Pearson has announced a new educational partnership with Royal Holloway, which will see the college validating their new business degree.

The new degrees will combine the highest levels of academic rigour alongside practical learning relevant to the workplace. Students will start to enrol students on these Pearson degree programmes from September 2012.

Pearson is the world’s biggest learning company, working in more than 70 countries and with over 100 years of experience. Royal Holloway is in the top 1% of universities in the world and has an excellent record in graduate employment. This makes it the perfect partner to help develop flexible Pearson degrees that balance academic achievement and the needs of employers.

Rod Bristow, President of Pearson UK, said:

“We’re delighted that Royal Holloway has come on board as our validating university partner for this exciting project. Pearson has a long heritage of working in higher education around the world and we’re really looking forward to bringing this expertise to UK degrees”.

Roxanne Stockwell, Managing Director of Higher Education Awards at Pearson will be leading the Pearson degree development team. She said:

“Working with Royal Holloway will allow us to produce a degree that is not only academically stretching, but also gives students the skills that are genuinely valuable to employers. There is a real demand for flexible academic degrees which facilitate progression to the workplace. Thanks to this partnership, students will have more choice in the higher education marketplace, and will be able to choose a degree that suits their needs and helps them make progress in their lives.”

As the validating university Royal Holloway will ensure the high academic quality of the degrees, while Pearson will undertake its design, development and delivery through a network of suitable locations such as such as Corporations and Further Education colleges.

Professor Rob Kemp, Deputy Principal of Royal Holloway, said:

“Our founders, in opening colleges for women in the 19th Century, were the first to address the challenge of widening access and we are delighted to continue this tradition today by supporting Pearson in this initiative.”

The first degree to be offered will be Business, with further degree programmes being developed by Pearson in the future.

About Royal Holloway

Royal Holloway, University of London is one of the UK’s leading teaching and research university institutions, ranked in the top 20 for research in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. One of the larger colleges of the University of London, Royal Holloway has a strong profile across the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities. Its 8,000 students work with internationally-renowned scholars in 18 academic departments. Over 20% of students are postgraduates and 22% come from 130 different countries. Renowned for its iconic Founder’s Building, Royal Holloway is situated on an extensive parkland campus in Egham, Surrey, only 40 minutes from central London.