University education with big brand names can give you two big advantages. Firstly, they are meant to impart a structured and well prepared course. They are backed by universities which have to be very cautious of what they are teaching. Secondly, you get the brand name attached. This helps you in boosting confidence among hiring teams that you have right education from right place and not just some random course, which may or may not be properly audited.
There are both on-campus and online courses from such universities. Of course the on-campus ones are pretty expensive and need to applied for and fought hard for. There are limited seats and with the big brand names, they are quite often in demand. One big advantage of such courses are the proximity to resources(libraries), batchmates, and professors for quick question and answer and working projects.
The online courses, on the other hand are quite easy to get and may be equally good. They are not so expensive as on-campus, but still may be a lot when compared to general programs by non-universities. The good part about them is that you still get the brand names attached and you can leverage the quality education. You can network with your batchmates as well and have a online co-learning space.
Do you need university courses which are expensive when compared to general non-university courses out there? Are they worth it? Does it help compared to self learning and watching videos? Yes and No.
YES, as mentioned before, a structured course from professors give you a good baseline. It is way better than random courses out there, which may or may not be as sturctured and may also have wrong knowledge embedded. Some universities prepare you for placements and having big brand names may give you an upper hand in securing the placements.
NO, because they are just another method of teaching almost same syllabus. There are free videos, books, courses and websites which can teach you basics, after that when you apply these at the job, it is the best way to learn product management. There are also way cheaper course options which cover almost the same basics.
Ultimately, it is upto you to decide if you have the capability to spend and dedicate your time for such education programmes. You may not become the best product manager just by attending and passing these university courses, because product management is all about application and success in real world rather than merely covering theoretical concepts.
The links provided below are just for reference, You can take them based on your self evaluation of your learning capabilities and opportunities.
University Education:
- Tepper School of Business(on-Campus): One of the few university which gives on-campus education in product management.
- Wharton Executive Education(online): Provides course in product management and Strategy.
- Stanford(Online): Covers key topics of product management. You can enroll for the first module for free to get a preview.
- Kellogg School of Management(online): Covers product strategy as the main subject.
- Columbia Business School(Online): Covers the general product management concepts.
- Harvard(online): Provides a quick overview on product management. A real short course.
- Ecornell(Online): Again a structured course covering basics of product management.
- Melbourne Business School(Online): This is for mid-level product managers, but you can keep an eye on it till you are ready to take on the course early.
- Executive Program in Data Driven Product Management(Online): This program although sounds good and provided by one of the best college in India and in the world, has more focus on physical products. The professors follow a traditional approach to teach product management. It is highlyg expensive and can be taken to get a good brand name attached to your profile.