IF is an innovative project offering free humanities courses to young people who have been priced out of today’s higher education market. And it is looking for academics to get involved.
Committed to ensuring that young people, even if they have little money, can get a liberal, humanities education, IF is a ‘Free University’ – free in terms of cost to students, and free as in independent, radical, innovative.
IF is starting in London. The underpinning idea is that the capital is awash with great culture – museums, free lectures, art galleries, concerts, and the internet is bursting with free lectures from the best thinkers of today. What is more, loads of academics want to share their knowledge with a wider audience.
IF is bringing together these plentiful cultural resources to create an exciting learning experience – a high quality humanities course at no cost to the student.
Open to 18-30 year olds, a summer school is planned for this summer and a one year Humanities course will start at the end of 2014. It is envisaged that a week for a typical student would look something like this:
- Watch or listen to an open-source lecture online: This can be done remotely in the student’s own time, at home or in a public library.
- Read and research relevant additional material
- Participate (in groups of maximum 20) in a 50-80-minute workshop with an academic to discuss the ideas set out in the lecture and reading list.
- Be directed to a free event or performance in a museum, gallery, concert-hall, or theatre that addresses the material under discussion in the week’s workshop.
Though not yet accredited, courses are designed to correspond to the level of first-year undergraduate study, with the scope of an introductory Arts Foundation course.
Get involved:
IF is looking for academics to run workshops and seminars on a voluntary basis. You can get in touch with the IF team at: contact@ifproject.co.uk
It is a voluntary, low cost project, but clearly there are expenses, so they are running a Kickstarter campaign with the aim of raising £10,000.
The IF website has a video and lots more information.
As supporter Will Hutton, Principal of Hertford College, Oxford University, and former editor of The Observer newspaper, says,
“SOON THE ONLY STUDENTS OF THE LIBERAL ARTS WILL BE THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE VERY RICH OR POORER STUDENTS WHO CAN SECURE ONE OF THE INADEQUATE NUMBER OF BURSARIES, SCHOLARSHIPS AND GRANTS. I WELCOME THIS INITIATIVE TO INVOLVE YOUNG LONDONERS IN SECURING A BASIC HUMANITIES EDUCATION.”
Tags: Arts, Culture, Free University, Humanities, MOOC
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