Building the Future Together: An Update for Instructors

Hello Instructor Community,

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to connect with many of you, and to review many of your posts and videos. There are a wide range of reactions to our Coursera–Udemy announcement, and I want to start by saying that the mix of cautious optimism, questions, and even concern is completely understandable.

I’m writing today to address a few recurring questions and to set the record straight about the vision ahead.

First, the Udemy brand is not going away.

Udemy represents something powerful and unique in the learning world: authentic, expert-led education from real practitioners who live and breathe their subject. This isn’t going anywhere. The company name is different from the brands that we will use to serve different customer segments in different geographies. Just as the world’s most successful companies maintain distinct, valuable brands under one umbrella (e.g., Marriott international owns and operates multiple hotel brands including Sheraton, Ritz-Carlton, and St. Regis), the Udemy brand will continue to shine as a beacon of practical, expert-driven learning.

Second, the Udemy open marketplace is a foundational part of the future.

Both Coursera and Udemy have been clear in our communications about the importance of Udemy instructors and the open marketplace approach to content creation. This is not an afterthought. It is central to the opportunity ahead.

Udemy’s open marketplace model is widely recognized as an exceptionally effective way to create relevant, high-quality, up-to-date content from expert practitioners around the world. This global content engine, and the instructors who power it, will be a meaningful part of the value of the combined company.

Looking at the bigger picture, what’s genuinely exciting is the emerging vision.

At a moment of intense and growing competition from AI and the increased use of chatbots and LLMs for learning, establishing a comprehensive learning ecosystem of world-class instructors, faculty at leading universities, and industry partners is more important than ever. We are moving toward a future where university education, expert practitioner instruction, and industry-partner learning not only coexist, but complement one another. Each serves different learner needs, moments in life, and individual goals, and together they create a far more powerful learning ecosystem than any one approach alone.

Over time, this combination could mean even more learners discovering your courses, more pathways for your expertise to create impact, and more opportunities for your teaching to change lives. This combination also creates opportunities to develop new tools and capabilities designed to more quickly support both instructors and learners alike.

What to expect next.

For now, the focus is on continuing to serve learners as we do today, and starting to plan how we will thoughtfully align these complementary brands, global talent, different learning modalities and content types. This work will take time, and while we have begun the integration planning process, actual integration won’t begin until the transaction is closed. Until then, it’s business as usual at Udemy, and we continue to operate as a separate company.

As we’ve shared before, we’re committed to keeping you as informed as possible throughout this process, though we do have legal limitations on what we can communicate before the transaction closes. What’s important to know is that the Udemy open marketplace and the Udemy brand are both critical ingredients in the future combined company.

I want to thank the many instructors who have been helping share accurate information with others in the community. We fully understand the cautious optimism and uncertainty that come with moments like this, and we appreciate the constructive dialogue.

Let’s build an exciting future together!

Zane

For additional important information about the transaction, please read this link: udemy-combines-with-coursera/legends

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LawrenceMMiller

Thank you @ZaneVella. This is very reassuring and helpful.

ThomasMitchell

@ZaneVella There was not a single mention of UfB in your post. Can you touch on that?

ZaneVella

True 🙂 but there’s nothing to read into there. This post wasn’t trying to cover everything that’s amazing about Udemy or important to the future combined company - and both Hugo and Greg H. have been quite clear in their public remarks about the strengths of UB.

FedeGaray

Thank you @ZaneVella for sharing this in a “let’s address the elephant in the room” mode.

It was so necessary for the whole instructors community to read it explicitly from the udemy Leadership.

Follow up question (if it doesn’t fall into the legal umbrella): most students keep asking us if all their courses are going to still be accessible lifetime after the merger. So far our answer is “I hope so, but I really don’t know”. I understand from your post that the answer is yes, but is possible to confirm that clearly too?

Ifnwe can start answering “yes” to them, that will help their decision to keep purchasing courses and subscriptions.

ThanI you again and have a great weekend!

ZaneVella

Thank you Fede, much appreciated.

And yes, your new question goes into that area 🙂. The short answer is that courses purchased on Udemy continue to have the same lifetime access they do now, and there are no plans or announcements that change that.

As with everything related to the transaction, any future changes (if any) would only be considered after close and would be communicated clearly and well in advance. For now, it’s business as usual for learners and instructors - with the clarity that the Udemy brand and open marketplace will continue. Specific planning is just getting underway, and of course please do keep the questions and feedback coming.

CarlosMartinez

Thanks Zane, for this message — it’s truly appreciated. Communications like this are genuinely important. The clarification around the Udemy brand was especially valuable. Udemy is a very strong brand, not only among learners, but also among instructors. For many, the Udemy brand is closely tied to its original mission of democratizing access to knowledge.

It’s fully understandable that legal limitations exist at this stage. That said, the effort to communicate openly whenever possible is extremely valuable. Receiving updates through an official channel helps bring clarity, reinforces optimism, and reduces the natural uncertainty that comes with a transaction of this magnitude. I truly appreciate this transparency and hope that, whenever feasible, this type of communication can continue. Thank you again for taking the time to address the community.

Chris_Haroun

Thanks @ZaneVella. I am SUPER EXCITED about the long-term strategy. Warren Buffett famously said, "the longer-the view, the wiser the intention." From a long-term perspective, we will all benefit as the number of learners will increase materially. Yes there will be some uncertainty (as is always the case), but this is a win win for us all; we need to be collectively long-term greedy/focused.

The way mergers and acquisitions usually work (and I have worked on many large tech M&A deals since the 90s) is the acquiring company doesn't really comment in detail on the deal until it closes (which will occur later this year). At that point, I guarantee you all that you will be so psyched with what is coming next, in my humble opinion.

I have been a proud Udemy instructor for more than 10 years and I will be part of this platform for the rest of my life. My biggest criticism of the management of Udemy over the past decade is that we destroyed our margins by lowering prices - completely illogical. What this Coursera deal allows us to do is to capture fair value by:

1: Combined R&D resources,
2: Access customers with much higher disposable income, and
3: Release new products with higher average selling prices

Let's not forget why we are all here - it's not just about money, it's about changing the fucking world through education; yep!

Nelson Mandela once said "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." And Malala said "With guns you can kill terrorists, but with education, you can kill terrorism."

Think long-term and stay positive.

ValentinDespa

The fact that the Udemy brand will survive the transaction is great. This is because I have a lot of Udemy swag that I’m not ready to turn into memorabilia just yet!

Jokes aside, it is reassuring to know that the new Udemy+Coursera entity will continue to value the open marketplace model and the power of individual instructors. Having this clarity will help the instructor community better align their future plans. I think this idea needs to be communicated more often to give instructors confidence in the future.

Thanks for the update @ZaneVella! This is fantastic news for all of us.

Gustavo

Thanks for this, @ZaneVella!! It's great to read this and exciting to think about what’s possible when two strong but very different ecosystems like Udemy and Coursera come together.

Different audiences, different models, different strengths… if we get this right, it could open up totally new opportunities for how we teach and reach learners.

Appreciate the clarity and momentum here.

And Like Valentin said, I am thrilled to know I can keep using my Udemy branded swag 😀

KuljotSB

This sounds really promising @ZaneVella . Udemy has been a career changer for people like me - to be honest I really don't know what would I have done if Udemy weren't there - you can take any other platform like LinkedIn Learning, Coursera etc. but they just don't do it the way Udemy does. Udemy's marketplace is what makes it so special - it gave me a platform to showcase my skills without any curtains and that's the beauty about it. I am super glad that the brand name isn't going anywhere and the marketplace too (and absolutely we all know how cool UfB is!). Super excited for what the future holds!!!

KarolyNyisztor

Thank you for sharing this, @ZaneVella. Great to hear the Udemy brand won't disappear.
I'm really curious how this will work in practice, though. Will there be separate Udemy and Coursera sites, or some kind of combined structure under the Coursera umbrella? What will we see when visiting coursera.org after the merge?

It’s hard to imagine how the current differences between the two websites will be handled.

Anton Voroniuk

Great news! Thanks @ZaneVella !

SivakamiS2017

This is at least some good news, thanks for sharing that, @ZaneVella !

EmreYilmaz

Thanks for the clarification, @ZaneVella. I really appreciate it, as I understand you are unable to disclose much information until the merger completes. The legal company name and the brands are distinct entities, as you explained very well.

Udemy is a powerful brand, and the marketplace is its most distinctive feature.

I hope the merger with Coursera brings momentum to both brands and help them return to their glorious days with more stability. So we can continue to build high quality courses and reach more learners.

Col (Dr) Shabbar Shahid (Veteran)

Thankyou @ZaneVella . It is so reassuring and really needed at this moment

ZaneVella

Thank you @KarolyNyisztor, appreciate your feedback. To your question, as shared above, we are just starting to plan how we will “thoughtfully align these complementary brands” - and website planning will be a part of that. “This work will take time, and actual integration won’t begin until the transaction is closed.” So for now, I strongly rec continuing to excel on Udemy and serving your learners in the best way possible.

Sanjeev_Kumar

Thank you @ZaneVella for sharing this message — It's truly appreciated.

Arno_Pretorius

Thank you very much! @ZaneVella

Emile-Ackbarali

@ZaneVella This post is exactly what I needed to hear. Exactly! Thank you! To boost falling revenue, I had created a plan this year to really double down. To create more courses, upgrade existing ones and do more of my own promotion to boost sales.

Then last night I watched about 3 videos on YouTube of persons talking about how the Udemy name would go "poof" and disappear completely by mid-2026 and it would only be Coursera. No more open marketplace, just subscriptions in Coursera. And small-time instructors like me would not have a place. I don't make a lot of money on Udemy, but I live in the Caribbean in a country that has a very favourable exchange rate, so the income is enough to allow me to do Udemy full-time. Udemy has changed my life and I am very grateful for the platform.

For a moment last night, I thought I would have to just scrap all of my plans for this year and start looking for another form of income. So I came here this morning looking for some more details and maybe some reassurance on what would be happening next, and found this great post from you. I am not naïve about the disruption that AI and LLMs are causing. It's very real. "Adapt or die" is the reality. But at least I know now I have a fighting chance. So the 2026 plans stay! Thank you again!

RogerKayAllen

Thanks for the update @ZaneVella. Although there is a lot of uncertainty and many decisions yet to be made, I appreciate you reaching out and keeping us informed. Your message, and willingness to communicate, provides greater confidence about where we're headed.

Faisal

Thank you @ZaneVella f

ZaneVella

Right on Emile, thank you for sharing this important story. Stick with your plan and I love hearing you are able to do Udemy full-time! Keep it going!

MSO112

Thanks @ZaneVella for the update on the status quo.

AlexGenadinik

It's true….I wear my Udemy swag with pride :)

Graeme_Gordon

Thanks for the update, Zane.

Having recently gone through a merger of two large telcos in my own role, I know how complex and time-consuming this kind of work is. It’s reassuring to hear the continued commitment to the Udemy brand and the open marketplace. Looking forward to seeing how this evolves.