A computer science lecturer at the University of NSW, who has pioneered the use of YouTube at Australian universities, is offering high school students the chance to get started on their computing degrees early.

Senior lecturer Richard Buckland is frustrated that people with a passion for computing are not being challenged by courses offered at high school. Over the years he invited some of them to attend his university lectures but found they struggled to fit it in during the school day.

So last year he filmed all of his first-year computing lectures and published them on UNSW's YouTube channel and on Apple's iTunes.