The University of Notre Dame Australia is a private university. It embraces both the modern Australian university style and traditions of Catholic universities in Europe and North America. Notre Dame is based in the city of Fremantle, which lies within the greater Perth metropolitan area, and also has campuses in Sydney and Broome. Notre Dame focuses on the education and training of young people for entry to the major professions: medicine, law, teaching, nursing, accounting and finance, physiotherapy, counselling, health sciences and the priesthood. If you've ever attended Notre Dame, feel free to post a review.
matilda rea
Genuine Criticism of Notre Dame Fremantle - Do Not Study Here
This university has fallen far from its once prestigious position. It is run so poorly, with an almost hilarious amount of administration errors, that would be funny if it didn’t negatively affect students and staff alike. The institution prides itself on pastoral care – but fails to deliver. There is almost no consideration given to students, no flexibility in assignment dates without an expensive process to get a doctor to certify University-approved certificates. Further, some staff members are just nasty. Some staff are amazing – and genuinely care about the students. But the majority of employees have no passion for what they teach, and haven’t worked clinically in many years – and it shows. Campus-wise, the facilities are dated, technology infrastructure is poor, and the classrooms are small, yet they cram as many students into them as possible to make profits. Lectures remain online – for no reason other than money. They don’t have the facilities to deliver in-person lectures because they increased their admissions to make more money, with no space to house the students. They are saving a fortune with online delivery of classes, and the majority of mid-semester exams are done online – academic integrity is abysmal. Further, results for assessments take 3 weeks, with barely any, if at all, feedback. Yet fees have not changed. There is no accountability, communication, transparency – or empathy. Mistakes have been made that led to significant consequences for students. Staff often release results or make important announcements at 4:55 pm on a Friday – so they can clock off over the weekend. They are not approachable. I do not recommend this University at all. Staff retention is horrible, with high turnover – and the quality of some tutors is shocking. Some tutors put on a video at the start of the lesson, then sit on their phones for 30 minutes. Some tutors cannot answer basic questions that you would expect them to answer. Again, there are some genuinely good staff members, but the majority are average at best.
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Anonymous
I have not enjoyed my time at ND. I have studied at several other institutions – UNE, UWA, Usyd. I find it impossible to get good grades at this institution, which makes me glad I have three other institutions of which to compare it by, otherwise my whole perception of self and what I can achieve would be incorrect. The outline outlines are vague and sometime contradictory to what they want… senior lecturers outright refuse to give you context on your ideas for assignments saying they are busy at international conferences and such and then fob you off for the course duration. Course structures whereby then you are forced to only have the last few weeks of semester to put together major assessments, as they won’t tell you what you can do your projects on until several weeks prior to final exams and then have you doing them during final exams. Basically making you one of those people who leaves things till the last minute – not by choice. Set up to fail. Being micro managed to attend online weekend practicals whereby they haven’t sorted out intercom so it’s just noise…. But mandatory when you would have been better left to just study for final exams… Informing that certain things won’t be examinable and then putting them into exams. The sheer speed at which you have to write answers in exams compared to other places…. Occasional quiz questions answers contradicting what is said or in slides. I had a GPA of 7 coming into ND it’s now dropping to below 6.8. Notably, I receive HDs continuously at all of the other institutions but always luck out with distinctions at ND and god knows what this time maybe a credit or pass it wouldn’t surprise me. Not for me anyway. Oddly, many people at the campus love the campus though, which I am objective about I feel some people somehow find they do well there or are happier there. Thus far my experience with Usyd beats it by a country mile. I have also enjoyed UNE. I am aware that such things may be department specific though however iv studies two courses at ND now and not had great experiences…. When I was very young I did my first course there and I honestly blames myself for being young and immature and not trying hard…. But going back there for another course I realise no maybe that was so but it’s a terrible uni. In my first degree as a youngster they called me in an office and said “your parents did this assignment didn’t they” and they didn’t…. Then I was harassed continuously with two over bearing women at – Fremantle Notre Dame untill I admitted I didn’t do it….. It was not okay….. I did do it…. This was back before the turn it in technology. They had nothing to go on other than they clearly though of me as less intelligent than what I am…. It made me uncomfortable from the very start of my course their. Then one of those same ladies said I simply had to fail a unit because she didn’t rock up to the same class room as she always did and that was the slot for my oral presentation and there simply wouldn’t be room for me to present at another date and apparently that was my fault…. And on me because she emailed us all 20 minutes prior to say tutorial is in another class room. To add no students in the class got the memo….. They seemed to have it in for me on the first week, admittedly I was young an immature and not attending lectures…. But it’s because the content was so easy I didn’t think I needed it explained to me to understand it and when I told them that as a youngster they saw red…. I mean I wasn’t brought up in a rich family….. if I can pick up some hours of work to have some money whilst studying……And not just drive an hour to attend things I don’t need explained to me and lose out on money. Another thing they seemed to not comprehend at all at Notre Dame, that they do better with at other universities not all students are rich…. Which is why they would punish students for not attending lectures like we were children and started deliberately leaving words out of sentences in slides and such things…. Despite still taking our money for the course. So yeh my advice just don’t do it.
concerned
No face to face lectures due to "resourcing constraints"
Wouldn’t recommend if you expect face to face lectures……. by the end of 2022 my daughter will have completed 2 years of a 3 year Nursing degree without any face to face lectures in the Faculty of Nursing.
This is apparently now not due to COVID, but due to “resourcing constraints” that only certain cohorts can be brought back onto campus, while others still remain online, might add with no reduction in fees!
SG
Update
Update, she’s now in her final semester nursing, all lectures online bar one, and their final prac placements were released by mistake, shocking experience.
A cohort of students who have not had the opportunity to experience what it’s like to have face to face lectures and to meet their fellow students!
Diana
Notre Dame uni is great.
I am really enjoying my postgraduate study at Notre Dame university. I’m doing well and I find the uni tutors staff very supportive (Zoom meetings to discuss the course and also what is required and expected to succeed). I’m really happy with my choice to go to Notre Dame. The subjects are interesting and well prepared. The uni staff are caring and empathetic and they want to help you to succeed. Yes, the subjects are expensive at 3k each with no Government subsidy however I think they are worth it for my planned career path. I’m very happy with Notre Dame and my choice to go here. More supportive than my past uni I attended decades ago.
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Sarah
Horrible University. Would not recommend
I would not recommend Notre Dame to anybody. I had more negative experiences with them than I had positive.
When I was due to start my course after my gap year, I had been emailing and calling them for months prior to semester 1 starting, asking about my enrolment information and how to access other student information. I was told every time to “just keep waiting, it will get sent to you.” I called them again in late January and they told me that they made a mistake and they hadn’t moved my name from their ‘deferral list’ to their ‘enrolment list’ which was why I hadn’t been sent any information. I asked when I would be able to choose my preferences for classes and they said that it was too late and classes had already been allocated so I would just have to pick from what was left over. As a first time uni student who was moving 3 hours away from home to attend, this was not a good start and caused a lot of stress and anxiety which no staff or admin member did anything to ease.
On top of this, their timetable allocation system is an absolute joke. In my second semester I was able to ‘choose’ my own time table. You will pick a number of preferences for class times, and will NEVER get any of your top 3 picks. Not sure why they even bother with preferences. It is highly likely your class times will be scattered randomly, which 3-4 hour gaps in between classes.
The situation that was the final straw for me occurred in my 3rd semester. I was in the middle of a 24-hour take home assessment/exam and was cut off from access to the online library and all the student services halfway through my exam. I couldn’t complete any further research for my paper. I was calling staff members and admin frantically trying to regain access to the system so I could complete my exam. I was hand balled around to 10 different people, but no one had any idea how to help me. Two very stressful hours later they figured out that because I had decided to defer for a semester, they had ‘accidentally’ locked me out of all the student services early. I never once received an apology from anyone for the stress it caused me. I received an email 3 days later informing me that I could resit a deferred exam if I wanted – not much help considering I had already completed and handed in the first exam, why would I want to do a second? No thanks 🙂
Everyone ND student I have met has at least one horrible story from their time at the uni.
I have since changed to another uni and could not be happier about my decision. Now I am at a school where the staff actually care about the students and the services they provide, rather than being solely interested in making money.
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Grace
Wow, that sounds so stressful, sorry you to go through that, sounds horrible. May I ask where you are now? I’m looking for a uni.
Fif
Lack of empathy
horrid response times. Admin staff are so rude and unhelpful constantly, wait time for responses is DAYS more than absolutely necessary. The staff give little to no help. Expect “ASAP” to be minimum 3 days. No care for students, only money.
Lecturers are lovely but not worth the ridiculous responses from admin.
The lecturers care about students but nobody else does. It’s exhausting to even try to get a response.
If i’m paying $14,000 annually I expect a quick response and at the bare minimum, some help thanks.
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Why
Values Contradicting with their Teachings.
I had the worst experience in this facility. Did it affect my wellbeing? Definitely.
The staff lack compassion and sensitivity. Poor communication: I had issues with my timetable due to limited to no classes. On the day of the release of the timetable the website would crash due to traffic and would end up with no classes for 2 of my units. I emailed the coordinator to assist me with the issues, week 1,2,3 no response. Ended up not doing the units, wasted my money and time. Overwhelmingly stressful.
I had issues with sorting out my practical requirements due to extreme financial issues (unrelated), ended up not doing my prac. Emailed the pracs coordinator the following semester to enrol again before the census date, no reply (ironically a communications tutor). Emailed other coordinators to assist with enrolment but the person with the authority to enrol me hadn’t replied still. They replied a semester later, how would you respond to that? One year of no prac and limited units due to prerequisites.
My classes would be hours apart (4-6) and also days apart. One semester I attended 5 days a week due to my tutorials being everywhere. Hard to manage time especially if you’re independent and working. I will not comment on the response I got when I asked to at least change a few classes so I can be able to balance work and sort out my sleeping schedule (lucky if I get 4 hours). Otherwise this uni will suit if you’re not working and coming from a reasonably materialistic background so you will be able to meet all their requirements to complete your degree.
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Fed Up
Worst University in Australia
Just finished a three year honours degree at this terrible terrible institution. Behind the times in teaching, technology, communication, pretty much everything.
I taught myself more often than not and didn’t attend one class in my final honours year because I could simply regurgitate the slides for everything.
A lot of the staff don’t want to be there. One of my lecturers (also a lawyer) would complain that he hated marking but he was only there because he hated clients more. He would complain about his wife and make awful jokes.
Do not go here.
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Anonymous Parent
Enrolling Students Beware!
Parents of school leavers receiving offer letters from Notre Dame should check them carefully. Excellent students with good predicted ATARS, who are eligible for Commonwealth supported enrolment, may be offered full fee paying degrees. In my childs case, this occurred and at no point were the implications of this discussed with her and it never occurred to us that she wouldn’t be offered a commonwealth supported enrolment. The administration, whilst polite, have been unhelpful about changing her enrolment to commonwealth support and made it clear this won’t happen. Unethical and deceptive and wouldn’t recommend them to anyone!
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Upset
What a waste
This Uni is a joke.
They are very keen to sign up you up. Very active when it comes to collecting fees.
Nowhere to be found when you have questions. Admin is horrible, complete waste of time and money.
That being said, if you need to exchange dollars for a degree without much need for actual learning then you should definitely go here.
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Jaci
No Compassion
In 2015, I applied for withdrawal without academic or financial penalty from Notre Dame. Because I was 3 days late, they asked me to attach supporting documents. As requested, I provided a personal letter, a letter from my psychologist, a personal timeline. It was quite confronting to give all this information to someone I did not know. But I did it because I wanted to lift the $10,360.48 from my FEE Help debts. I did not attend any lectures or tutorials for the whole semester. After reluctantly providing all of my personal information, the assistant manger of the Fees Office denied my request. This was on the basis that I was enrolled into another university at the time which meant that my situation meant nothing. Due to personal reasons, I failed the units that I attempted at the other university. Even after telling Notre Dame this, they still denied my request. I now have to pay over $10, 000 which is accruing interest for a whole semester that I never attended.
Wanting to reach out and see if this has happened to anyone else?
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Larson
BA, Education, Psychology waste of money and teaching material rubbish (Garbage). Law expensive and over rated.
I did a BA (Applied Psychology) and it was a total waste of time and money. This is because the applied psychology or behavioral science will not give you an accreditation as a psychologist. For that, you will have to do another 2 to 3 years at another university on top of Notre dame Sydney. When I asked the coordinator why the change in degree and why is my degree worthless, he smirked and said “because you guys keep me working”. The counseling and education faculty are also a joke because anyone will pass the units without even trying while learning very little. Also, do not do Law in Notre Dame Sydney because the domestic fees are extremely high compared to CSP UNE unit fees. You are better off doing law from UNE and you will still get a good law degree. Do not believe those people who say that employers prefer graduates from Notre dame because this is not true. I did a degree at UTS for business which I found extremely useful and I would recommend UTS, but if you can’t get into UTS, start UNE online for the first year and then, transfer to a university near you.
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Anonymous
LPAB Units at Notre Dame is WORTHLESS
Did you know that if you have LPAB units your barely going to get 4 subjects exempted at Notre Dame? Guess everyone has read the poster. I also wouldnt recommend Notre Dame.
The Ugly truth about the LPAB Diploma in Law Course:
1. Accreditation units have been shunned by Law Schools
2. Examiners have photocopied past exam papers
3. Some lecturers finish classes 1 hour early
4. There exists no uniformity in the style of teaching
5. No mid-semester exams
6. No tutorials
7. No Student Representative Council
8. The same Members on the Examination Committee are also on the Curriculum Sub-Committee, Performance Review Sub-Committee and Quality Sub-Committee.
9. Fees are non-refundable.
10. Under Rule 67 of the LPAB Handbook a student could be made to ‘resit some or all of their previously passed subjects.
11. The Diploma in Law Course is not ideal for domestic undergrad students. The Academics have got it right in shunning LPAB units. It has become a 3rd rate education for a 3rd rate qualification.
It’s time to shut the course down for domestic students.
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Lee Graham
I finished my degree in Counselling a few years back, and it turned out to be a total waste of money. The agency they gave me for my practical made me do more roleplays, then gave me no real life clients. The university offered weekly supervision for our practicals with clients, and every week, I had nothing to say because I had been given no clients. So I left the degree with NO real world experience, and no confidence to find work in counselling.
The university needs to ensure that students are receiving a minimum amount of real life practical experience with clients, or the degree is a waste.
ed nyg
This Uni has treated me, a former student and alumni with absolute contempt. I got told “You probably don’t get a job because you look different then everyone else.”etc. This is just one example of many, others include getting hounded by them to rate them in official rankings well, getting told when I asked for help on subject enrolment “just go figure it out for yourself”, and there’s others too….
:)
Could not have made a better choice in choosing ND, amazing staff who are passionate about you and passionate about you succeeding as best you can. Although the religious requirements can be a bit strenuous on top of course work, I’ve learnt more than I’d like to admit in the liberal arts classes we’re required to take so I thank ND for opening my mind to that and giving me that opportunity. I’ve heard nothing but praise when I say I attend ND or speak of it and honestly the students and our successes speak for themselves – every student from every discipline is so determined and passionate about the paths they’ve chosen and instead of climbing on top of others to get ahead we truly all help each other develop as best we can into our careers whether they be a nurse, a teacher, a journalist, a lawyer, an accountant. I am seriously so proud to call ND home and I hope other people will get to experience this one day too 🙂