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Course Report

Learn from India’s Brightest Minds — Here are 300 Free Courses from IITs that are Starting Soon

This spring NPTEL has launched 290 courses from 16 different universities of which 11 are IITs. Already over 600k students are enrolled in these courses, the first of which will start on January 28th.

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Science (IISc) are some of India’s most prestigious institutes of higher learning. They are also the toughest to get into.  Each year over 1 million students sit for entrance exams to be admitted to one of the 23 IITs, while just 10,000 will be granted a spot, an admission rate of less than 1%.

Luckily for us, both the IITs and the IISc release hundreds of free courses every fall and spring through their massive open online course (MOOC) platform, the National Programme for Technology Enhanced Learning, or NPTEL. NPTEL is a joint initiative of the IITs and IISc that makes science and engineering courses available to the public. Learn more about MOOCs.

This spring NPTEL has launched 290 courses from 16 different universities, of which 11 are IITs. Already over 600k students are enrolled in these courses.

NPTEL courses tend to be more rigorous and advanced than typical MOOCs, so if you take one of these courses, be prepared for some serious studying. Also, NPTEL courses tend to have firm deadlines. Some courses below start as early as January 28, so be sure to sign up before the start date!

Computer Science (35)

Engineering (112)

Mathematics (16)

Science (41)

Humanities (12)

Data Science (6)

Social Sciences (19)

Education & Teaching (3)

Art & Design (10)

Health & Medicine (4)

Business (26)

Personal Development (3)

Dhawal Shah Profile Image

Dhawal Shah

Dhawal is the CEO of Class Central, the most popular search engine and review site for online courses and MOOCs. He has completed over a dozen MOOCs and has written over 200 articles about the MOOC space, including contributions to TechCrunch, EdSurge, Quartz, and VentureBeat.

Comments 9

  1. Prabhas

    Diverse courses available.However, clinical research and data analysis would like to see in the list.Probably it might be in wish list.

    Reply
  2. Graeme Roberts

    This is so impressive! I never knew that IITs offered such extraordinary diversity of courses in so many disciplines. As an old guy who is far from finished learning I will check them out. Thanks, Dhawal.

    Reply
  3. Peter

    Looks good. Interested in cognitive psychology and data analysis.kindly advice

    Reply
  4. Francisco

    Interesting , I am very impressed even I know the quality of the Indian professional I have been working around the world . I am interest in marketing or public relations as it is the areas I am working in at the moment. Kind regards

    Reply
  5. Antionette Boshoff

    What course can I do to make me more computer literate.

    Reply
  6. Andrew L Banda

    So interesting and awesome, I am so happy to hear this.

    Reply
  7. JAYESH JOSHI

    Great going Dhawalbhai,,..would love to see Information security /foresensic course too soon..
    Thank you

    Reply
  8. lee mwela

    Forensic courses and operations courses will be good.

    Reply

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