The creation of a new Diplomatic Academy was announced in a speech by William Hague, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, on 19 September 2013 on the occasion of the opening of the FCO's new Language Centre.
[1] The Academy began operating in 2014 and was opened officially by Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond on 10 February 2015.
The Academy was originally structured into 11 thematic areas, or "Faculties": These were: International Policy, Diplomatic Practice, States and Societies, Understanding the UK, Consular and Crisis Management, Economics and Prosperity, Europe, Multilateral, Security Defence and Intelligence, Law, and Languages.
[3] A twelfth Faculty - Trade Policy and Negotiations - was added in 2016 after the UK vote to leave the European Union.
The first, entitled Diplomacy in the 21st Century, was developed with the Open University and ran on the FutureLearn platform in January–March and May-July 2019 with over 13,500 registrations in total.