FSR ‘Throwing down the walls’ with new online school

The Florence School of Regulation (FSR) will be “throwing down the walls of the EUI building” with a new online school designed to share the institution’s expertise. Speaking to EUI Life, Annika Zorn in charge of the set-up of the online school said “We decided to put all our knowledge online so we started to develop webinars, video lectures, and interviews with leading academics as well as experts from the European commission, regulators and other people from the world of practice.”

Annika and her team have been working on online pilots for a year and are keen to explain their motivations, “We thought we should be throwing down the walls of the EUI building and making our knowledge available.” Regulators and European policy makers have strongly welcomed the initiative.

The online school will have three modes for users to explore. The first is a database of general information available to all, “We have an interactive online gallery where you access topics of interest and find open access publications, video lectures from introductory level to the most advanced academic thinking.

Secondly there is a cost-free option for those with a serious interest in learning about regulation. “We will be offering free courses, with which we aim for high quality of interactive online training with a high level of care from instructors.”

Thirdly there is a premium option. “There is also real professional training for a fee. In November we will start a course on the regulation of the power sector with the prominent professor of energy regulation in the US teaching at MIT (Professor Ignacio Perez-Arriaga) and we are looking for a world-wide audience.”

The Florence School of Regulation is celebrating its tenth anniversary this summer and the online school will be a significant milestone. Annika believes that the threat of climate change and environmental concerns means that energy regulation is more important than ever before, “there are many things happening in the world of energy regulation, and it is one of the top priorities for the European Union… It would be a pity not to be spreading our research and making this knowledge accessible as much as we possibly can.”