The Australian National University (ANU) is one of the top-ranked universities in world rankings. It adjoins the city centre of Canberra, Australia's capital. Any current or former ANU students reading this are welcome to post a rating and review to let us know what you think about the uni. This is a place for student reviews of ANU.
Dan
Avoid ANU and Canberra
ANU has dropped many spots in their rankings for good reason.
Please avoid this university at all costs.
Their politics and law degrees are extremely expensive and frankly the only thing they focus on.
They constantly cut funding and courses for nearly every degree, especially in fine arts and STEM. (fine arts course options have been cut in half).
The university ONLY cares about their ranking/reputation, not their students.
Lecturers and teachers are rude and will offer no support, they all have a superiority complex, just like the students.
UC has honestly been 10x better than ANU.
UC has better teaching quality than ANU (UC is #1 in Canberra for teaching quality) and the teachers at UC genuinely want to help you.
I advice that you DONT move to Canberra if you’re a domestic or international student. It’s a boring city with very few career opportunities (unless you’re a public servant)
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Simon
Was amazing, but now not great lost their touch
Loved studying at ANU before they turned it into a concrete jungle. It used to have an amazing feeling with the trees parks and old school charm and walking through it now days it’s sterile and too much cement not enough not green.
I’m a former Anu student and at the time I studied there the student admin services were basically non existent. I’m going through an issue now with the Dean of students and they are not returning my calls. Have left 10 messages and no call back. Disgustingly rude. Based off that I would never recommend anu to anyone.
My feedback to the uni is oimorove how you communicate to current and former students with basic respect would be a start.
Have since left Canberra. Canberra is an extremely isolating and expensive place to live. Rents there and food costs are higher than Sydney due to the high avaerge wages of all the government workers.
It’s A very cliquey town.
As an international student I’d strongly reccomend Melbourne,Auckland NZ or Griffith University in QLD. Murdoch uni in WA is also excellent and they really try help students with their learning experience
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Michael
Hit or Miss tbh
Ive had literal delinquents as lecturers , that being said I’ve had some really good lecturers who explained everything well and examined what was taught in class.
most Students are pretty top notch , but you get the occasional dropkick here and there
they’ve been spending tons on building modern buildings.
overall I can see why some people say its overrated, but if you treat the special cases as outliers, I don’t think ANU is overrated at all
just drop the courses with retarded lecturers, Stay away from delinquents and you’ll enjoy it
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Bill
Isolated and non-inclusive
Overrated, and non-inclusive. The university does not invest well in the undergraduate experience, the fees are atrocious for an international student. Housing and living costs are too high for a uni that is in a pretty much dead town. You will really feel isolated. Besides, there are way too many construction going on, so the overall scene is distasteful. A few competent tutors, and lecturers.
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T G
I found ANU completely isolating and alienating. Very smug and extremely non-inclusive. If you are not a high fee paying international, come from anywhere outside of the eastern states (especially if you’re not from NSW or ACT or VIC), or are someone returning to education, and particularly if you do not fit the domestic cultural homogeneic aesthetic (I’ll leave that up to your independent intellectual capacity to discern) then this is not the place to be. Lecturers are self-absorbed, tutors are well below par, and there is no collegiality. If this is the so-called flagship of Australia’s tertiary education offerings, then hang the head in shame.
Summer B Holiday
Good place to study
I found ANU to be an inspiring place to study. It’s a serious university academically (with plenty of gifted students), has good teachers in general, and has a natural, peaceful campus. Getting to classes is fairly easy because the campus is central, though you’re up for a bit of a walk after getting off the bus. The campus had all the usual things you’d expect (uni bar, gym, large library, etc). There’s plenty to do in Canberra but it’s a govt / family orientated place. So not really a buzzing vibe. But plenty of options and many of the touring music acts stop by Canberra.
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Deborah
My comment is regarding the Library resources of the ANU. Unfortunately compared to other Universities I have found the Library system to be extremely inadequate with a lack of focus on customer service, lack of flexibility, and outdated processes and resources. Very frustrating and, at times, gruelling!
Jlzh
I wasted my time here. Not very impressive experience.
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Michael
ANU has overall excellent teaching and great facilities and some of the best staff in the country. Do not be fooled by the big reputations of some of the universities in other cities in Australia, seriously consider the ANU for the areas I have studied. It is right up there. ANU is held in high esteem amongst a lot of employers and seems to have an excellent reputation overall for top quality graduates.
Canberra is a pleasant city to live in, easy to get round and has enough of a nightlife to keep most entertained. Lots of part time work available in Canberra, especially in retail in the city. If you like Canberra, there are lots of big Gov departments and bigger firms with offices/based here and lots of graduate positions.
On average I find its about 15 hours a week for lectures and tutorials plus a similar amount of work at home per week. It may seem a lot to start with, but you soon get used to it and generally the workload is fairly manageable, even with part time work. Lecturers generally are excellent, tutors not so good, though most are fine.
On campus, food and drink are a bit expensive, but if you shop around there is value to be had. Lots of other facilities – banks, travel agent, chemist, doctors, etc are available and overall most people you will encounter are very friendly and more than willing to help.
Pros: A great advantage is Canberra is very easy to get around – with lots of suburbs that are a decent distant away from ANU connected by excellent bike paths, or a pretty good bus service.
Cons: Accommodation is a touch expensive, but on campus halls are generally quite nice, and there is enough off campus accommodation.