Good news for those who want to advance their education but lack money for tuition! It is possible to earn a degree from a highly reputable university free of charge. Below is a list of the 10 best free university courses (in no particular order) available for you:

1. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (mit.edu)

MIT is ideal for those looking for a wide range of free courses offered online. The university's OpenCourseWare project has more than 1,750 free courses that are in text, audio and video formats. OpenCourseWare is used by students worldwide, most of whom say they would recommend the site to other students.

2. Stanford (stanford.edu)

Stanford University, one of the world's top universities, has teamed up with iTunes U to offer access to Stanford courses, interviews and lectures. Available courses can be downloaded and played on iPods, Macs and PCs and can also be burned to audio CDs and played in CD player.

3. University of California, Irvine (uci.edu)

UC Irvine, recently teamed up with the OCW Consortium to offer free university level courses online. Although currently there are only a few courses to choose from, the list is rapidly growing. Course materials include lecture notes, assignments as well as exams.

4. Open University (open.ac.uk)

Open University's (UK) OpenLearn website offer both undergraduate and graduate learners free access to learning materials. The materials cover a wide range of topics, such as IT and computing, education, mathematics and statistics, science, health, business and more.

5. University of California, Berkeley (berkeley.edu)

For almost a decade, the University of California, Berkeley has been providing live webcasts of a number of courses including IT, legal studies, engineering, philosophy, psychology and astronomy. Many of the university's courses, are currently available as podcasts and webcasts.

6. Carnegie Mellon University (cmu.edu)

Carnegie Mellon University's program called Open Learning Initiative (OLI) offers several free online courses. OLI courses are aimed to allow introductory college level students to learn about a particular subject without formal instruction. Courses cover a wide range of topics, such as economics, biology, French, statistics and physics.

7. Kutztown University of Pennsylvania (kutztownsbdc.org)

The Kutztown University of Pennsylvania has a resource centre, Small Business Development Center, that boasts the web's largest collection of free business programs.

8. Utah State University (usu.edu)

Utah State University is also a good choice for those looking for free online courses. The university offers a number of download-able text-based courses ranging from physics to anthropology and theatre arts.

9. University of Southern Queensland (usq.edu.au)

University of Southern Queensland, Australia, offers free online courses through its OpenCourseWare initiative.

10. Tufts University (tufts.edu)

Tufts University, a private research university in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts, has OpenCourseWare that is available free to everyone.Course materials include lecture notes, assignments and other supplementary materials.