UniCredit Bulbank is pleased to share its own selection of still free courses on finance and personal budget management taught by distinguished and globally recognized scientists and professors.

You have been dreaming of studying, on top of that for free, with some of the world’s best professors from Ivy League universities and their European and Asian counterparts. For several years already it has been completely feasible thanks to the massive online open courses, or the so called MOOC. Wharton, Stanford, Warwick, Bocconi, Brown, Harvard – each of those prestigious universities have created online versions of their otherwise tens-of-thousands-of-dollars’ worth courses taught on campus. The rise of MOOC started at around 2012 and was already at its peak in 2014.

Today’s issue of the Financial Times warns, however, of a new trend starting – the mass online courses will be getting more and more paid and pricey. Yet for now, platforms such as Coursera, EdX, NovoEd, FutureLearn, etc. are still offering a large number of programmes completely for free.

Here is the selection of UniCredit Bulbank of some which might be useful in the management of your personal finances, and why not company finances as well. We at UniCredit Bulbank will keep on improving our knowledge and increasing our qualifications using these courses as well, and will share what we have learned with you.

- Managing Money – we are recommending this course as it is taught in a very down-to-earth way covering topics related to what a budget is, whether to take a credit or debit card, what to pay attention for when starting a small business and other useful tips. The modules are compiled by Professor Peter Navarro, Doctor of Economics from Harvard, Professor at the University of California, Irvine, and author of global bestsellers in the field of economics.

- Introduction to Finance taught by Professor Gautam Kaul from Ross School of Business. We can assure you from our own experience that this is the most exciting professor of finance you are ever going to meet – on and offline. He is like a rock star in the world of online courses and even his very first lessons were enrolled by more than 130,000 people from all over the world. He managed to keep the interest even of people who see finance as a scary topic. His lectures touch upon the connection between finance and meditation, beauty, love and even yoga. “May the force be with you” is how Professor Kaul always ends his lectures. To complete this several weeks’ course takes a serious investment of time and effort but it is worth every minute.

- Finance for Everyone: Smart Tools for Decision-Making of Michigan University, taught by same Professor Kaul. The course includes also some of Warren Buffet’s advice on investing money.

- The Science of Happiness by the University of Berkeley, from the edX platform created by Harvard and MIT. It is never in vain to learn from a real professional more on the topic of what happiness is, how to increase it and the role of empathy. The instructors are not any self-proclaimed gurus and sham psychologists or thinkers, but serious scientists. One of them lectured even the Dalai Lama. We are suggesting this course also in view of the fact that money and happiness have a lot in common, even if they say that money can’t buy happiness and the rich also cry. From the same UC Berkeley you can take the course on “How to Save Money: Making Smart Financial Decisions”.

Are they coming to an end?

According to an article from the online version of today’s issue of the Financial Times, there is a clear trend of change which has already brought about the introduction of fees, be they minor ones, for most of the mass online courses, especially for those provided by distinguished universities.

By observations of UniCredit Bulbank, currently fees of around USD 40 or USD 50 are charged if one wants to receive an individual certificate for completing the course and passing the exam on it, which they can put on their CVs. There are also certification programmes for around USD 70 to USD 100 which can be completed if several courses are taken together. Some of these are programmes on Big Data, Project Management, Business Fundamentals from Wharton University, which is a super mini-MBA, How to Start A Business of the Michigan University, game theory, leadership, communications, etc.

Harvard, Stanford and HEC Paris have set the trend towards a higher payment and an adapted version of their regular business courses can be found online with the same instructors for around USD 1,800 per course. Here we are already not talking of a MOOC, where you can enroll in seconds and may never complete it, which actually happens with over 93% of all people enrolled. When you pay, and it is not an amount to ignore, the university itself develops the programme with more materials and the exams become much more serious. Furthermore, for most of these new online programmes, at least by the renowned educational providers, there is a serious admission process as with the enrollment for the universities themselves. “The compilation of online courses is a big investment of time and money on the part of universities. To start charging fees for that is inevitable and reasonable“, a high-ranking representative of HEC Paris commented today for the Financial Times. In fact this is a brand new business model. It differs from the MOOC which are actually a good advertising platform for the paid programmes of the universities themselves.

About “Finance for Non-Financiers” in the blog of UniCredit Bulbank

The article is part of a series of expert materials on financial topics presented in an easy-to-grasp language, posted on the corporate blog and the digital channels of UniCredit Bulbank – Facebook, twitter, etc., titled “Finance for Non-Financiers: Practical Ideas for Smart Money Management“.

More information for media:

UniCredit Bulbank, Identity & Communications Department

Viktoria Blajeva, Phone: + 359 2 9264 993, wjlj/ebwjepwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch