FAQ

ID verification is where we match your ID with an image of you, to verify it’s you learning with FutureLearn. This way you can earn credit from universities and build trust in your Certificates of Achievement. A successful verification will result in the ID verified badge being shown on your physical and digital Certificates of Achievement, and on your profile page.

No. ID verification is offered as an option to those learners who have purchased a Certificate of Achievement. For programs which offer academic or professional credit, learners should verify their identity in order that partners can issue their credit later.

You will be asked to scan a valid ID (passport, driver’s license or government issued ID) using your webcam. Please note that the driver’s license and ID need to be plastic cards to be recognised. You will also be asked to take a picture of your face to validate that it matches the picture on your document. See our ‘how it works’ page for a detailed step by step flow of what happens.

The company behind this ID verification is called Jumio. Jumio specialises in ID recognition and has developed a secure mechanism to verify IDs online.


This process can take between 5 seconds and 4 minutes depending on the options selected and the quality of lighting, camera resolution and ID type selected.



Only FutureLearn can see your identity information and we store the full information only for five days. Beyond this, we only store the document name from successful ID verification attempts.


Apart from sharing your information with Jumio to carry out the ID verification, none of the information you submit will be shared with anyone outside FutureLearn unless you give your permission. Your details will be automatically checked and – if verified – only your document name is stored by FutureLearn.


It could be a variety of factors, from the lighting in the room to the camera resolution. The ID should scan if you can clearly read the information on the computer screen.


In order to verify all the security features we need a full color scan of your document.



Please check if your ID is readable and fulfils the required criteria (ie. driver’s licenses and government issued IDs need to be valid plastic cards). Try to scan the ID again, or upload it manually.


Don’t worry, your Certificates are still valuable proof of learning without ID verification. ID verification is primarily for those who require additional security to prove who they are, or need to prove their identity to use their learning on FutureLearn to gain credit with a Partner University or other accrediting body.

Once you purchase a Certificate of Achievement from FutureLearn, verifying your identity is free.

Different countries have different ID documents which can be used. Driver’s licenses and government issued IDs need to be made out of plastic to be recognised. Jumio provide a list of supported countries and documents here.

At present, we are only able to verify the identity of learners who have the ID documents stated and are from the countries supported by Jumio. If you do not have the required documents or your country is not listed, and you need to verify your identity for credit, please contact [email protected]

Your ID document is shared with Jumio whose servers are based in the UK. They run an automatic and manual check on your ID document and return information about the match to FutureLearn.

If the verification is successful FutureLearn will store a copy of your ID document on file with Jumio for five days. Beyond this, FutureLearn will privately store only the document name from successful ID verification attempts.  Your document name will only be shown to you in your profile. In the case where you plan to continue your studies with a University partner, you will be given the option to share this document name with the University. This is so that they know it’s still you, and can recognise your learning on FutureLearn.

Yes. Your information is transferred over secure, encrypted HTTPS at all times and Jumio are PCI Level 1 compliant. Find out more about their approach to security.

At present, we can only verify the identity of learners who provide access to the required ID documents.

Yes, simply upload an image of your ID. Click ‘Start ID verification’, then select ‘Upload a file of your ID’. You will also be asked to upload an image of yourself.


If you do not have a working webcam connected, you can upload an image file of your ID and a photo of yourself instead.


Credits are a system used by universities for recognising the achievement of learning. Credit is expressed in terms of notional hours of study.

In the UK, 1 credit is equated with 10 notional hours of study where the notional hours are the number of hours of study expected to achieve the learning outcomes. A 10 credit course or module equates to 100 learning hours. In Europe a credit is equivalent to 20 hours of study and so 100 hours of learning is 5 credits.

Notional hours for UK and European credits are made up of directed teaching and learning time, self-directed study, and preparing for and taking part in assessments. FutureLearn courses are generally equivalent to the teaching time, with supplementary links and downloads supporting self-directed study.

Credit is also given a level of study. In the UK the first year of a university undergraduate degree is level 4. Postgraduate is level 7. Qualifications need to be made up of the right number credits at the right level. See gov.uk for more on UK levels.

The US system is slightly different, but still based on hours. However, credits are based on the number of contact hours, not including self-directed study or assessment. A credit is equivalent to 16 hours of contact.   

The way that credits relate to study hours varies between countries but there is a European framework called European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS). FutureLearn’s UK university partners award UK credits. 1 ECTS credit is typically worth 2 UK credits. 6 ECTS credits are commonly deemed equivalent to 3 US or Canadian credits.

Some FutureLearn programs have been designed specifically by our partner universities to enable you to earn credits, which  will count towards a specific degree at the partner university. Where programs are designed as pathways into degree programs, the program page will provide details of what the credit will be recognised for.

Credit may also be recognised by other institutions including institutions in countries using different credit systems. If you want to use the credits from a FutureLearn program you’ve completed at another university, you should talk to its admissions office or look for information about accreditation of prior learning (APL) or recognition of prior learning (RPL) on the university’s website. The decision will be based on the university policy on accreditation of prior learning and the subject you are applying to study.

You can use the credit as one of the qualifications listed on your application form for any university or course and on your CV when you apply for a job.

UK universities determine their own requirements for qualifications against a set of minimum national requirements set out in qualifications and credit frameworks.

UK undergraduate degrees, such as Bachelors of Arts or Science, are 360 credits which is normally 3 years of study with 120 credits at level 4, 120 credits at level 5 and 120 credits at level 6.

Many universities will offer a level 4 Certificate of Higher Education to students who have achieve 120 credits, and some universities will offer other level 4 qualifications.

At postgraduate level, a UK Masters degree is 180 credits, with a minimum of 120 credits at level 7, typically including a dissertation that is worth 60 credits. Other smaller level 7 qualifications, such PG Diplomas (120 credits) and Certificates (60 credits), may also be available.

A normal year of fulltime study is 120 UK credits or 60 ECTS credits (approximately 1,200 hours).

No, you will not need to visit the partner university running the course to complete the program. All of the courses are online and you can submit the assessment either within a final assessment course or by attending an in-person examination at one of our test centres (provided by Pearson Vue). There are 4,500 of these around the world so there will usually be one near you.

On some programs, you may need to complete an online assessment course directly with the partner in order to complete the program and be awarded the credit. This will be outlined on the assessment page of the particular program.

You may need to register as a student at the partner university running your program in order to complete the final assessment course and in order to be awarded credit. Normally, this will be done via FutureLearn. We will ask your permission to provide the partner university your details for this purpose before you purchase the final assessment course.  

On some programs, you may need to register directly with the partner university in order to complete it. Full details will be provided on the assessment page of the particular program.

Typically, when you join the assessment course for a program, you will be invited to register as a student with the partner university. This is so that they have all the information they need to be able to issue you with formal credit and ensure you confirm your agreement to abide by the rules, regulations, procedures and codes that the partner university requires.

You may also need to verify your identity with FutureLearn in order to register with the partner university.

You are not currently able to apply for a student loan to take part in FutureLearn courses or programs. Entitlement to a student loan depends on where you live and how long you have lived there. In England, you need to register for an eligible qualification and study at least 30 credits within a single year to be entitled to a student loan, subject to meeting other criteria.

The final assessment course runs over a set number of weeks and starts on a fixed date. Normally at the end of the final assessment course you will submit your final assignment or take part in an exam. Final assessment courses run at different times in the year, so you should choose to join a course when you know you will have sufficient time to complete the work and submit the written assignment by the deadline.

During the final assessment course you will receive instruction as to the nature of the assessment. You will be required to demonstrate your understanding of the program material and will be assessed in a way appropriate to the subject area. Additional teaching, learning and support may also be provided. Specific information about the exact nature of the assessment will be found on the specific program page on FutureLearn.  

The final grade for each for-credit program will depend on the program. Typically your score from the final assessment course will contribute all or the majority of the marks for your final grade. Sometimes the mark that you gain from the FutureLearn courses in the program will also contribute to your final mark. The details of this will be outlined on the final assessment course page.

The results of final assessments submitted via FutureLearn will normally be available within 4 weeks of you submitting your work.

For assignments submitted in other ways see the information page on the specific program. You will receive an award from FutureLearn that shows you have completed the components of the program on FutureLearn and a paper transcript from the partner university that officially awards the credit. Results for any final assessment courses run directly by the University will be issued by that University in accordance with their standard arrangements for students.

On most programs, you will be entitled to resit the final assessment course once. Assessment courses will be presented periodically on FutureLearn and so you should be able to join a later run of the course. The price for the resit will depend upon the program. Assessment courses elsewhere will also typically be run regularly.

You should ensure that you only join the final assessment course if you have time to study the course and complete the coursework by the specified deadline. Assessment courses will be run several times per year. See specific program pages for details.

If you have joined the a final assessment course on FutureLearn and an unexpected event occurs you will need to submit evidence of the event or sickness to [email protected]. You may be entitled to enrol on the final assessment course the next time it is presented on the FutureLearn platform without paying an additional fee. If you have joined a final assessment course run directly by the University. their regulations for mitigating or exceptional circumstances will apply.

A program is a series of courses designed to provide you with a deeper and more valuable learning experience than a single course. Taking all courses in a program will allow you to develop and demonstrate your learning progress. The program may also include an additional summative element such as an exam or tutor marked assessment where appropriate.

In most cases, you should be able to take courses in any order, but sometimes it will make sense to take them in sequence. When you join a program, you’ll automatically join the next runs of all the courses in that program. If you want to take longer to do them, or take them in a different order, you can leave courses from the program and rejoin them at a later date in order to complete the program.

Normally there are no prerequisites to take a program; if there are, these will be listed on the program page.

Taking the courses as part of a program is free.

If you would like to receive a FutureLearn Award to prove what you’ve learned, or gain university-recognised credit (for those programs which offer this), you must become eligible and buy a Certificate of Achievement for each course on the program.

For example, to earn the FutureLearn Award for the Social Entrepreneurship program, you would need to take the three courses in this program and become eligible to buy a Certificate on each course. After buying each Certificate (3 total), you would receive the program Award.

If the program also requires assessment, you must also purchase and complete the assessment to receive the program Award.

You can pay for Certificates of Achievement and Assessment courses by credit card or debit card.

From time to time we may change the cost of the Certificate of Achievement on any given course, and so this may affect the overall price of the program.

You can complete a program at your own pace. Each course in a program remains available indefinitely, although you may find that other learners and mentors are no longer present after the official ‘end’ date of the course. Each course in a program will be offered regularly, and so you will be able to complete a later run of that course if you need to.

The FutureLearn Award is a celebration of your overall achievements on the courses you completed as part of your program. It shows that you have completed 90% of the steps in all courses in the program and achieved a pass rate of at least 70% on any tests. It can be used to demonstrate a deep understanding of a particular subject area and make a great addition to your CV, CPD portfolio or application for further study.

The Award will be accessible via your FutureLearn profile page and can be shared to your LinkedIn profile or CV as a link. A screengrab is shown below:

To receive a FutureLearn Award you must become eligible and buy Certificates for all the courses in a program, and complete and pass any assessment required as part of the course. We will automatically send you the Award.

Some programs offer university-recognised credit in addition to a FutureLearn award. For details on credit, see our FAQ on credit.

In some cases you may need to, yes. This is because some courses have changed substantially to make them suitable for being part of a program and so previous runs may not count towards the program overall.

If you can’t make the next run of a course, or you want to take longer to do courses, or take them in a different order, you can leave courses from the program and rejoin them at a later date if you wish, in order to complete the program. You can manage this from the ‘Your programs’ page.

At the bottom of each program on the ‘Your programs’ page there is a ‘Leave this program’ link.

No. The courses will still appear in ‘Your courses’. If you wish to leave the courses too, you can find a ‘Leave course’ link beneath each course in ‘Your courses’.

If you leave a course within a program, you can rejoin it at a later date in order to complete the program. You can manage this from the ‘Your programs’ page.

Details on assessment for credit are available in our FAQs on credit.

When you join a program, you’ll automatically join the next available runs of all the courses in that program. If you want to take longer to do them, or take them in a different order, you can leave courses from the program and rejoin them at a later date in order to complete the program.

Programs that you’ve joined will appear in the ‘Your programs’ tab which sits next to ‘Your courses’ after you have signed in.

A Certificate of Achievement is a valuable certificate to prove what you’ve learned on your course.

Your Certificate will include your name; an outline of what you’ve learned and how long it took; the logos of the university and other organisations associated with your course. Your printed certificate will also include the lead educator’s signature.

In addition to the digital and printed certificate, you will receive a detailed transcript of what you’ve learned, how long it took and your average test score (if your course contained tests).

You can view our page about Certificates of Achievement to see what they look like.

To be eligible to buy a Certificate of Achievement, you must:

• – complete 90% of the steps in a course (by using the “Mark as complete” button on each step),
• – attempt every test question in the course,
• – score over 70% on average across all course tests.

If you’re taking a course, we’ll email you details of how to buy a Certificate of Achievement, once you’re eligible for one.

The cost of the Certificate of Achievement varies depending on the course. They normally cost from £39.00 (GBP) to £59.00 (GBP) + shipping. The price shown includes a digital and printed certificate and transcript, and VAT or local sales tax. The exact price for your course will be shown within the course itself.

If you don’t qualify to buy a Certificate of Achievement because your test score does not meet the 70% pass threshold, you have a couple of options. You will still be able to purchase a Statement of Participation for the course, or you could join a later run of the course. Unfortunately it is not possible to retake tests in FutureLearn courses. 

A Statement of Participation is a collectable printed and digital record that you can buy, to show that you’ve taken part in a FutureLearn course. Statements are available for the vast majority of FutureLearn courses in both digital and printed formats. You can view our page about Statements of Participation to see what they look like.

Your Statement will include your name; a short summary of the course and how long it took; the logo of the university and other organisations associated with your course. In addition, your printed certificate will also include the lead educator’s signature.

Your Statement will confirm that you’ve completed the majority of steps in a course and attempted all test questions, but it will not show your individual level of completion or your test scores.

To be eligible to buy a Statement of Participation, you must complete over half of the steps in a course (by using the “Mark as complete” button on each step) and attempt all test questions.

If you’re taking a course, we’ll email you details of how to buy a Statement of Participation, once you’re eligible for one.

To be eligible, you must complete the majority of steps in the course and attempt all test questions. You can check how close you are to being eligible on your course progress page.

The cost of a Statement of Participation varies depending on the course. They cost from at £19.00 (GBP) to £34.00 (GBP) plus shipping. The price shown includes a digital and printed version, and VAT or local sales tax. The exact price for your course will be shown within the course itself.

There is no deadline to buy a Certificate or Statement. You can buy one anytime after you become eligible. All of our courses stay open after they finish, so you can complete them in your own time. You can see which Certificates and Statements you’re eligible for already on your profile page.

If you’ve bought a Statement of Participation for a course that now offers a Certificate of Achievement, you can not upgrade it automatically at the moment. This is because our partners have changed course content, to make courses more suitable for the more rigorous Certificate of Achievement.

One of you will need to create a new email address so that you can each have your own FutureLearn account. But don’t worry, it’s easy to create a new email address and doesn’t need to cost anything.

First of all it’s a good idea to check with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) as it’s common for them to provide a number of email accounts and inboxes for each household.

If that doesn’t suit you, there are lots of services that provide free email. For example, you could try Google’s Gmail.

Not if there is already a FutureLearn account associated with it. If you share an email address, for example with a partner, please be aware that you can’t use it for two separate FutureLearn user accounts, as FutureLearn only supports one account per email address.

No. As our terms and conditions state, you should not let anyone else use your FutureLearn account – even if they’re really nice! This is for a number of reasons, but mainly it’s so that when you post in the comments and assignments or when you take part in tests, we know it’s your own work.

It’s also because, if you’re each taking different courses, it could quickly become confusing for you, especially as the emails that relate to different courses begin to arrive.

So that we can keep improving FutureLearn and our courses, we might sometimes ask you to take part in research. This helps us find out more about your background, your expectations of FutureLearn and our courses, and your experiences of learning with us and elsewhere.

All our learners are invited to take part in optional pre- and post-course surveys, which we ask you to complete prior to and at the end of each course you join.

During the post-course survey, we also invite you to become part of the FutureLearn review group. This means we may get in touch with you periodically to seek your views, opinions and feedback on specific topics.

Sometimes, we or our university partners will contact groups of learners to take part in one-off pieces of research.

Participation in all of the above is optional, and has no impact on your progress through our courses.

For more information about research relating to learner activities and content, please refer to our code of research ethics and our Terms and Conditions.

Our surveys are delivered using SurveyMonkey, so the data is initially stored in the US. SurveyMonkey has signed up to the Safe Harbor Framework, which means that your information is protected to the standard of UK and EU data protection law. Data will then be linked to your FutureLearn account, and held confidentially and securely by FutureLearn in line with our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

We aggregate the data we collect on you and others learners, and produce statistical reports; any information that we publish in this way will be entirely anonymous.

If you no longer wish to be part of our review group, simply click unsubscribe at the bottom of the email you received.

At FutureLearn we believe in the power of learning through conversation, and we have developed our learning platform to enable this. Read our tips here on how to make the most of these features to improve your learning experience. 

You might have noticed that if you click on an external link or document during a course it opens in the same tab in your browser. Some learners have asked if it’s possible for us to change this so that links open in a new window, however it is standard usability practice that links should open in the same tab, particularly for sites such as ours which are often accessed via mobile devices.

If you’d prefer to open links in new windows then you can reveal this option by right-clicking the link (on a PC), pressing the ctrl key and clicking with the mouse (on a Mac), or pressing down on the link for a few seconds if you are on a touch-screen device.

We believe that everyone deserves the best learning experiences and so we want to ensure that our core offer remains free. It’s our mission to offer everyone, anywhere the chance to learn from world-leading academics.

Whilst our courses are free to learners, the platform and the courses are costly for us and our partners to produce and maintain. The Open University, in addition to providing us with more than 40 years of distance learning experience, has provided the initial investment to get us up and running. Our ultimate goal is to be self sustaining as soon as we can. To achieve this we’re exploring a variety of paid-for services that provide additional benefits to our learners.

Most of our courses now offer Certificates of Achievement and Statements of Participation, allowing our learners to prove that they took part in a course for which we charge a small fee. The revenue from these products helps us to develop and maintain the platform as well as enabling our partners to offset some of the costs of content creation.

We’re also offering invigilated exams on some courses to allow learners to earn a Statement of Attainment. These can serve as a good way to show evidence of formal or informal Continuing Professional Development (CPD), commitment to a career path, or your understanding of a particular subject.

We’re continuing to look at a range of other products and services that will complement and support our core offer of free learning.

If a user enrols on a course only to cause trouble, repeatedly posting comments that break our code of conduct, we will immediately delete their account and hide all of their comments. They will be notified by an email explaining why.

We want FutureLearn to be a safe and constructive environment for social learning. Therefore in extreme circumstances we may delete the account of a learner who has persistently broken our code of conduct. Before we do this, the learner will be asked to improve their behaviour by educators in the course comments. If it does not improve they will receive a warning by email from FutureLearn. If it continues after this, their account will be deleted and they will receive a further email explaining why.

FutureLearn comments are reactively moderated. This means that learners or educators can notify our moderators of any comments that worry them, by pressing the flag button that’s at the bottom of every comment: 

The moderators will then review any comments that have been reported to them and decide whether or not to hide a comment according to our Code of Conduct and Terms & Conditions.

When a comment is hidden, it is replaced with the message “This comment has been removed by a FutureLearn moderator”, and the author is sent an automated email to tell them. They can reply to this email to find out more.

Learner profiles and peer review feedback are moderated in the same way.

All FutureLearn courses happen online at futurelearn.com.

Courses start at midnight on Mondays (00:00 UTC) on the day shown on the course page.

Once a course has started, you will be able to access the course material and study at any time that suits you.  You don’t need to be online at the same time as the lead educator or other students.

After the start date, you will be able to access the course by following the “Go to course” link at Your courses.

It is free to join and study any FutureLearn course.

At the end of the course, learners are offered the opportunity to purchase a certificate. The price includes both a digital and printed version, and VAT or local sales tax. Purchasing one is optional.

More information on these can be found here.

FutureLearn is designed to be flexible, so you can learn at your own pace. If you’re too busy to study the course material one week, don’t worry – you can catch up and complete those steps next time you sign in.

You can update your personal information by clicking your avatar at the top right of any page when you’re signed in.

To change your name, click on the ‘Your profile‘ link in this menu and then ‘Edit profile’.

To change your password or email address visit the ‘Settings‘ link in this menu.

We want to create a community of lifelong learners based on openness and inclusivity. When you sign up to FutureLearn, we ask you to abide by our code of conduct, which requires that you sign up only once and use your real name.

This is for two main reasons. One is to keep the quality of debate high. Most of us tend to think twice about what we say if we use our real name – we post better content and are nicer to others. Using pseudonyms where people can pretend to be someone else tends to lead to less friendly communities with lower quality contributions. We want FutureLearn to be a place where conversations are as friendly and constructive as possible.

The second reason is that we want you to be able to use your activity on FutureLearn to help prove what you have learnt to others. In order for this to be valuable, it needs to be connected to an account that others believe is yours.

To access the courses you’re signed up to, go to Your courses in the Your profile section at the top right of the website. Click on “Go to course” to enter a particular course.

If you’ve visited Your courses in the Your profile section at the top right of the website, and clicked on “Go to course”, but still can’t access a course, contact our support team at [email protected] for assistance.

Yes, providing they are 13 years old or older. There are no requirements for formal qualifications in order to study on a FutureLearn course, although some courses may specify expected levels of understanding or experience in certain areas or, in some cases, specialist equipment.

If you’re having problems signing in to your FutureLearn account, there are a few things you can do to try to identify and fix the problem.

Firstly, make sure that caps lock is turned off, since all passwords are case-sensitive.

If you’re sure you’re using the right password but you still can’t sign in, please reset your password.

If you still can’t sign up, contact our support team for assistance at [email protected]

Yes, you can join a course at any point until it ends. After you’ve signed up, you will retain access to the course indefinitely, even after its closing date. However, the bulk of the conversations around the course topics may have already taken place and moved on if you join late, so it’s best to join a course at the start. This ensures you can get involved with discussions and have your questions answered by other learners and course educators.

Most courses will run again, so if you feel you have missed too much to catch up, look out for the next date.

Go to the reset password page, insert your email address and click ‘Submit’. We will send you an email with instructions on how to reset your password.

Usually, yes. We ask our university partners to make as much of their content as possible open and accessible afterwards to learners who are enrolled on the course. Occasionally there may be reasons why we have to remove some or all course material, but we try to avoid doing this.

We encourage learners to complete courses within two to four weeks of the end date. If you have not completed your course by this time, you might consider enrolling on the next run of the course so that you can participate in active discussions with other learners.

If your email address was accepted on the password reset page but you have not received an email, please check your spam folder in case the email has been incorrectly marked as spam. If you’re still unable to locate the email, please contact our support team for assistance at [email protected].

There is no limit on the number of courses you can take.

If you’re unable to remember the email address you used to sign up to FutureLearn, or if the email address you used is not recognised, please contact our support team for assistance at [email protected].

Yes. You can leave a course you’ve signed up to at Your courses. Here you’ll see a link to “Leave this course” beneath each course you’ve joined.

If you’ve clicked on the ‘Sign out’ link but still find yourself signed in, you may have signed out of our feedback platform instead of the main site. To sign out completely, visit FutureLearn, open the ‘My account’ menu and click ‘Sign out’. After signing out you will be redirected to the homepage.

On most courses we now offer paid-for Statements of Participation, which you can purchase at the end of the course to show that you have taken part. Some courses also offer real-world exams at local test centres which enable you to earn a Statement of Attainment.

To be eligible for a Statement of Participation, you must complete the majority of steps on the course, plus all of the assessment. To be eligible for a Statement of Attainment, you must book and pass an exam.

After your course has finished, you will still be able to access your progress page and return to any of the content within the course for reference in the future.

You can rejoin any time until the course is scheduled to close. After this, you will not be able to rejoin the current run of a course if you change your mind after leaving it. However, if we have announced a later run, you will be able to start the same course again at a later date.

You can manage the emails you receive from FutureLearn by signing in and selecting ‘Settings’ from the menu at the top on the right. From here you can:

• unsubscribe from follower notifications
• unsubscribe from FutureLearn announcements
• unsubscribe from course emails

Courses are not currently accredited, but organisations may choose to recognise courses in the future.

If you are receiving emails from FutureLearn but did not sign up for the site or the mailing list, please contact our support team for assistance at [email protected].

Yes, absolutely.

Yes, many of our courses are suitable for young people and can be used for free in schools. Students must be aged 13 or over in order to join them.

As a teacher, you can use our courses in two main ways:

1. To help students with university decision making, by giving them a taste of a particular subject or university.

2. To help students complete university applications and develop the study skills they’ll need to transition into higher education.

We also provide several CPD courses aimed at teachers. You can find out more on our page for schools.

Occasionally our emails can find their way into spam folders, so please check to see if this is the case. To ensure you don’t miss out on any course updates, add [email protected] and [email protected] to your address book or safe list.  If you are still having trouble, contact us at [email protected].

No. At the end of the course, learners are offered the opportunity to purchase a certificate. The price includes both a digital and printed version, and VAT or local sales tax. Purchasing one is optional.

More information on these can be found here.

On some FutureLearn courses, learners will be able to pay to take an exam to qualify for a Statement of Attainment. These are university-branded, printed certificates that provide proof of learning on the course topic(s). Any learner who has taken a course offering a Statement of Attainment on FutureLearn can register for the relevant exam.

Currently, we’re only offering Statements of Attainment on a few courses, however, we expect to make these available for more courses over time.

A Statement of Attainment can serve as a good way to show evidence of formal or informal Continuing Professional Development (CPD), commitment to a career path, or your understanding of a particular subject.

A Statement of Attainment verifies your identity, but does not imply the award of credit points or the conferment of a university qualification.

Course content on FutureLearn is made freely available for learners to use for educational purposes. Once courses are running, course content will generally be available for searching and sharing across the web, and usually left up on the website once courses are finished. Read more about FutureLearn’s approach to openness.

A Statement of Attainment shows your name, the name of the course, and the name and logo of University who delivered the course. It will outline the subject areas covered by the course, the number of hours of study required per week, and will be signed by the Educator who delivered the course. It states that the final exam was carried out under invigilated conditions and shows the percentage score achieved.

We strongly advise you to study the relevant FutureLearn course before booking to take the exam, as the questions will be based on the content of the FutureLearn course. If you pass the exam, you will receive a Statement of Attainment which includes the percentage score achieved in the exam.

You’ll find our feedback tool (with a question mark symbol) at the bottom right hand corner of the screen (on desktop browsers), where you’ll be able to report an issue or tell us your thoughts. You can also email us at [email protected].

No special software is required. FutureLearn is designed to be accessible on mobile, tablet and desktop.

We’re actively supporting and testing FutureLearn on desktop on the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.

In terms of tablet and mobile, we support Safari or Chrome on the latest versions of iOS and Android tablets and mobile devices.

We make best endeavours to support certain older browsers and the previous version of iOS and Android but there may be some differences in the delivery of content to users of platforms not outlined on our detailed browser support page.

The videos on FutureLearn are secured with a time-stamped signature. This updates automatically and, in most cases, you’ll never notice it.

However, if the timestamp has expired, you’ll receive a td19 error. To solve this, please refresh the web page. If the problem continues, please clear your browser’s cache.

These error messages occur when information relating to a video cannot be accessed. The most common cause of this problem is a firewall or proxy server blocking the request. To prevent the videos from being blocked, you’ll need to whitelist the following URLs in your firewall settings:

*.vzaar.com
*.kuonamaoni.com

Please be aware that with the majority of domestic internet configurations, these changes should not be necessary. Only implement them if you’re receiving a pnf18 or ikm20 error.

There are a number of reasons why you may be having trouble seeing the video player.

1) A full cache or out of date cookies

Try clearing your browser’s cache and cookies. This can be done from the Settings menu or by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Delete.

2) Flash version out of date

Videos and audio on FutureLearn will work with Flash 10.2 and later versions. However, for the most reliable experience, the latest release is always recommended. To determine your current version of Flash player visit Flash Player Help. Alternatively, you can simply update to the latest Flash player by visiting http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/.

3) Javascript is disabled

The video/audio player also requires javascript to be enabled. Users without javascript will only see a blank space where the video or audio player should be. To confirm that javascript is enabled, visithttp://www.supportdetails.com. This will show your current browser setup. If javascript is disabled you can enable it in your browser settings menu.

4) Video/audio is unavailable

This occurs when your computer fails to receive the video or audio file. If a video has not been received after 60 seconds, this error message will be displayed. Try refreshing the page and, if this does not work, clear your cache. If you are still getting this message, it appears that there may be a problem with your connection so please get in touch with your internet service provider (ISP).

5) Add ons and extensions

Try disabling all browser extensions, add-ons, etc. Certain extensions can interfere with your browser’s regular performance and most online material will not have been tested with your specific extension in mind.

6) An incompatible browser

Ensure you’re using a browser supported by FutureLearn. Whilst this isn’t a solution, check to see whether the problem is specific to one particular browser.

Still having problems?

Visit http://www.supportdetails.com, which will show your current browser setup. Please contact us with these details along with the video or audio’s URL, title and the full text of any error messages and we will investigate.

This can happen on some older hardware. To play video/audio reliably we recommend a machine with the following specifications as a minimum:

1. A 1.5GHz single core, or 1GHz dual core processor

2. At least 1GB of RAM

3. An internet connection with a consistent speed of 1.5Mbps or above

The most likely cause of this problem is a slow or fluctuating connection speed.

We recommend a connection with a consistent speed of 1.5Mbps for FutureLearn videos. You can check your connection speed at http://www.speedtest.net. Although, be aware that some ISPs may perform better in the test than in real world scenarios.

To improve your network performance, close all other downloads and check that software on your computer (such as Windows or your virus guard) isn’t currently being updated.

If you continue to have problems, we recommend you contact your internet service provider (ISP).

Users of Firefox on a Mac are finding that the full screen or subtitle buttons and other video controls do not respond when clicked. This is a known issue with Firefox CSS transforms and is under investigation by Mozilla. There is no current estimated time for a fix, so we suggest that you switch to either Safari or Chrome browsers if you need the missing functionality.

There could be a number of reasons for this. If you are using an older web browser, then you will need to have the Flash plugin installed. If you are using a mobile connection then it’s possible that you may not have a good enough data connection.

We’re working hard to meet a high standard of accessibility to ensure FutureLearn is as open as possible to a widest possible audience. More information is available in our accessibility policy, and we outline our approach to testing and known issues in our page on accessibility testing.

We’ve deliberately designed the site so that the focus is on content and learning materials without distraction. The aim is to create a quiet and studious environment that encourages you to focus. The central content column and the typography is designed to be really easy and comfortable to read (making the column wider makes it harder). We also want to provide a consistent experience across mobile, tablet and desktop and so our page layout adjusts to whatever size screen you happen to be using.

At the start and end of each course, we ask our learners to complete a short survey to find out more about their expectations and their learning experience. This is to help us keep improving FutureLearn and our courses in line with what our learners want. We also hope that learners will find it useful to reflect on their answers as they go through the course, and plan to share anonymised highlights publicly.

Our surveys are delivered using SurveyMonkey, so the data is initially stored in the US. SurveyMonkey has signed up to the Safe Harbor Framework, which means that learners’ information is protected to the standard of UK and EU data protection law. Data will then be linked to learners’ FutureLearn accounts, and held confidentially and securely by FutureLearn in line with our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. Individualised data will be shared only with the University offering the course in question. We also plan to aggregate the data we collect on our students and produce statistical reports; any information that we publish in this way will be entirely anonymous.

Yes. FutureLearn’s partners are working on a large number of courses that have not yet been announced. To stay informed, please keep coming back to our website, or follow us on social media (you’ll find links at the foot of this page). We will be announcing more courses every month.
You can suggest a course you would like to study using the question mark widget:

• click ‘Help us decide what to add next’
• then ‘Post your own idea’
• type in a description of the course you would like to study
• skip any suggestions
• select category ‘5. Suggesting a course’
• post the idea

Many educators will provide a list of recommended further reading by email, or as part of the online course materials, but we are considering providing a reading list feature in the future.

That’s something we are considering further down the line. FutureLearn is already designed to work on smartphones, tablets and desktop computers, so that learners can enjoy the same high-quality user experience, regardless of the screen size.

Learners are encouraged to share different points of view as part of our discussions with educators and other learners. Feedback on courses can be sent to us via email at [email protected].

Learners are encouraged to share different points of view as part of our discussions with educators and other learners. We hope to see some lively debates which everyone can learn from.

We at FutureLearn and our partner universities welcome all feedback on the courses, which can be sent to us via email at [email protected].

The FutureLearn website has undergraduate level courses from the world’s leading universities. Anyone with an interest in the subjects covered is welcome to join a course, whether that’s a high school leaver considering studying the course at university, a current undergraduate looking to complement their teaching, a working professional or someone simply learning for leisure.

We expect that some of the content will stretch our learners, and where necessary, educators also give guidance on what foundation knowledge might be needed for particular courses, as well as reading lists in advance of the start of the course.

Occasionally, courses are pitched at professionals with specific experience in certain fields. Where this is the case, course description pages should make that clear.

It’s our ambition to make all our course content open, and lots already is. We’re working hard with our partners to make all course materials open where we can, so it can be searched for on the web openly. Any time you see sharing icons on a step within a course, you will be able to share it with others.

It’s our aim to introduce more languages in a number of ways, from video subtitling right the way through to delivering whole courses in other languages. For the moment, we are starting with English, but we will soon be introducing the ability to add subtitles in different languages to help those who do not speak English as a first language. We also want the community to have a shared language and so we ask that learners only post in English for the time being.

Educators will take part in discussions and keep an eye on comments, but due to the number of people learning, they cannot provide one-to-one support. Some educators will be supported by teaching assistants and PhD students who will also interact with learners as part of the discussions and help guide learners. These will be identified with a ‘mentor’ label next to their name.

We may introduce private note taking in the future. At the moment we are focusing on developing a shared learning experience. Most people have their own preferred way of taking note, so if we provide a note taking feature, we want this to complement and add value to other methods.

In general, we are designing each step to take 5-10 minutes, whether it is a video, article, discussion or quiz. However, within the to do list, we will soon be adding an indication of how long an educator expects a specific activity to take.

We publish descriptions of our courses, along with trailers which give an insight into the areas to be explored during the course. Where necessary, educators also provide a recommended reading list for learners to study before the course begins.

We’ll be adding even more information to these pages in the coming months.

Yes. You will find a downloadable transcript underneath each video and subtitles are available within the video player as you watch.

The FutureLearn community is reactively moderated, which means that comments will not necessarily be reviewed unless reported by other users. If you see a comment or an aspect of a profile page that you believe breaks our code of conduct, use the ‘report’ button to flag it up for our moderators.

Statements of Attainment feature the university logo and the FutureLearn logo and state the name of the university delivering the course and exam. They are signed by the Educator on the course, with the Educator’s title at the university.

However, a Statement of Attainment does not imply the award of credit points nor the conferment of a university qualification.

If you pass your exam, you will receive a letter confirming this along with a Statement of Attainment. This is a physical printed certificate that will be posted to your address following the exam. You can expect to receive your Statement of Attainment around 6-8 weeks after the exam period ends. 

If you have not passed, you will receive an email notifying you of this. Resits are not currently possible for the same exam period however it may be possible to resit the exam if, and when, the course is repeated.

No, it will not be possible appeal your score. Unfortunately, the university will not be able to discuss this with you.

The majority of FutureLearn exams have a pass mark of 50%. If you pass the exam, you will receive a Statement of Attainment stating that you passed. The Statement of Attainment will also include your percentage score. If you sit the exam but do not achieve the pass mark, you will not receive a Statement.

We’ve only just started to introduce Statements of Attainment by exam on FutureLearn. In future, we hope to offer more forms of assessment including those which do not require learners to be physically present at a test centre. In the meantime, if you can’t find a test centre nearby, you’ll need to travel to the most convenient one.

Exams are delivered by our test partner, Pearson VUE, who have an extensive network of over 4,000 test centres worldwide. You will be able to locate a test centre for your exam through Pearson VUE’s website (click on ‘Find a test centre’ on the right hand side of the page and then enter a portion of your address). Pearson VUE have an extensive network of test centres worldwide.

No. You must arrive at the Test Centre at least 30 minutes before the start time of your exam to participate. If you arrive late or miss your exam altogether, you will not be eligible for a refund in most circumstances.

You can pay using Visa, Mastercard or American Express cards only. You can not pay by telephone, PayPal, Western Union or any other payment methods at present.

We only accept payment in British pounds.  If you are purchasing from outside the UK, to get an estimate of what you’ll be charged in your own currency, visit xe.com for current exchange rates.

We charge the following amounts for shipping printed Statements to you:

• £1.20 for UK
• £2.90 to Europe
• £3.20 to the rest of the world.

This shipping amount will be added to your order during checkout.

We ship worldwide using Royal Mail. For more information about delivery and international service updates, please see our delivery policy.

You’ll be able to view your digital Statement/Certificate immediately after checkout. Depending on where you’re located, you’ll receive your printed counterparts around six to eight weeks later.

For more information about shipping, view our delivery policy.

Most FutureLearn exams will be available on several dates and you may re-schedule within these dates, or cancel your exam altogether, up to 24 hours before the exam. You may be charged an administration fee.

If you cancel less than 24 hours before your examination date, you will not be eligible for a refund.

We are making every effort to provide test centres which are within reach of learners worldwide, and are able to make some accommodations to allow candidates with disabilities a fair and equal chance to sit exams. You can find out more about the accommodations available, when you book your exam, or by emailing [email protected]

When you arrive for your exam, to verify your identity you must present two forms of non-expired, photo- and/or signature-bearing ID in order to take your exam. You must bring at least one form of primary ID, and one form of supplemental ID.

Acceptable forms of primary ID are limited to:

• Driver’s licence
• Passport
• Military ID
• National identity card

Acceptable forms of supplemental ID include:

• Credit card
• Bank (ATM) card
• Employee ID card

The ID you provide must match the details you gave when you booked the exam. If it does not, you may not be allowed to take the exam.

All other personal items must be locked in a locker for test security purposes, so please limit what you take to the test centre.

Exam length will vary for different courses, but will typically be between one and three hours. If an exam is available on your course, you will find information about its duration on the exam details page.

We can’t guarantee that a Statement of Attainment by exam will be on offer for every run of a course. If an exam is available on a subsequent run, you may take it; however you should be aware that course content may change in the interim.

FutureLearn exams are delivered via Pearson VUE test centres. When you book an exam on the Pearson VUE website you’ll be able to choose a test centre in your area and select from a number of dates and times.

FutureLearn exams are computer-based exams. The exams are only available at physical test centres, so you must schedule the date of your exam in advance and attend the chosen test centre on the chosen date in order to take the exam. Your identity will be verified at the test centre and you will take the exam under invigilated conditions.

All FutureLearn exams are written and assessed by the same universities who developed the courses.

We accept payments in multiple currencies worldwide. More information will be available when you book your exam.

For most courses, we charge £119 per exam, which includes VAT / local sales tax. If you pass the exam, you will receive a Statement of Attainment as part of this fee.

For the University of Strathclyde course, Understanding Modern Business and Organisations, we charge £149 per exam. This exam includes an essay, which is hand-marked by the university. You will receive a minimum of 300 words feedback as part of this fee, as well as a Statement of Attainment if you pass.

No further discounts (for example, for students or over 65-year-olds) are currently available, but may be available in the future.

If your course offers the opportunity to take an exam, you will be notified by email during the course. You will be able to click through to the Pearson VUE exam booking site from the notification email, or from a link at the end of the to-do list.

Once you have found a date and time slot which suit you, you can schedule your exam appointment. At this point, you will need to create a new account in the Pearson VUE system (you cannot use your FutureLearn account details to log in as an existing user).

We are experimenting with different approaches to publishing material from courses during our beta phase. Most courses will be published all at once, but for some courses, we will be publishing content a week at a time to see how this affects the speed that people learn and how they learn together.

Generally, no. The courses are split into weeks, each week contains several activities, and these are made up of short tasks that you can do at a time (and pace) that best suits you. Very occasionally, educators will schedule activities that take place at a specific time, but any content will generally remain online afterwards.

Typically a FutureLearn course will require two to six hours per week, including time to join in conversations and pursue options for deeper study. However, if you’re at all worried, there is an estimate of the time each course should take on the relevant course details page, so you can plan accordingly.

You can see an overview of your progress on a course by clicking on the stairs icon at the top left of the page and selecting ‘Progress’.

We currently provide some simple tools for assessing what you know. We include multiple choice quizzes to help you check you’ve understood the content or the course material and tests that we score and count towards your course mark. We’ll be expanding our range of assessment options over the coming months and adding new question types and multimedia to our quizzes and tests.

Some courses also contain peer review assignments, that enable learners to post open answers as text or other pieces of media that can be critiqued and assessed by other learners. Peer review is a great way to get feedback on your assignments and the act of reading and marking the work of others is proven to be a very effective way of helping you learn.

By default, only signed in learners will be able to see each others’ profiles. You also have the option to make your own FutureLearn profile public and discoverable through internet search. To make your profile public, edit profile.

Yes! Many FutureLearn course materials are available to view and browse without being signed in to the course, so you can can share interesting articles and videos with friends via email or social media. Where this is possible, you will see sharing links on steps within the course.

Yes! You can sign in or register with FutureLearn using your Facebook account. We may introduce other social sign in options in future.

This is not possible yet, but it’s something we plan to introduce in the future.

Although some people have asked to write a longer profile, most people agree they prefer to read shorter ones. This also helps when you scan a list of learners to work out which people you might want to learn with. Instead of extending our profiles, we’ll shortly be adding the ability to link to other social media profiles or a webpage of your choice that will allow you to expand further should you wish.

Not yet, but this is definitely something we’ll be working on.

In order for course discussions to work from a learning perspective, it’s important that learners are all able to understand each other, and for that to be the case we need a common language. We also need to ensure that we are able to deal appropriately with comments that break our rules, and our moderators currently work in English only. In the future we may roll out support for other languages, but we want to do so in a way that is well thought-out and supported.

No, although this is something we may look at in future. We will soon be allowing learners to add links to their other social media profiles that would allow you to make contact outside FutureLearn should you wish to.

Absolutely! All courses are shareable using the address in the browser, and there are social sharing and email links on course details pages to share courses via social media. Please note that you can join a course at any point throughout its duration, so make sure you invite your friends before the course ends if you wish to learn together.

We’ll be adding functionality that allows you to block someone you’d rather didn’t follow you later. All conversation is public and so there are no private areas of the site. If you think that someone’s comment breaks the code of conduct press the warning button next to each comment. You can do the same in relation to user profile pictures or text.

Not at the moment. You can find people through seeing them in conversation and by finding them listed as followers on another learners profile. Later we’ll be providing ways for you to find people you know.

If you spot someone making interesting comments or asking great questions you can find out more about them by clicking on their name or profile picture. Their profile page will show you their other activity around the site and includes a ‘follow button’. If you follow someone you can filter the activity list and comments to include just those learners that you care about.

We will soon be making recommendations to learners of others they might like to follow. These will be based on similarities with your existing social connections.

Due to the amount of people enrolled on each course, it’s not possible to have a personal correspondence with educators. However, educators will lead discussions and debates, and we encourage you to post comments and ask questions in the discussion areas as you go. Some courses offer the opportunity to engage with educators via social media, such as Google Hangouts, Facebook and Twitter, where you may be able to have a more in-depth discussion.

You can access the digital version of your Statements and Certificates from the Achievements section on your profile page, or using the direct link in your order confirmation email.

When you join FutureLearn, or enrol on a course for the first time in a while, we send you a link, via email, to a demographic survey. This survey helps us learn more about you so that we can see how well we are doing in our mission to reach everyone, anywhere.

When we ask you for your country in the “Which country do you live in?” question we use the International Standards Organisation (ISO) standard [ISO 3166]. This standard defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, special areas of geographical interest, and their principal subdivisions (e.g. provinces or states). By using this international standard we can be sure that our data is up-to-date with internationally-recognised changes to how countries are named.

If you’ve been waiting longer than eight weeks for your printed Statement or Certificate, and your course has already finished, you can get in touch to find out about your order.

Contact us at [email protected] with your order number. This order number was included on the “Thanks for your order” page and in the confirmation email you received when you placed your order.

If your card was declined when you tried to pay for a Statement or Certificate, you should contact your bank. We are not given much information about why an individual card was declined, but your bank will be able to provide more information and ensure that future charges are accepted.

We send you an email when your payment is successful. If you did not receive this, please check your “Spam” folder or make sure that the email address on your settings page is correct. If you can not find the email, please make a note of your order number, which is shown on the “Thanks for your order page.” If you’re still unsure, contact us at [email protected].

No. At the moment we only accept payments online.

Yes, if we have not sent your Statement/Certificate already. Contact us at [email protected] with your order number and we’ll confirm whether this is possible.

You can find out whether you’re eligible for a refund in our refund policy.

We have launched a beta voucher code system which enables organisations (such as educational institutions and companies) to pay in bulk for Statements and Certificates. If you would like to order vouchers or know more information please email [email protected] with your enquiry. 

For more information on how other organisations are using FutureLearn visit https://www.futurelearn.com/workplace-learning 

Quizzes are designed to help you in the learning process – and you can retry each question as many times as you like.

Test questions on the other hand are designed to assess what you’ve learned. Therefore they have a maximum of three retries and they also count towards your overall course score.

Get in touch with us at [email protected], using the email address you registered with, and we will remove your information from the site. Your comments will remain, but will be anonymised.