Which universities offer an online 100% free master’s program?

In the US, master’s degrees and online courses are both almost exclusively treated as cash cows. Master’s students generally lack the training to be useful research assistants to support faculty research efforts so there isn’t grant money to pay for them. There’s sometimes TA money to support them, but that most often goes to PhD students who are just starting out. Many master’s degrees are targeting working professionals who want additional training so the students’ employers often help foot the bill. These programs are designed to make enough money to help supplement the other programs that lose money — like undergraduate education.

The dirty secret that’s not really a secret is that no one who knows about academia thinks that online courses lead to the same level of student development as in-person courses. And the courses tend to be much easier for students because even as easier versions, they are already difficult for faculty to develop, implement, and administer. A hard version would be more work and would attract fewer students.

So why do schools offer them and give students the same credits for them? It turns out that many students care more about earning credits than they care about learning, so they’re content with an easier, inferior education. Schools are increasingly finding it difficult to generate enough revenue to operate, so they sell out and offer the courses because they know plenty of students will pay for them.

I write this to point out that almost any online masters program has the singular goal of making money for the institution. Such a goal is entirely at odds with the notion of “offered entirely for free.” I say almost only because I have heard of a few taxpayer suppoted schools that have developed such programs to fill a need in support of the public good. States with understaffed public schools might task a state university with such a program to develop more teachers because it is cheaper than paying teachers more to attract more people to the field.

Beware of certification programs that masquerade as master’s programs. Both can have real value, but they are not the same thing. And as always, beware of someone claiming they give something for nothing. Usually the nothing turns out to be something while the something turns out to be worth nothing.