From the very start, our mission at edX has been to increase access to high-quality education for everyone, everywhere. An important part of that mission has been to give our learners the credentials they need to represent the great work they’ve done in edX courses.
By earning certificates upon successful course completion, learners demonstrate the knowledge they have gained to improve job prospects, or promote personal growth. With this in mind, we’re making some important changes to our certificate program to strengthen these offerings and ensure that edX certificates carry the merit our learners deserve.
Starting today, December 7th, we no longer offer honor code certificates for courses that learners audit for free. For students who have already earned an honor code certificate or are enrolled in a current course in the honor code track, please rest assured that those honor code certificates will remain valid.
Of course, all of edX’s high-quality educational content, assessments and forums will continue to be offered for free, but those learners who want to earn a certificate upon successful completion of the course will pay a modest fee for a verified certificate. This will help ensure that our learners earn a valuable credential upon successful completion of a course.
For any learner who may benefit from our verified certificates, but cannot afford to pay, edX is introducing a new financial assistance program. We will start taking financial assistance applications for students enrolled in the Audit track of newly-announced courses starting this week.
We are committed to strengthening the edX certificate program while continuing to make our educational content accessible to all learners for free. As a nonprofit organization, edX will use the fees from verified certificates to continue to work with our institutional partners to develop and offer world-class educational content to the world for free.
Many of our learners have shared with us that their verified certificates have been extremely valuable in advancing their careers and in furthering their education. Through verification, as well as financial assistance, our goal is to make edX certificates both more meaningful and more accessible for everyone around the world.
We know that there will be questions and comments about these changes at edX, and we want to hear from you. Please start by visiting these Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about financial assistance, or let us know your thoughts in the comments section of the blog.
