Taught by HBS professor V.G. Narayanan, this course expands on the accounting course of the Harvard Business School Online’s Credential of Readiness (CORe) program—an online program designed by HBS faculty teach the fundamentals of business—and offers students the opportunity to earn college-level credits.
Professor Narayanan is the Thomas D. Casserly, Jr. Professor of Business Administration and has been teaching accounting at Harvard Business School for the last 20 years. His course aims to provide students with a foundation in financial accounting, covering the basics of profit, revenue, assets, and liabilities. Students will learn to prepare financial statements, interpret a balance sheet, and analyze a cash flow statement. Through short-video lectures, cases featuring real companies, interactive exercises, and virtual online sections, students will emerge with a deeper understanding of financial accounting methodology and application in a number of business scenarios.
“Sound understanding of basic accounting is essential to successfully communicate in the business world regardless of your role,” said HBS professor V.G. Narayanan. “This collaboration with Harvard Extension School provides a platform to extend this fundamental knowledge to emerging and practicing business professionals beyond the CORe experience. It also offers an expansion of the course curriculum to include more in-depth assignments, practice, and assessments to provide a strong foundation in accounting for students who are applying this course towards a certificate or degree program.”
This course is part of Harvard Extension School’s continuing collaboration with Harvard Business School Online. In January 2016, the two institutions began offering eight undergraduate credits to individuals in Harvard Extension School’s Bachelor of Liberal Arts Program who successfully completed CORe, as well as students from other institutions that grant transfer credits.
Since the collaboration was launched in 2016, more than 250 students have participated in the for-credit option of CORe. “As an entrepreneur, mentor, and educator, I can safely say that Harvard Business School Online has shown me the future of education. It is worth every penny and is definitely something I’d recommend to anyone looking to enrich their business education,” said CORe student Budd Royce Lam.
“Through this latest collaboration with Harvard Business School Online and Professor V.G. Narayanan, we have the exciting opportunity to further extend the expertise of Harvard’s premier faculty and resources and deliver an innovative and quality education to students across the globe,” said Huntington D. Lambert, dean of continuing education at Harvard University.
