CorpComms Magazine

Facebook users can now study an MBA for free at the London School of Business and Finance (LSBF) after the college launched a course that will be available on the social networking website.

The new Facebook application for the 'Global MBA' allows students all over the world to access lecture videos, course materials, notes, tests, and interactive case studies.

About 30,000 students are already registered and the school expects to see the class grow to around 500,000 within a year. Students can take courses including accounting, corporate finance, ethics, marketing and strategic planning - all for free. They will only pay if they decide to go forward for formal accreditation in an exam.

The scheme has received £7.5 million investment and is awarded by the University of Wales. Valery Kisilevsky, group managing director of the LSBF, said Facebook was chosen to host the application because it offered the chance to widen the availability of education.

'We looked at how our current students communicate with each other and the college and Facebook is the platform of choice', said Kisilevsky.

The total cost of the online MBA degree is about $23,000 (£14,700) - the same amount paid by the school's 15,000 other distance-learning and campus students.

The MBA may represent the first innovation by universities to overcome barriers such as limits on the numbers of foreign students that can enter the UK to study and the proposed increase in tuition fees. The notion that students can study remotely and only pay when seeking formal accreditation may become increasingly popular.

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