Apple is offering lectures, short films and music from Cambridge free on its iTunes U platform.

Using an area of the iTunes Store offering free education content, visitors from across the world will now be able to watch popular documentaries or listen to podcasts from Cambridge professors and documentary makers. The service allows material to be watched online or synched to an iPod or iPhone.

Downloads include podcasts from the historian David Starkey, who presents a history of the University and town, Sidney Sussex alumna Carol Vorderman and the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband.

Well-known fertility expert Lord Winston and Ian Wilmut, creator of Dolly the Sheep, can be found fronting documentaries in the science section, while the popular ‘Naked Scientists' programme presented by Cambridge lecturer Chris Smith has also been made available.

Cambridge's launch of its own section on the media portal came swiftly after Oxford University announced its intention to do the same, prompting rumours of an ‘iTunes race'. Bookmaker Paddy Power is offering odds on the relative success of the new services, putting Oxford at 8/11 to be higher in the downloads chart than Cambridge at the end of the month; Cambridge are at evens.

However, this week both institutions have played down the significance of the simultaneous launch of the service, dismissing the idea that the ancient competition between the two had been brought kicking and screaming into the digital age.

"It's not just for students and potential students but for the wider public," said Greg Hayman, head of communications at Cambridge. It is hoped the free-for-all format will "lift the veil" on the traditionally exclusive University, making it more accessible to potential students and improve understanding of the univerity amongst younger schoolchildren.

Visitors to the ‘About Cambridge' section can watch videos guiding students through the application process and listen to tips and advice on how best to prepare for interviews. A special ‘Initiatives for schools' section has also been created, providing videos on how best to engage schoolchildren in subjects like Engineering, Maths and Latin.

University College London and the Open University became the first English institutions to make educational resources available after the function became available in May last year. However, the days of stiff lectures in antiquated halls are not over quite yet. Although the University has already uploaded 300 podcasts, matching the 150 hours of free audio and video media offered by Oxford, this falls somewhat short of the fuller catalogue of syllabus-based lectures provided by American universities like Harvard and Princeton.

In a similar move, St John's is launching free webcast recordings of its choral evensong services. The weekly broadcasts will be launched at midday on Tuesday.

Craig Hogg