CampusTalks Insights: Hult and Coursera Empower Career-Ready Graduates

Higher education faces increasing pressure to equip students with the skills needed to succeed in the modern workplace. To meet this demand, Hult International Business School is partnering with Coursera, integrating dynamic digital learning materials into its curriculum. This collaboration provides Hult students with expanded learning opportunities that blend foundational knowledge with real-world applications, enhancing their employability upon graduation.

Since 2022, Hult students have been learning with Coursera’s extensive catalog of industry-relevant courses and certificates. This partnership supports Hult’s mission to provide a transformative learning experience that aligns with the demands of the global job market. During a recent CampusTalks webinar, Tim Lebel, Hult’s Global Assistant Dean of Programs, explained how the Coursera partnership has modernized Hult’s programs and helped bridge the skills gap, increasing employability for their graduates: “Hult is constantly innovating to ensure our students are job-ready. Coursera has become an essential part of that innovation.”

Hult is constantly innovating to ensure our students are job-ready. Coursera has become an essential part of that innovation.

Tim Lebel, Global Assistant Dean of Programs

Preparing students for the real world with online learning

Larry Louie, Professor of Finance, Accounting, and Entrepreneurship at Hult, highlights how the pandemic accelerated the school’s adoption of digital learning. Faced with the sudden shift to remote learning, Hult quickly turned to Coursera to ensure students received a competitive, modern education. “Necessity is the mother of invention. The pandemic forced us to innovate, moving from in-person to Zoom overnight. Coursera was crucial in helping us adapt and thrive,” says Louie. 

By incorporating Coursera’s industry certificates and career-focused courses, Hult faculty have successfully modernized the curriculum. Coursera’s platform allows Hult to offer a blended learning experience with:

• A flipped classroom methodology: Coursera content is used as pre-class prep, integrated into class discussions, and reinforced through post-class assignments.

• Core and specialized curriculum: Coursera provides foundational knowledge in core subjects and advanced skills through elective courses, using up-to-date content from global university partners and industry leaders.

Gaining faculty support for change

For the Coursera partnership to succeed, faculty engagement was essential. Early adopters among faculty were instrumental in showcasing the benefits of Coursera’s flexible, flipped classroom model, encouraging others to integrate it into their courses.

“The key was to find early adopters who could demonstrate the platform’s value,” says Louie. “Once other faculty saw the positive outcomes, they were much more open to embracing Coursera in their teaching.”

Hult provided workshops and webinars to help educators incorporate Coursera into their curriculum, ensuring they retained academic freedom to choose materials that complemented their unique teaching methods. Today, faculty leverage custom course creation tools like Coursera Course Builder to personalize curricula for optimal student learning.

The Barbell Strategy: Balancing foundational and specialized skills 

A hallmark of Hult and Coursera’s educational approach is the Barbell Strategy, which balances foundational knowledge with specialized expertise. This strategy ensures students remain adaptable in an ever-changing job market, equipped with both the essentials and the niche skills employers demand.

“The Barbell Strategy allows us to give students a strong grounding in essential principles while also offering industry-specific credentials that make them more employable,” says Coursera’s Dr. Quentin McAndrew.

Coursera’s diverse content and certifications, ranging from Google IT Support to Salesforce, play a critical role in reinforcing this strategy.

Boosting graduate employability

Hult’s partnership with Coursera is directly aligned with preparing students for the workforce. By offering hands-on projects, industry-recognized certificates, and modules that reflect current workplace trends, Coursera helps students acquire the skills employers are looking for.

We’ve seen strong adoption rates from students, many of whom are completing courses and certifications on their own initiative. These credentials [on Coursera] give them a competitive edge in the job market.

Tim Lebel

With Coursera partnerships with leading companies like Google, Salesforce, and IBM, Hult students are gaining valuable industry certifications that boost their job prospects and confidence.

Conclusion

The Hult-Coursera partnership exemplifies how higher education can evolve to meet the demands of today’s global workforce. By incorporating digital, industry-aligned learning, Hult ensures its students graduate with the skills and credentials they need to succeed in a competitive job market.

As education continues to shift toward digital and lifelong learning, partnerships like this one offer a model for how institutions can thrive by focusing on employability and real-world applications.