriptions are written by the Kinescope team. Quotes from reviews are marked with the author and source, and we do not rate the company ourselves.
  4. Corrections. The company can send new facts or corrections, and we update the profile.

Other higher education companies

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FutureLearn FAQ

Most short courses have free limited access for the length of the course. Lessons open week by week, and tests, certificates and access after the course are not included. Some sponsored courses include a free digital certificate.

In Europe on 6 October 2026, Unlimited Monthly costs €43.99 and Unlimited Annual €299.99. Until 2 November 2026 the first year costs €209.99. In the UK the annual plan is £249.99, or £174.99 in the offer.

More than 1,400 short courses with all weeks and tests open, and a digital certificate on eligible courses. ExpertTracks, microcredentials, bootcamps, Premium courses and degrees are not included.

For Unlimited and course upgrades you have 14 days from the first payment, if you have not attempted a test or downloaded a certificate. For monthly Unlimited this covers the first month only. Microcredentials can be refunded until 14 days after learning starts.

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