Get an MBA for Free with Online Courses from Top Universities
For the plethora of professionals pursuing an MBA is the next logical path to enhance their career opportunities further. Regardless of the graduation field, the advantages of having an MBA degree are multifarious. However, considering the expenses and commitment involved, some professionals face a dilemma.
Are you thinking of getting an MBA? While investing in a full-time MBA from a top business school may seem the right choice, why not explore free MBA options first? If you do not want a certificate stating that you completed the degree, but want all the knowledge, you can gain MBA-equivalent education through online free MBA courses in various subjects such as accounting, finance, marketing, operations management, entrepreneurship, and more.
In this article, we have curated a list of top free MBA online courses on popular online learning platforms like Coursera and edX. Top universities and business schools offer these free courses and cover various topics routinely included in most online MBA programs.
Table of Contents
Here’s How You Can Get Free Online MBA with Online Courses
MBA programs typically consist of foundation/core courses and elective courses. The core courses equip students with fundamental business knowledge and skills, while the elective courses allow you to learn more about your specific areas of interest.
This blog lists the most common core and elective free online certification courses for MBA students. You can choose what you want to learn from this extensive list of free MBA courses and learn at your own pace.
These courses are free online MBA courses with certificates, and you can easily audit, enroll and learn skills at your own pace. However, for most of these courses, you must pay fees to get verified certificates.
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Foundational/Core Courses
Here are the six foundational courses that will allow you to pick up the skills you need to kickstart your business or take it to the next level. You can take up these six free MBA courses to start your business education.
1. Introduction to Financial Accounting by Coursera
Offered by: The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Duration: 13 Hours
Rating: 4.7
Course Description: This course will teach you the technical skills to analyze financial statements. You will learn how accounting standards and managerial incentives affect the financial reporting process.
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2. Introduction to Corporate Finance by Coursera
Offered by: The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Duration: 7 Hours
Rating: 4.6
Course Description: This course focuses on applying the fundamentals of finance, such as time value of money, risk-return tradeoff, auto leasing, and capital budgeting to a wide variety of real-world situations spanning personal finance, corporate decision-making, and financial intermediation.
3. High Performance Collaboration: Leadership, Teamwork, and Negotiation by Coursera
Offered by: Northwestern University
Duration: 14 Hours
Rating: 4.8
Course Description: This course will help you develop and expand your leadership skills, design teams for collaboration, and craft win-win negotiation strategies. You will use self-assessments to analyze your leadership style, develop team charters, and develop a game plan for effective negotiation.
4. Foundations of Everyday Leadership by Coursera
Offered by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Duration: 15 Hours
Rating: 4.8
Course Description: The course is designed to help you understand why and how leadership skills are critical to organizational success. You will learn the foundations of effective leadership skills, individual decision-making, group decision-making, and managing motivation. By the end of this course, you will be able to apply effective leadership skills to everyday situations leaders face.
5. Business Analytics for Decision Making by Coursera
Offered by: University of Colorado Boulder
Duration: 9 Hours
Rating: 4.6
Course Description: This course is designed to teach you how to create models for decision-making. It starts with cluster analysis and helps students understand the model and the uncertainty prevalent in many business decisions.
Explore more Business Analytics Courses
6. Introduction to Marketing by Coursera
Offered by: The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Duration: 10 Hours
Rating: 4.8
Course Description: This course covers three core topics in customer loyalty: branding, customer centricity, and practical go-to-market strategies. You will learn how brand equity is one of the key elements of keeping customers in a dynamic world. You will understand the drivers influencing customers and how customer centricity is not synonymous with customer service.
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Elective/Concentration Courses
The elective courses will help you expand on the fundamental business principles learned in the core courses and focus on business areas relevant to your interests.
You can choose one course from each category that best complements your previous education and professional experience and are specific to meeting your career goals.
Accounting
These courses emphasize the role of accounting information in monitoring, planning, controlling, and decision-making. By taking up an accounting online course, you will understand how financial accounting and reporting are used in business for decision-making. You will also learn about the functions, limitations, and challenges of financial accounting.
Top Free Online Accounting Courses
1. Financial Accounting: Foundations by Coursera
Offered by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Duration: 14 Hours
Rating: 4.7
2. Financial Accounting: Advanced Topics by Coursera
Offered by: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Duration: 13 Hours
Rating: 4.7
3. Financial Accounting by edX
Offered by: ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants)
Level: Intermediate
Duration: 12 Weeks | Effort: 5–8 hours per week
4. Financial Accounting Fundamentals by Coursera
Offered by: University of Virginia
Level: Beginner
Duration: 14 Hours
Rating: 4.8
Explore – what is Executive MBA?
Finance
These free finance courses will help you understand the components of an organization’s internal financial conditions. You will learn about various analytical tools employed in financial statement analysis and gain a strong grasp of the fundamental techniques required for financial management. The major topics you will learn in finance courses are capital budgeting, discounted cash flow valuation, and risk analysis.
Top Online Free Finance Courses
5. Finance for Everyone Specialization by Coursera [Free to audit]
Offered by: McMaster University
Level: Beginner
Duration: 6 months (approx.)
Rating: 4.7
6. Essentials of Corporate Finance Specialization by Coursera [Free to audit]
Offered by: The University of Melbourne
Level: Intermediate
Duration: 5 months (approx.)
Rating: 4.7
7. Financial Management Specialization by Coursera
Offered by: The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Level: Intermediate
Duration: 8 months (approx.)
Rating: 4.7
8. Corporate Finance by edX
Offered by: IIM Bangalore
Level: Intermediate
Duration: 5 Weeks | Effort: 3–5 hours per week
9. Financial Engineering and Risk Management Part II by Coursera
Offered by: Columbia University
Duration: 17 Hours
Rating: 4.7
10. Corporate Finance by edX
Offered by: University System of Maryland
Level: Advanced
Duration: 7 Weeks | Effort: 8–10 hours per week
Course Type: Instructor-led on a course schedule
Explore more popular Finance courses
Marketing
By taking a marketing course, you will become familiar with market analysis, segmentation, branding, pricing, distribution, consumer behavior, digital marketing, customer value analysis, product development and innovation, social media marketing, and retail marketing.
You will learn about various marketing tools and be able to apply marketing concepts and prepare and evaluate marketing plans.
Top Free Marketing Courses Online
11. Buyer Behaviour and Analysis by edX
Offered by: Curtin University
Duration: 12 Weeks | Effort: 8–10 hours per week
Course Type: Instructor-led on a course schedule
12. An Introduction to Consumer Neuroscience & Neuromarketing by Coursera
Offered by: Copenhagen Business School
Level: Beginner
Duration: 26 Hours
Rating: 4.7
Explore more popular Marketing Courses
Organizational Behaviour
The Organizational Behaviour courses will help you develop skills in observing, understanding, and leading behavior in organizations. You will learn about various theories developed to explain and predict employee behavior in an organizational context. The major topics covered in organizational behavior courses include communication in organizations, the role of individual differences in explaining behavior, giving and receiving feedback, negotiation, and leadership.
Top Free Organizational Behaviour Courses
13. International Leadership and Organizational Behavior by Coursera
Offered by: Bocconi University
Duration: 17 Hours
Rating: 4.8
14. Organizational Behavior: How to Manage People by Coursera
Offered by: IESE Business School
Duration: 14 Hours
Rating: 4.7
Also explore:
- Paid and free online courses by Coursera
- Popular online Udemy courses
- Top online edX courses
Operations Management
Operations management is a vital function of every business that delivers a product or service. An Operations Management course will teach you various important topics like capacity planning, quality control, production design, and supply chain management. You will learn about the concept of Lean Management and be able to apply it to a business situation.
Top Operations Management Courses
15. Operations Management: Analysis and Improvement Methods by Coursera
Offered by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Duration: 19 Hours
Rating: 4.6
16. Operations Management: Strategy and Quality Management for the Digital Age by Coursera
Offered by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Duration: 18 Hours (approx.)
Rating: 4.6
17. Introduction to Operations Management by Coursera
Offered by: The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Duration: 10 Hours (approx.)
Rating: 4.5
Explore more popular Operations Management Courses
Entrepreneurship
The entrepreneurship courses will provide useful insights to those interested in starting their companies as well as to those seeking to work for big organizations. These courses will teach you about today’s business environment, the ability to manage people and how to be a good sales. You will understand how you should approach making critical decisions during the different phases in an entrepreneurial company.
Top Entrepreneurship Courses
18. Entrepreneurship 1: Developing the Opportunity by Coursera
Offered by: The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Duration: 11 Hours (approx.)
Rating: 4.8
19. Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies by edX
Offered by: Harvard University
Level: Introductory
Duration: 6 Weeks | Effort: 3–5 hours per week
Explore more popular Entrepreneurship Courses
Conclusion
Many dream to pursue an MBA from a top business school to build new skills and boost their careers. However, many people face financial constraints or lack the professional freedom to leave their jobs and enroll in a full-time program. If you are one of those, these free online MBA courses may be worth considering.
By understanding the above-mentioned disciplinary areas, you will gain the skills, knowledge, and confidence to solve any business problem and lead when facing ambiguity.
FAQs
Do top business schools offer free MBA courses?
Yes, top business schools offer free online MBA courses. Many of these courses are available through Coursera and edX. You can explore the best free online MBA courses offered by top business schools. These courses helps you grow your skillset with the best online courses and certifications from all the top providers.
Why should I take up free online MBA courses?
Many people aspire to earn an MBA from a top business school. But not everyone has the financial and professional freedom to do so. If you are one of those, then you can take up free online MBA courses to gain MBA-equivalent education.
What will I learn in an online MBA?
MBA programs typically consist of core courses and elective courses. The core courses equip students with fundamental business knowledge and skills while the elective courses allow them to learn more about their specific areas of interest. An online MBA offers the same rigorous curriculum as its on-campus counterparts.
What are the benefits of an online MBA?
Some of the advantages of pursuing an online MBA are career advancement, flexibility, broadens knowledge, build new skills, develop managerial and interpersonal skills, and opens doors to endless career opportunities.
Which are the popular learning platforms offering Online MBA Programs?
The top platforms offering Online MBA Programs are Coursera and edX.
How do I choose an online MBA Course?
To choose an online MBA course, you must assess and evaluate your options in terms of Program Cost, Duration Accreditation, and Expected Outcomes.
What are the skills required to take up online MBA course?
The skills required to take up online MBA course are self-discipline, willingness to learn, open mind, self-motivation, and time management.
What are the eligibility criteria to take up an online MBA program?
The basic eligibility for an online MBA is a Graduation/Bacheloru2019s Degree in any discipline or equivalent from a recognized university with a minimum of 50%.
Is there any entrance exam for an online MBA?
No, there are no entrance exams for online MBA programs.
Which are the top industries hiring MBA professionals?
The top industries hiring MBA professionals are Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI); E-Commerce; Manufacturing; Health Care; Information Technology; Consulting; and Retail Management.
What are the popular specialization options for online MBA programs?
The popular specializations for online MBA programs are Finance, Accounting, Supply Chain Management, Marketing, International Business, Healthcare, Information Technology, Entrepreneurship, Project Management, Human Resource, and Information Systems.
Rashmi is a postgraduate in Biotechnology with a flair for research-oriented work and has an experience of over 13 years in content creation and social media handling. She has a diversified writing portfolio and aim... Read Full Bio
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