Most Useful Free Online Courses From Top Universities

List of the best free courses from top universities like Harvard, Stanford, MIT, etc.

Yash Tiwari
Quick Code
4 min readJun 7, 2022

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Photo by Pascal Bernardon on Unsplash

Online courses are great and not just because you can learn from a world-class university without having to leave your home. There are several reasons why online courses are great for you. As you already know, there is no shortage of online courses from top universities. There are hundreds of them, and many of them are free.

Stanford, Harvard, MIT, and UCI are some of the most prestigious universities worldwide. They have a lot of top-quality courses on offer, and a lot of the courses are free. This article will look at some of the best free online courses from these top universities to help you expand your horizons.

Harvard University

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

It is possible to get a free taste of Ivy League education by taking over 138 free online courses offered by Harvard University. Below are a few popular subject areas that Harvard University offers and some of their programs you might find interesting:

  • Art & Design: Pyramids of Giza: Ancient Egyptian Art and Archaeology, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and the Birth of Opera, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring: Modernism, Ballet, and Riots, etc.
  • Business: Nonprofit Financial Stewardship Webinar: Introduction to Accounting and Financial Statements, Resilient Leadership, Salary Negotiation Techniques, etc.
  • Computer Science: CS50 for Lawyers, CS50’s Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python, Fundamentals of TinyML, Using Python for Research, etc.
  • Data Science: Data Science: Capstone, Data Science: Visualization, Data Science: R Basics, Data Science: Inference and Modeling, etc.
  • Education & Teaching: Early Childhood Development: Global Strategies for Interventions, Leaders of Learning, Introduction to Family Engagement in Education, etc.
  • Health & Medicine: The Health Effects of Climate Change, Lessons from Ebola: Preventing the Next Pandemic, Improving Global Health: Focusing on Quality and Safety, etc.
  • Humanities: Religion, Conflict, and Peace, Introduction to Digital Humanities, Tangible Things, Hinduism Through Its Scriptures, etc.
  • Mathematics: Fat Chance: Probability from the Ground Up, Calculus Applied, etc.
  • Programming: CS50’s Introduction to Game Development, CS50: Introduction to Computer Science, CS50’s Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python, etc.
  • Science: Energy Within Environmental Constraints, MicroBachelors® Program in University Chemistry, Principles of Biochemistry, Super-Earths and Life, etc.
  • Social Sciences: Citizen Politics in America: Public Opinion, Elections, Interest Groups, and the Media, Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education, etc.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Photo by MIT University

Even though MIT has the maximum number of engineering and physical science programs, it also excels in economics, political science, urban studies, linguistics, and philosophy. Below are a few popular subject areas that MIT University offers and some of their top courses you might find interesting:

  • Business: Becoming an Entrepreneur, Entrepreneurship 101: Who is your customer?
  • Development: Cybersecurity for Critical Urban Infrastructure
  • Design: Site Planning Online
  • Engineering: Introduction to Aerospace Engineering: Astronautics and Human Spaceflight
  • Music: World Music: Balinese Rhythms
  • Mathematics: Probability — The Science of Uncertainty and Data
  • Science: Molecular Biology: RNA Processing and Translation, The Science and Business of Biotechnology
  • Social Science: Structural Materials: Selection and Economics, Evaluating Social Programs

Stanford University

Photo by Stanford University

Stanford university consistently ranks among the top 10 national universities, earning a reputation as one of the country’s premier educational institutions. Apart from its outstanding academics, Stanford’s students are known for their entrepreneurial spirit and high return on investment.

Some examples of free courses available at Stanford University are:

  • Machine Learning
  • AI in Healthcare
  • Cryptography II
  • Divide and Conquer, Sorting and Searching, and Randomized Algorithms
  • International Women’s Health and Human Rights
  • Greedy Algorithms, Minimum Spanning Trees, and Dynamic Programming
  • Stories of Infection
  • Graph Search, Shortest Paths, and Data Structures
  • Shortest Paths Revisited, NP-Complete Problems and What To Do About Them

University of California, Irvine

Photo by UCI Office of Research

According to US News & World Report, UCI is one of the country’s ten best public universities. It was founded in 1965 and is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. In addition to producing three Nobel laureates, the campus is known for its academic achievements, premier research, and anteater mascot.

The subject areas that UCI caters are: Arts, Biological Sciences, Business, Education, Engineering, Humanities, Information & Computer Sciences, Interdisciplinary Studies, Law, Physical Sciences, Social Ecology, and Social Science.

Some examples of free courses available at UCI are:

  • The Blockchain
  • Grammar and Punctuation
  • Conflict Management
  • Initiating and Planning Projects
  • Introduction to the Internet of Things and Embedded Systems
  • Project Management Project
  • Introduction to Research for Essay Writing
  • Getting Started with Go
  • Academic Discussions in English
  • Virtual Teacher

Thanks for taking the time to read this. You are welcome to leave a comment if it served to help you learn any of the above topics.

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