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University of York - Transforming Online Education

University of York

This public procurement record has 4 releases in its history.

Award

23 Jul 2026 at 11:27

UK6 - Contract Award Notice
Tender

17 Mar 2026 at 11:18

UK4 - Tender Notice
Planning

09 Feb 2026 at 12:02

UK2 - Preliminary Market Engagement Notice
Planning

20 Jan 2026 at 16:01

UK3 - Planned Procurement Notice
Summary of the contracting process

The University of York procured a strategic online education partnership to expand the global reach of its online portfolio. The requirement covers marketing, lead generation, admissions and student recruitment for postgraduate online degrees, new full and part-time degrees, short courses, credit-bearing pathways, stackable awards and micro-credentials. The partner is also expected to provide market insight, conversion management, a high-quality digital learner-recruitment experience, B2B sales and recruitment, data integration and innovative use of artificial intelligence in programme development, assessment, feedback and student progression. The University retains responsibility for academic pedagogy, teaching and long-term student success and pastoral support. Services are delivered for the University of York in York and internationally across its global learner market. The procurement is for services, including advertising, marketing and higher education services.

The procurement has reached award stage and is recorded as complete; FutureLearn Limited was selected as supplier on 16 July 2026. The award value is £92,000,000 gross, with an initial contract period from 10 August 2026 to 9 August 2031 and potential extensions through 9 August 2041. The award remains subject to an eight-working-day standstill ending 4 August 2026, with signature scheduled for 7 August 2026. It used a selective competitive flexible procedure with an accelerated timetable. Four bids were received and one reached the final stage. Evaluation combined commercial and quality criteria, including income to the University, business planning, widening participation, marketing and recruitment strategies, admissions, monitoring, organisational capability, implementation, data integration, short courses, research, amendments and community benefits. The original estimated value was £100,000,000 excluding VAT (£120,000,000 including VAT).

This requirement indicates demand for a substantial, long-term partner able to combine higher-education market expertise with measurable international marketing, lead generation and student recruitment. A credible future competitor would need an OfS registration or an active registration process, a proven record of data-driven recruitment across online degrees, short courses and micro-credentials, and strong conversion, admissions and learner-support interfaces. Relevant capability also includes B2B sales, global market insight, digital experience design, data integration, organisational capacity and implementation planning. Suppliers should be able to support widening participation, monitor service quality and propose commercially robust development of new programmes. The evaluation also demonstrates the importance of business planning, recruitment strategy, marketing for degrees and short courses, research, community benefits and constructive handling of contractual amendments. Consortium delivery and subcontracting arrangements may be relevant to the required scale and breadth.

How relevant is this notice?

Notice Information

Notice Title

University of York - Transforming Online Education

Notice Description

A high calibre, strategic partner to accelerate the growth and global reach of the University of York Online portfolio. With a mature and successful postgraduate online degree presence, the University plans to expand its current degree portfolio and develop new offerings in short courses, stackables and micro-credentials. Our needs include an OfS registered (or in the process of OfS registration), innovative partner with a proven track record of delivering high-impact, data-driven marketing, lead generation and student recruitment at a global level across a diverse portfolio of degrees, micro credentials and short courses. We require excellent market insight, conversion management, the delivery of a seamless, high quality digital experience for learner recruitment, as well as having capabilities in B2B sales and recruitment. The University of York will remain the lead for all current academic pedagogy, teaching, and for the long term student success and pastoral journey. Following an initial phase of transition for our existing online programmes, we will take forward new developments including but not necessarily limited to: New and/or revised online Masters degrees University- or partner-developed short courses, with credit-bearing options, that may provide pathways to degrees 'Stackable' short courses and awards Innovative use of AI to support programme development and delivery (content, assessment and feedback) and to enhance the student experience and progression.

Lot Information

Lot 1

Options: The partner can increase the scale, number or type of courses to the provision. The scope is anticipated to commence with marketing and admissions services but is scoped to include the delivery of new full, part time and short courses and the provision of micro credentials.

Renewal: Where the services and commercial offer have evolved or remained similar in scale and or nature, where the requirement continues, where the performance of the services continues to meet our requirements, the University reserves the right to extend this agreement by either one or two consecutive periods of five years.

Planning Information

Interested parties should register at our procurement portal - In-tend: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/york/aspx/Home All information pertinent to this Preliminary Market Engagement will be communicated via the above mentioned portal. Please do not email us. Please use the link, register and follow the instructions on the portal. Our non-disclosure agreement must be signed before sensitive information is shared. Instructions to receive the NDA , will be provided on In-tend. Your status as a bona fide potential service delivery partner with the minimum credentials must be verified before sensitive information is shared. Our consultation focuses upon our substantive draft of the procurement documentation for our imminent Invitation to Participate which will be published in March. We ask you to review our draft Outcomes-based Specification with relevant annexes, our draft legal Term Sheet and our draft Quantitative (price) Reply Form. Our intent is to understand from you what you feel is missing, ambiguous, surprising, unhelpful, valued, strategically aligned etc within the documentation so we can improve it for a better Partnership with you. We ask you to respond to our questionnaire which should be submitted via In-tend by 16:00hrs on Friday 20 February 2026. We reserve the right to hold a 1-2-1 online meeting with a number of the respondents to the questionnaire to better understand their responses and or to explore some of the concepts they raise. Such online meetings would be held on 26 February or 2 March 2026. Please reserve these dates in your diary in case you are requested to attend.

Notice Details

Publication & Lifecycle

Open Contracting ID
ocds-h6vhtk-060a4e
Publication Source
Find A Tender Service
Latest Notice
https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/069595-2026
Current Stage
Award
All Stages
Planning, Tender, Award

Procurement Classification

Notice Type
UK6 - Contract Award Notice
Procurement Type
Standard
Procurement Category
Services
Procurement Method
Selective
Procurement Method Details
Competitive flexible procedure
Tender Suitability
SME
Awardee Scale
SME

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

CPV Divisions

79 - Business services: law, marketing, consulting, recruitment, printing and security

80 - Education and training services

CPV Codes

79340000 - Advertising and marketing services

80300000 - Higher education services

Notice Value(s)

Tender Value
£100 Under £100K
Lots Value
£100 Under £100K
Awards Value
£92,000,000 £10M-£100M
Contracts Value
Not specified

Notice Dates

Publication Date
23 Jul 20262 months ago
Submission Deadline
Not specified
Future Notice Date
16 Mar 2026Expired
Award Date
16 Jul 20262 months ago
Contract Period
10 Aug 2026 - 9 Aug 2031 Over 5 years
Recurrence
Not specified

Notice Status

Tender Status
Complete
Lots Status
Complete
Awards Status
Pending
Contracts Status
Not Specified

Buyer & Supplier

Contracting Authority (Buyer)

Main Buyer
University of York
Contact Name
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Email
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →
Contact Phone
Available with D3 Tenders Premium →

Buyer Location

Locality
YORK
Postcode
YO10 5DD
Postcode Area
York
Country
England
Major Region (ITL 1)
TLE Yorkshire and The Humber
Basic Region (ITL 2)
TLE2 North Yorkshire
Small Region (ITL 3)
TLE21 York
Delivery Location
TLE21 York
Local Authority
York
Electoral Ward
Hull Road
Westminster Constituency
York Central

Supplier Information

Number of Suppliers
1
Supplier Name

FutureLearn Ltd

Further Information

Notice Documents

Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS)

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