Online learning platform Coursera looks to strengthen its base in tier 2 and 3 cities through curriculum upgradation, career academy and faculty development programmes, Raghav Gupta, managing director, India and Asia-Pacific (APAC), Coursera told FE Education Online. “We plan to invest and double the number of Indian universities and companies to author content and offer degree programmes on our platform,” Gupta added. Presently the company has partnered with 14 institutions and five companies in India and created close to 20 certificates, five degrees, and three postgraduate programmes.
The 14 institutions include Indian Statistical Institutes (ISI) Kolkata, Indian School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, IIT Roorkee, IIT Bombay, Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta, IIM Kozhikode, IIM Indore, IIM Ahmedabad, Ashoka University, OP Jindal Global University, Indian Institute for Human Settlements, International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Bengaluru, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru. The five partnered companies include Philips, Hero Mindmine, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Tally Education and Yunus Social Business Fund.
According to Gupta, some of the universities from tier 2 cities such as Lakshmi Narayan College of Technology (LNCT) in Bhopal, Shoolini University in Solan, Graphic Era (Deemed to be University) in Dehradun, Marwadi University in Rajkot, Sanjivani Rural Education Society in Kopargaon have subscribed to the platform for its course content.
Gupta further claims that India is the second largest market in terms of learners’ base. “In 2021 we added 43 lakh learners from India and in the first half of 2022 (January to June) the number of learners added is 20 lakh,” Gupta said. Globally the company claims to have 10.7 crore learners, of this 1.7 crore learners are from India. On the enrollment front, Gupta claims that the platform has witnessed 1.8 crore enrollments across the globe and 40 lakh is from India which is the highest since January 2020.
The online learning platform claims to have two revenue streams- one is course fee from individual learners and the other is enterprise business which includes universities or institutions, government agencies and corporates. The company further claims that in India, more than 150 companies such as Axis Bank, Reliance Industries Limited, Larsen & Toubro, Wipro, GE Healthcare, Welspun India have enrolled for its courses along with over 1,100 institutes such as Symbiosis University, KL University, Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management (GITAM), Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, NMIMS among others.
Overall, Coursera claims to have partnered with more than 275 universities and industries and curated more than 5,200 courses, 625 specialisations, 3,300 projects, 115 certificates, and 35 degrees, globally.
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