The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the world's foremost universities, is pushing back the boundaries of education by making nearly all its courses freely available through the internet.

Over the next 10 years it will offer assignments, reading lists, outlines and notes on 2,000 courses on its website.

The venture is intended to counter what it calls the "privatisation of knowledge".

It will not give degrees to those using using the material on the MIT OpenCourseWare site. But the innovation could revolutionise e-learning and threaten the plans of universities which have seen internet courses as a source of revenue.

The MIT president, Charles Vest, said: "It will provide an extraordinary resource, free of charge, which others can adapt to their own needs."

About 500 courses are likely to be made available within two years at a cost of $7.5m-10m. The ultimate cost is expected to be about $100m.

William Jennings, vice-provost for professional and distance education at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, said MIT's decision "may make all of us rethink the way we do things and encourage us all to be more open".