• by Sara Guaglione , January 23, 2018

High-school students worldwide will now have the chance to access the Financial Times' online content for free.

The program has run since June 2017, but was previously available only to those aged 16 to 19, enrolled in schools in the U.K. Over 1,400 secondary schools and colleges and more than 13,000 students in the U.K. have signed up for free access to Financial Times' content, according to Caspar de Bono, the FT’s B2B managing director.

“We hope to emulate the success of the U.K. schools initiative,” stated de Bono.

“The project is designed to help supplement classroom study and better prepare students for university and work. In addition to being able to read award-winning journalism on FT.com, students will receive a weekly curated email with content that is relevant to their school curriculum,” according to a Financial Times' statement.

High schools around the globe can now register their interest here. They will be contacted with more details about setting up free FT access for their institution.

The global initiative is sponsored by Tokyo-based financial group Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, a member of MUFG. The U.K. program is sponsored by Lloyds Bank.

The idea supporting this initiative: Students will grow up to become paying subscribers to the business and economic-focused newspaper.

The New York Times has its own sponsored subscription program, too. Donors can help sponsor student subscriptions to give kids in underfunded U.S. public schools and districts free digital access to Times’ content. The Times matches each contribution to double the number of students who receive a digital subscription.

As of last September, the Times had more than 2 million sponsored student subscriptions.