Restricted course access for learners in Russia and Belarus

Our mission at FutureLearn has always been to transform access to education. While we will always strive to maintain this vision, we have over the past few days and weeks received an increasing number of requests by partners to restrict course availability in Russia, and so we have taken the difficult decision to restrict user IP addresses from Russia and Belarus (with Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions currently under review).

At this time of conflict, we cannot overlook both the significance of any activity that will either support or enable us to profit from the Russian economy during its continued invasion of Ukraine, or how the crisis impacts our global community of learners and partners. This is why we have decided to act in line with sanctions and restrictions that have been enacted internationally. Unfortunately, we are not able to maintain free access to courses while restricting payments from the regions listed, which means we have to restrict access by all learners from these regions for now. FutureLearn’s thoughts remain with Ukraine and all those affected by the situation, and we will continue to respond to the conflict as it evolves.