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Coursera Announces Six New Masters and Bachelors Degrees in Computer Science, Data Science, and Public Health from Top UniversitiesCoursera, one of the world's largest online education platforms, today announced the development of six new online degrees with top universities around the world that will bring the number of programs offered on its platform to ten. Coursera and its university partners are working together to reimagine degrees to meet the needs of a workforce that will increasingly require more ways to attain education throughout a career. By the year 2020, it's estimated that 65 percent of all jobs will require postsecondary education and training according to the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. At the same time, the cost of degrees has skyrocketed, making them even more unattainable for people who cannot afford to leave the workforce to pursue a degree. As a result, some leading universities are looking for new flexible and affordable ways to offer their degrees. "We are realizing that the vast reach of MOOCs makes them a powerful gateway to degrees," said Jeff Maggioncalda, Coursera's CEO. "We are working with our university partners to build degrees on top of our open online learning platform that are high quality, modular, affordable, and scalable." The new programs - all expected to launch later this year or in 2019* - are as follows in alphabetical order:
"We need to design degrees that provide modular credentials to students at all stages of the learning process," said Nikhil Sinha, Chief Content Officer of Coursera. "Over 50% of students who apply for degrees on Coursera first enroll in one of the open online courses from our university partners. They love that they can explore the open courses first and then decide whether to go on to get a full degree while earning valuable credentials along the way." The University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign, which announced its Master of Computer Science today, already offers three degrees on Coursera: a Master of Computer Science in Data Science, a Master of Science in Accountancy, and a Master of Business Administration that had its first class graduate in December 2017. HEC Paris also launched the Online Master's in Innovation and Entrepreneurship on Coursera last year. "I've wanted to get my MBA, but doing it the traditional way just wasn't possible," said Cheryl Schaefer, a student in the University of Illinois MBA on Coursera. "My experience has been hands down phenomenal. The quality of education has been without comparison." To learn more about the new and existing degrees offered on Coursera, go to www.coursera.org/degrees. *The following degrees are subject to formal approval by the respective university's governing bodies: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Master of Computer Science, Imperial College London's Master of Public Health, University of London's Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, University of Michigan's Master of Applied Data Science, and University of Michigan's Master of Public Health. About Coursera Coursera is an online education company that partners with 160 of the world's top universities and industry leaders to offer courses, Specializations, and degrees that empower learners around the world to achieve their career, educational, and personal enrichment goals throughout their lives. Since launching in 2012, the company has grown to 31 million registered learners who can choose among 2,600 courses and 236 Specializations. Leading universities are now also working with Coursera to offer online degrees in areas like business, computer science, data science, and public health. For more information, visit www.coursera.org.
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