CDU aims to put learning ‘in hands of students’ with UK expansion
Charles Darwin University (CDU) is expanding to London, and UK students who enrol in its postgraduate courses will be in charge of their own learning under a “hyper-flexible” model.
The model is expected to let students start courses anytime during the year and study online at their own pace, while balancing work, family, and personal commitments.
The university, based in Australia’s remote Northern Territory, will also open a study centre in the UK capital next year to host masterclasses and offer students the chance to connect in-person.
It’s distance learning with a twist, because we’ve put that face-to-face component back in
Fiona Coulson, Charles Darwin University
CDU’s acting vice-chancellor professor Fiona Coulson told The PIE News that this approach is what will set the Australian university’s offering apart from its UK counterparts.
“What’s truly different is that the learning journey is in the hands of the student,” she said.
“[But] it’s distance learning with a twist, because we’ve put that face-to-face component back in.”
Another advantage is that this can be done under the university’s existing TEQSA registration, meaning the degrees will be accredited by the Australian authority, with no need to pursue British certification at this stage, she added.
Professor Coulson said CDU was often described as Australia’s “most connected university” and the Northern Territory itself was “very much about connection”.
Spread across a large geographical jurisdiction, but with a relatively small population, the university already has students distributed across all Australian states, and further afield.
“We might be distributed all over the map but we’re very inclusive,” Professor Coulson said.
“[Our London offering] will be the same – even though students are studying at a distance, they are going to be connected to us as a university.”
CDU will initially offer two postgraduate courses to UK-based students — Master of Cyber Security (MCS) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) — both of which must be completed within three years.
For the MBA, there will be two specialisms available — executive and educational leadership — with plans for a third in health leadership to be added in early 2026.
With enrolments opening next week, on 20 October, and fees starting from £12,000, Professor Coulson is hopeful that the MBA’s price point will be attractive.
“It’s still a major investment for anyone to do that amount of study,” she said.
“But as you’re coming up to a point in your career where you’re thinking an MBA might be the right thing, then this is hopefully something people may feel more able to access.”
She said CDU had redesigned the curriculum of the two courses to ensure they supported hyper-flexible learning, while also removing the element of isolation for students.
“With the MBA, we had already gone down this route a little with a pop-up masters, where we would deliver in an online fashion but then offer these pop-up masterclasses,” she added.
“Students really valued that and it was quite popular, so then [we started thinking], ‘well, we could do that in an even more flexible way’.”
The university’s existing teaching team will deliver the London masterclasses initially, but professor Coulson said they were “keeping an open mind” about involving academics from outside CDU to speak about particular topics in the future.
Over time, CDU plans to create opportunities for UK students to visit Australia through study tours or immersive experiences in the Northern Territory.
Although CDU has seen one of the largest proportional increases in its 2026 allocations, the university is still pursuing transnational education initiatives, in light of recent policies restricting onshore international students in Australia.
Asked why CDU had decided to expand to London now, Professor Coulson said universities were always needing to consider their “financial viability”.
“There’s lots of hurdles to transnational education, so we had a real look at that and thought about what our place was,” she said.
“We came up with this idea to explore London, but not in a traditional way.”
“We’ve gone very softly initially, but it’s great to see that we’ve already got people interested,” she added.
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