Oxford University has gone digital by publishing more than 100 hours of lectures, videos and documentaries for people to download as podcasts.

The university has linked up with computer giant Apple to make the resources available on its iTunes website.

Podcasts are audio and video files distributed over the internet for people to download to their computers or MP3 players.

People will now be able to download for free, podcasts ranging from subjects such as climate change and the credit crunch, from some of the world's leading experts.

Head of the university's external communications Carolyne Culver said: "It's all about trying to reach out to a wider audience than we already do."

"It looks very much like the iTunes music website, with links with images on them to take people to the podcasts.

"Some of these have been available for people to access before via the individual college's own website.

"But for the first time this brings everything together on one, easy to use website, that is really easy for people to navigate. It gives people a real sense of breadth and depth of the activities that are going on at the university.

"And a lot of it is very accessible and aimed at quite a general audience."

Miss Culver said the university was first approached by Apple four months ago about the project and it had taken until now to pull all of the resources together.

The podcasts were officially launched on to iTunes U, the download provider's university portal, on Tuesday.

Among some of the 150 hours of podcasts available to download are lectures by Prof Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist of the World Bank, on the global financial crisis and a documentary starring Monty Python's Michael Palin about the university's new £1.25bn fundraising drive.

There are also podcasts available for prospective students of the university, offering advice on which college to chose, how to apply and guidance for applicants.

Miss Culver said: "The great thing about the podcasts is that they help bring everything to life — there is a great interview with the dean of admissions and he is so down-to-earth and personable. You almost feel like you are in the room with him.

"It's so much better than reading a piece of text."

The university will make regular content updates to the website — itunes.ox.ac.uk — every month.