Students to get 12 of the world's best via internet

LONDON - Twelve of the world's leading academic minds are being made available to universities via the internet.

The scheme to sell e-lectures by such academic stars as the biologist Richard Dawkins and the historian Niall Ferguson is the brainchild of three recent Oxford graduates.

Richard Halkett, 22, David Auckland, 23, and Richard Comish, 24, originally planned to offer use of the site – Boxmind, "the home of academic excellence" – to educational establishments only.

But after receiving a flood of e-mail inquiries from students within hours of yesterday's launch, they are now considering whether to make the site available to subscribers from the general public.

The scheme's founders, who have been advised by professors Ferguson and Dawkins, hope to revolutionise study by offering software that will enable university staff to deliver lectures online, alongside a lecture series from the group of international experts.

The initial group of 12 – to which more will be added later – includes the British astronomer Sir Martin Rees and Ian Stewart, professor of mathematics at Warwick University, and the Americans John Searle, professor of the philosophy of mind, and Steven Pinker, professor of the brain and cognitive sciences.

Mr Halkett said the internet was better suited to delivering information than providing a conduit for commerce. "Unlike e-commerce, this is about doing something which would otherwise be impossible.

"You could never get these 12 people together in the same place at the same time as we have managed to do."