Releasing MariaDB for Universities: Lecture Materials for a New Generation

Written by Written by Kaj Arnö Leave a comment on Releasing MariaDB for Universities: Lecture Materials for a New Generation
MariaDB for Universities

We have long had a vision: that learning relational databases with MariaDB should be accessible to everyone — students, educators, and self-learners alike. Today, MariaDB Foundation and MariaDB plc together take a major step forward in realizing that vision.

A Shared Effort for Open Education

MariaDB plc has generously released substantial professional training materials for academic and other non-commercial usage under an open source license. These materials are now publicly available on our GitHub repository at https://github.com/MariaDB/mariadb-for-universities/, and also accessible in a reader-friendly format at https://uni.mariadb.org. 

The materials are structured to guide users from beginner to intermediate levels, and are intended for incorporation into university courses or for self-paced study. The materials are separated into the “developer” and “DBA” tracks.

Designed for Flexibility, Built for Scale

MariaDB plc’s material was originally in PowerPoint slides. We have converted them to markdown text – a more suitable format for open source collaboration, and a good starting point for automatic generation of various other formats. 

These resources are:

  • Free to use and adapt (copyleft, under the CC BY SA NC 4.0 license)
  • Available in markdown and as a pre-generated HTML site
  • Open for contributions
  • Rich with embedded examples and practical exercises
  • Suitable for traditional classrooms and online learning

We encourage university lecturers to integrate these modules into their curricula, and we welcome contributions and improvements from both universities and the broader community.

Why It Matters

Relational databases remain foundational in modern software development. Yet, quality teaching materials are often locked behind paywalls or closed source licensing restrictions. With this release, we lower that barrier. MariaDB Server is already Open Source, licensed under GPLv2. By making the lecture materials open, we aim to empower institutions across the world — also in under-resourced regions — to provide strong database education without cost concerns. 

Furthermore, the previous generation was educated using MySQL, but given that open source innovation has stalled there, MariaDB is the natural database for the next generation to learn on – with cutting edge innovation all in open source.

Finally, this aligns with our mission: to promote MariaDB adoption through openness, collaboration, and accessibility. This is illustrated by the lack of barriers for students to install and use MariaDB Server anywhere: No need to enter into any special student agreement, no need even to register.

What Comes Next

We’ve already initiated conversations with universities across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Some have requested additional sample applications to support teaching. Others are interested in localised materials or potential programs that test knowledge in the future. Yet others like supportive video materials.

We hear you. This is just the beginning of our training cooperation that we are taking on jointly with the MariaDB plc. 

We invite educators, contributors, and database enthusiasts to:

  • Explore the content
  • Use it in your classrooms
  • Translate or extend it
  • Give us feedback on what you’d like to see next

You can reach us via the repo’s issues (https://github.com/MariaDB/mariadb-for-universities/issues), email (university@mariadb.org), or on our Zulip at https://mariadb.zulipchat.com.

Closing Thoughts

This isn’t just a release — it’s a beginning. Our hope is that “MariaDB for Universities” becomes more than a curriculum. We want it to spark ideas, create opportunities, and help nurture the next generation of developers and data professionals.

We’re proud of this step — and even prouder to take it together with the MariaDB plc.