DO you want to study in an Ivy League school, but have no money or time?

Harvard University, ranked among the top 5 universities around the world, is offering  certificate online courses. Yes, you read that right. Free. Online.

A total of 102 online courses are available for those who are interested in leveling up their skills. 

For this year, some of the programs offered by Harvard fall on business, public policy, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, career, and communication.

What are the programs offered?

• Negotiating Salary
• Public Policy: Social, Economic, and Foreign Policies
• Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies
• CS50: Introduction to Computer Science
• CS50’s Introduction to Programming with Scratch
• Systematic Approaches to Policy Design by Harvard Kennedy School
• Pricing Strategy
• Identifying Competitive Risk
• Designing Organizational Structure
• The Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking
• Understanding Customer Needs
• Investing in Private Equity
• Challenges in Higher Education
• 4P Model for Strategic Leadership
• 5 principles for effective communication and how to implement them in your writing

Eligibility Criteria

According to Harvard, anyone can apply to the university’s free online courses program as long as they can finish the courses in the given time frame to be able to get a certificate after finishing the course. However, there are some courses that require payment to be able to obtain a certificate. So choose your course wisely.

The university likewise noted that there are no nationality, age, and academic restrictions to avail of the program.

How to enroll?

To begin, those who are interested to join Harvard’s free online courses are required to register for an edX account. 

You will need to:

• Enter your email address
• Enter your full name. Your full name will appear on any certificates that you earn.
• Create a public username for the forums (it cannot have spaces). Note: You cannot change your username once it has been created.
• Create a password
• Select your country
• Select Create your account.

Program duration

The free courses can be taken based on the prescribed duration by the University. Some programs can be taken within one week to 12 weeks, depending on the difficulty of the course, it said.

Number of enrollees 

In 2020, Harvard’s massive open online course provider EdX said in a report that almost 110 million enrollees all over the world had taken Harvard’s free online courses, averaging about 400,000 online learners every day.

Banner Photo Credit: Clay Banks, via Unsplash