Harvard is Feeding Our Inner Student’s Need for Knowledge with 100s of Free Courses
Written By: Grace Mintun
Date: June 5, 2025
In response to Donald Trump trying to control private institutions that are not funded by tax dollars that are not doing anything wrong other than disagreeing with him (yay for living in a fascist regime, I say sarcastically), Harvard has offered a rebuttal. Free classes for anyone who wants to take them. Anyone who enrolls in these free classes now can say they have taken Harvard courses.
These classes range from history to science to health to computer sciences to programming to business to government to education to data science to humanities to religion to art to teaching. They cover just about anything your learning-centered heart could desire. I’m currently taking a class called PredictionX: Omens, Oracles & Prophecies.
Taking these classes will not give you college credits, but it is a good way to beef up your resume. It’s like auditing a course at a college. Auditing is when you attend a class or course without getting credit for it. You learn all the material, but take none of the tests. It’s a common thing in university classes to learn new things without paying extra for a class. For example, auditing a course you may take later in your academic career if you want extra time to study, or doing things that may be outside of your chosen major to learn a new skill or task, like coding or art.
If you pay $99, you can “Showcase a verified certificate of completion on your resumé to advance your career”. Now, you can technically put it on your resume either way, but if employers want proof, this would be the way to do it.
Photo credit: Erin Doering“Harvard created the framework that proves that people want to learn, it’s just monetary roadblocks that get in the way.”
It’s as easy as signing up through their free courses page. It will give a list of hundreds of courses and then you will select one or as many as you like. It will take you to edX, which is where you will choose to audit the course or get the verified certificate. It tells you how long the course is, when it starts, how many study hours it may require, and if it is self-taught or taught over video lessons. There are final quizzes, but it’s not really for a grade, per se, it’s just how well you know the material if you audit it. If you want to verify you took it, your grade may matter a little more. It all depends on you and what emphasis you put on grades. A weighted grade of 70% is required to pass. It is a pass/fail class.
On edX it gives you a walkthrough of how to use the site and it highly recommends taking the course for the verified certificate. This gives you unlimited access to the materials past the lifetime of the class (like a textbook at college would be if you bought it instead of renting it). The free auditing includes walking through the syllabus which outlines what is required for each course work-wise. Then there’s the big orange button: Start course.
The rest is up to you. If you don’t complete the work, no harm, no foul. But if you complete the work and learn, you are working on making yourself learn a little more, stretching that brain, bettering your future. Harvard created the framework that proves that people want to learn, it’s just monetary roadblocks that get in the way.
Harvard may have done this in response to President Trump, but they also did this for the people. And it’s international! People outside of the US can access them, which is directly responding to Trump trying to ban international students from going to school at Harvard. People yearn to learn and the amount of people who have signed up for classes have proven this. Over a hundred thousand people have signed up - 100,000! Harvard approximately has 30,000 students enrolled currently. They just tripled, if not almost quadrupled people taking their courses. The courses started May 30th and end at different points throughout the summer, but there are some starting later in the year as well. And you may be able to add yourself into a class late, depending on the class and whether it’s self-taught or not. Who knows how long they may keep this program running?
Harvard just threw out a rebellious lifeline for the student in all of us. They’re showing what they stand for and enriching learners around the world with this one action. This is an unprecedented act in an unprecedented time that I’m actually excited for. I can’t wait to see if anyone else follows suit.
Written by: Grace Mintun
About the author: A writer and Twitch streamer dedicated to promoting kindness and breaking down stigma around mental health and disabilities!
Tags: Harvard, Trump Administration, Courses
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Sources:
https://pll.harvard.edu/catalog
https://press.edx.org/100000-sign-up-for-harvards-first-free-online-courses
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