Coursera released its Q1 2025 financial results last week, revealing $179.3 million in revenue (up 6% year-over-year) alongside a structural change that perfectly encapsulates the company’s ongoing transformation: Coursera is eliminating its Degrees segment as a standalone reporting unit, instead folding it into the Consumer segment.

This restructuring comes just months after Coursera’s leadership overhaul, which saw long-time CEO Jeff Maggioncalda “retire” and Amazon veteran Greg Hart take the helm. As I reported in February, Coursera had already signaled reduced investments in its Degrees segment in favor of opportunities like Coursera for Campus.

This reporting change is the latest evidence of what I’ve been documenting in my recent three-part LinkedIn series on Coursera’s transformation – a company rapidly shifting away from its university-centric origins toward an industry-led model.

Degrees Division Disappears After Years of Struggles

The Degrees segment – once seen as Coursera’s future – has faced mounting challenges since 2022, when revenue began declining despite growing enrollments. As I reported in August 2022, Coursera’s degree revenues dropped from $13.3 million to $11.4 million even as student numbers increased from 16,481 to 17,460.

Coursera CFO Ken Hahn attempted to frame the reporting change positively, stating that “ultimately degrees is another consumer product. It’s just another consumer, albeit it is the longest in duration and the highest in price.” When pushed on whether this was simply a move to “hide future weakness in degrees,” Hahn reiterated this position.

The financial picture before this reporting change looked like this:

With the new structure, Coursera will only report Consumer (now including Degrees) and Enterprise. The company will also stop disclosing degree student numbers, claiming the metric “will not provide a meaningful indication of consumer segment performance.”

First Full-Year Guidance Under New CEO

Coursera announced its first full-year guidance for 2025, projecting revenue to be in the range of $720-730 million, representing growth of approximately 4-5% year-over-year.

Unlike in previous years, Coursera did not provide detailed revenue guidance for 2025 during their 2024 Q4 earnings call, deferring to give new CEO Greg Hart time to assess the company’s opportunities. At that time, executives indicated that further details on full-year 2025 outlook would be provided “in the coming months.”

The enterprise segment appears to be facing particular challenges, with net retention rate for paid enterprise customers slipping to 91% from 94% a year ago.

Industry Content Dominance Revealed in Data

Coursera’s embrace of industry-led content continues to reshape its economic model. The company reported that its Consumer segment gross profit margin improved “as learners engage with more recently launched content and credentials created under new production arrangements with more favorable revenue share economics.”

This shift aligns with my past reporting on how Google’s content generates approximately $100 million annually for Coursera. In October 2023, I noted that Coursera’s consumer revenue was approaching $100 million per quarter, primarily driven by industry content.

The reporting change aligns perfectly with the findings from my recent data analysis on LinkedIn. In part one of my series, I found that Google’s AI Essentials course alone (915K enrollments) attracted more students than ALL university courses launched on Coursera in 2024 combined (755K).

The data shows a dramatic shift in Coursera’s catalog composition:

• Non-university courses now dominate Coursera’s catalog 3:1 (2,920 vs 950 university courses)
• Non-university providers generate 82% of all new course enrollments (3.4M vs 755K)
• The average non-university course attracts 46% more students (1,170 vs 800)

Content Syndication and Proprietary Production

My second LinkedIn analysis revealed another surprising aspect of Coursera’s transformation: a significant portion of new courses are not exclusive to the platform. Coursera has expanded syndication from companies like Packt, Edureka, and EDUCBA, while also hosting content from Google Cloud, Amazon, and Microsoft that’s available on other platforms.

This syndication model, however, is only one part of Coursera’s content strategy. In the third part of my series, I highlighted Coursera’s increasing investment in proprietary content. The company invested $17.3 million in content production in 2024, up from $5.3 million the previous year, and plans to increase this investment further in 2025.

These investments appear focused on Professional Certificates rather than university partnerships. During the Q1 earnings call, executives confirmed this direction, announcing a significant investment in “Coursera produced content,” which they’ve been developing since late 2023. According to executives, this content:

• Gives them “better control”
• Is “favorable… economically” with better gross margins
• Provides “exclusive” content not available elsewhere

The company currently offers more than 90 Professional Certificates, with about a third having at least one credit recommendation that can be used for academic purposes.

Financial Position Remains Strong Despite Challenges

Despite slower growth, Coursera maintains a strong cash position with $748 million and no debt. The company generated $25 million in free cash flow during Q1, which included $4 million in “purchases of content assets.”

This financial cushion gives new CEO Greg Hart runway to implement his vision for the company, though the lowered growth expectations suggest the path forward won’t be easy.

The University-to-Industry Transition Continues

This reorganization represents the latest step in Coursera’s evolution from a university-centered platform to an industry-focused one.

What started as a free platform for university courses has gradually transformed into a company where industry-created credentials drive the most revenue. The decision to absorb the Degrees segment into Consumer and stop reporting detailed degree metrics marks another milestone in this transition.

As I’ve tracked through numerous analyses of Coursera’s financial reports, the company’s reliance on industry partners has steadily increased. With this latest change, that transformation appears nearly complete.