Pilot scheme supports affordability by giving the UK’s 1.7m FE and sixth form students the opportunity to benefit from a free collection of Open Access ebooks and educational resources 

Kortext, the leading student learning content and engagement platform, has partnered with Jisc, the UK’s digital body for education and research, to provide 10,000 free ebooks and academic publications to all further education (FE) and sixth form colleges across the UK. 

In a 12-month pilot scheme, the Kortext Open Resources Collection – a curated collection of Open Access (OA) books and Open Educational Resources (OERs) – will be available to all Jisc FE member institutions. This means that the UK’s 1.7 million FE students will have free and fair access to these resources which support a broad range of subjects from arts, business, and environment all the way through to information technology and English literature.  

James Gray, CEO Kortext says: “We are proud to be leading the access and affordability agenda, and this arrangement will positively impact all students in further education across the UK – nearly half of the total post-18 education students. In total, three-quarters of the UK’s students in further and higher education can now access learning materials on the Kortext platform.

“For too long there has been an uneven playing field when it comes to equitable access to resources for further education. With Jisc and Kortext joining forces, students will have free and easy access to important resources at the point of study, helping them develop their critical minds in preparation for higher education or employment. The more these resources are adopted by academics, the less students have to worry about paying for course content, which we hope will make a big difference to some of these young people’s lives. 

“The materials are available now for colleges to integrate into their resource lists, enabling students to access them anytime, anywhere on any mobile, tablet or laptop.” 

Liam Earney, executive director, digital resources at Jisc, said: “Jisc has pledged to help students and teachers across UK higher and further education to gain access to affordable e-books, e-textbooks and related teaching content. This pilot represents a first step to moving towards a more equitable and affordable market for learning content and provides us with an opportunity to monitor how this broad range of content is received and used by both staff and students and help us identify areas for growth. 

“Maximising on freely available content can be challenging, bringing it together into subject collections and with the capabilities of the Kortext platform, students and educators will easily be able to find content of relevance to their courses and understand its use.”

“We will continue work with Kortext to ensure the offer evolves – responding to sector need and member feedback as we look at next steps.”

To find out more about the Kortext Open Resources Collection, visit: https://www.kortext.com/jisc-fe-kortext-open-resources-collection/

To register for access to the Kortext Open Resources Collection, visit the Jisc website: https://subscriptionsmanager.jisc.ac.uk/catalogue/2710