University of Canberra

University of Canberra.

The University of Canberra is a relatively young university that aims to produce job-ready graduates.

  • UC offers study programs that are not available at the other university based in Canberra, ANU.
  • As well as academic study areas such as business and humanities, students can earn professional degrees in fields such as physiotherapy, pharmacy, occupational therapy and education.

If you've studied with UC at any time, you're invited to post a student review to let everyone know the good and bad points of your experience.

UC Rating

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User Rating 2.86 (57 votes)
Comments Rating 2.5 (18 reviews)

Student Reviews

22 Responses

  1. Disillusioned
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    Sad that the University of Canberra which I chose failed me as a student and as a human being

    It used to be a good university way in the 90s and early 2000s. The faculties have changed, they employed ‘teachers’ who can’t teach or have any idea about ethical behaviour. Like many other reviewers have already included, when there is an issue with academic teaching quality, they impose it back onto the student(s) as if we are naive. I have studied at Macquarie University and Griffith University and the teaching staff were genuine and open. I thought I ought to go face to face in my hometown so I enrolled at UC. Sadly they don’t care about students. We are just a number and fees, and we are faceless.

  2. Dan
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    UC Nursing is High Quality

    I am really enjoying my study at UC, I’m currently enrolled in nursing.
    I have attended multiple different universities across Australia (ANU, UQ, Monash) and the teachers/lectures here definitely care more than the other “top” universities.
    ANU was a complete scam and genuinely only cared for their reputation and ranking (Which has fallen quite a lot). Just don’t expect any help from anyone there.
    UC ranks higher in teaching education (#1 in Canberra) and it truly shows.
    Teachers are knowledgeable and have decades experience in nursing.
    I have done more placements/practical’s in my 1st year than an ANU student does in their entire 3-4yr degree.

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  3. Honor
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    Sad that it is no longer a real university

    It used to be a better University once upon a time but it has got worse; the standards of teaching, some teaching staff are not even qualified in tertiary education…where do they get them from? And when a student puts in a complaint about unfair and discriminatory tactics from teaching staff, nobody does anything for the student. They only want your fees; you are nothing but a statistic.

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  4. Vidya dharma
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    Unfriendly and poor course substance. Some staff seemed very dismissive and unreasonably critical of Asian students. Course substance was abysmal, poorly written and unclear which they attempt to justify by telling you that as uni students you should be able to self direct. It seemed very much like the course coordinators didn’t understand the subject either and was just trying to use unnecessarily unclear statements and language to confuse students and hide the fact.

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  5. Emily
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    Inclusive, friendly and helpful

    The people (staff and students) are very friendly and are not afraid to say they aren’t sure about something. I find it really important for people not to pretend they know stuff when they don’t, if the staff don’t know something they redirect you to someone who might which is amazing!

    the Campus is big and well equipt, dedicating particular buildings for different faculties to ensure they have what they need.

    UC is very inclusive, diverse and understanding. I personally enjoy spending time here.

    UC isn’t as strict with grading as ANU is and from my experience more practical-based (doing things than writing things) but still has both as assessments.

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  6. Anonymously written
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    Worst university ever

    The worst university someone can ever go to. No one would do anything, but they just want to admit students and than fail them so that they can make money. I m in my last year so i an unable to change my university too, every student that i know studying with me are facing the same issue. Deliberately failing the kids, and making them sit for 6months or more in the same course. This is what university of Canberra does. I would warn any student who is planning to take university of canberra to think or not think also please just take some other university your life would be saved from a very huge mess. If you come to this uni you should know that you will never get a degree in 3 years not possible!

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  7. David
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    Good for Health Degrees, Poor for IT degrees

    Course wise UC is mostly geared towards Sport and Exercise Science. In classes it clearly shows they spend most of their money in this course. I then switched to an IT course and the spending on the course shows. Never had a problem with teaching/units in the Sport and Exercise Science degree but as soon as I started the IT degree the quality clearly dropped. Teaching and Unit quality is a hit and miss and alot poorer quality overall than Sport and Exercise Science degree. Campus is nice and service is good, has a clinic on Campus which is free for students. Come here for Sport and Exercise science or a health related degree, go to a different uni for an IT related degree.

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  8. Bob
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    Poor teaching quality

    The university has cancelled almost all of the mathematics courses. For advanced courses such as artificial intelligence, the lecturer tries his best to skip the important concepts of mathematics, meaning that you know how to apply the R code is enough. I feel really disappointed about the uni’s teaching plan. Useless courses like AR VR(really unstructured one) should be replaced with mathematics courses. Will switch to ANU next semester.

  9. Aname
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    Meh.

    I haven’t been to any other universities, so I don’t have a good baseline, but it seems to be an ok university. The campus looks nice, the classes and teacher vary. Every teacher I’ve had so far is at least trying to be a good teacher, but some of them aren’t good at the job.

    The biggest issue I’ve had at this uni is that the assignment specifications are often portly written, and I was once given an assignment in first year which required innovation in a field I had less then a semesters knowledge in. They wanted you to come up with a novel, useful solution backed by testing. Which seems more like mastery or at the very least, final year level, not a first year requirement.

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  10. Jane
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    Nasty arrogant staff especially in student services

    I second all the negative reviews above, this is a horrible university with zero concern for students. The student services are nasty and arrogant. They want your money and nothing else. Do yourself a favour and go somewhere else. There are many, many universities in Australia that care for students and the delivery of courses.

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  11. Jade
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    You cannot choose your timetable

    I was at University of Canberra for 2 years and it was horrible. You cannot pick your own classes which it self was inconvient let alone nearly every final exam was a hurdle meaning even if you did well on your assignments it was pointless if you fail in memorsing diagrams in an exam, hence failed the entire unit. I’m glad I transferred to another university and most universities you can pick your preferred classes.

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  12. Phil
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    Woeful UC Courses

    UC is one of the worst universities I have encountered. My daughter is doing a Nursing degree and I have seen the total lack of professionalism and quality from this university. Assignments are ambiguous, full of grammatical errors and extremely poorly written. Marking is inconsistent at best, with poorly written responses achieving distinctions whilst well written submissions barely pass. Every assignment is subjectively marked and I have not seen a single objective performance assessment in the 30 months of my daughters course. Final assessments, worth over 50% of the overall grade, consist of 10 minute video reviews of patient case studies. Students must ensure that they have superb internet connectivity as there is no regard for system failures and there is inadequate time to resolve any IT issues. At one point, numerous students were in tears over their inability to upload videos in the extremely limited time-frame provided. Organisation by the UC staff is woeful in many regards, including the inability to effectively rotate students through placements and the staff’s own inability to effectively utilise IT resources. One video lecture observed was so poorly developed, with extremely low volume, that it was virtually useless. Overall, this university is well below standard and definitely not worth the fees charged, especially in regards to the Nursing degree. I feel sorry for the year 3 nurses who I observed in tears after recently undertaking their OSCA, with almost unachievable requirements, a totally subjective assessment, and 60% of the overall grade reliant on the stability of home internet and YouTube reliability. Steer clear of UC and try the ACU instead.

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  13. UC Stud
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    UC online was great during Covid

    I studied a Graduate Certificate in IT, it was extensive, but it all worked out during Covid, and also looking after my kids. Professors were there to assist, online classes and presentations were good. My student experience was great.

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  14. Michael
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    Not all it's cracked up to be.

    The majority of people that have been to UC agree that the education provided is subpar. Unfortunately, most won’t admit this as it discredits their degree.

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  15. Joe
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    Horrible chancellors and university

    I am particularly concerned about their privacy policy and the standard they keep in staff behaviour. I had an incident a while back where a lecturer (who is still working there by the way) was able to go through our discussions on email, get peeved off for whatever reason then proceed to check in and refer to any and exactly every score I ever obtained in my University records not related to that course and then bring it up and bully me through email around it, by saying how low the score was. All they seem to have done is do a quick login and check on some university database management system. Secondly the school publishes student numbers on any corresponded emails even if they are no longer valid and even if their policy states they should be careful with these numbers why? Thirdly they seem to get off on talking behind your back especially the various chancellor offices staff which should be the pinnacle of the University and have a bit more integrity on how they operate.

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  16. Phil Allen
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    Disgusted about the discrimination

    I am utterly disgusted at the way this university forces the views, rightly or wrongly, that Aboriginals are a better class of people who deserve far more than the other 97% of our society. Australia is multi-cultural. The Aboriginals comprise less than 3% of our population. And yet this university forces all students to adhere to Aboriginal culturally significant practices. For example, classes are conducted with a ‘talking stick’, because this is how Aboriginals conduct discussions. Students are forced to watch movies about Aboriginals, and reflect on these movies as to how they may influence the students learning and future career. Aboriginals conduct tutors, and shut down any discussions which relate to anything that may conflict with the Aboriginal point of view. Tutors continually raise issues of poor housing, ‘stolen’ children and poor services for Aboriginals, but they refuse to discuss the facts, such as the fact that Aboriginals have more access to free or subsidized housing than any other group in Australia. Housing is provided to Aboriginals at over 4 times the per-capita rate of other Australians. They refuse to discuss that children are taken from families due to family violence or drinking issues. They refuse to acknowledge that Aboriginals have 5 times the normal rate of alcohol related violence. And yet students are still forced to believe that Aboriginals are not responsible for their own predicaments, that society must continually give to the detriment of all others.

    No other culture is discussed in general courses. The needs of Muslims, Catholics, Seventh Day Adventists, Buddhists, or any other cultures are considered when discussing the needs of individuals. All of these groups are treated as inferior and excluded. As a result, students enter the world believing that only one group needs special consideration, and that all others should be treated as second class.

    I am not surprised by this attitude within UC, as it becoming the norm in mainstream Australia. Television advertisements attest to this, as we see numerous infomercials about Aboriginal services which exclude all others. I would however, expect that an educational institution such as UC would transcend the need for extreme political correctness and simply provide a balanced view. Alas, if you want this, do not attend UC.

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  17. Diana Ariza
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    UC is awesome!

    I have to say that UC is a high quality university, more than I expected. I hold a bachelor’s degree from one of the top business schools in the world and I am currently doing a master’s in IT and it is just as good as my business school. Very practical but without leaving the important theory aside, it is actually very well balanced. Each project and assignment represents an exciting challenge that keep students motivated.
    The teachers are fantastic!, the staff is always ready to support international students, there are plenty of classrooms with the technology and tools needed to do the assignments. If you are just aiming for a pass, probably you will get it without much effort but if you really want to learn and obtain good grades (from credit and above), be ready, you will have to work hard!

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  18. Ali
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    Your money looks good from here

    While UC only has a few downfalls. There are definitely no perks. I’ve wasted my time and my money… don’t do the same. They seem to have little regard for students, especially accommodation of special circumstances

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  19. Lauren
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    Excellent University

    I’m currently studying at UC, only in my second year but believe it’s providing me with the strong foundation of knowledge in my feild of study! For a new University it is continuously improving, the best part of UC besides from it’s quality academic resources (if you make the most of them) is it’s highly supportive environment of students psychical, mental and social wellbeing.

    It truly is emerging as a great University that will outgrow the quality of some existing universities. It has an excellent new hospital for health students and superb teaching for education, business and technology!

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  20. IHart
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    Highly recommend!

    I studied a Graduate Diploma of Nutritional Sciences at UC. The quality of teaching was first class. The lecturers were trained as Higher Education professionals, and it showed. Every lecture had practical and clear subject objectives that directly related to assessment items. Lecturers were always professional and academically nurturing. I would highly recommend UC.

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  21. Kate
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    I studied a Bachelor of Nursing and enjoyed all aspects of UC. Teachers are knowledgable and fair, services are easy to access, support is always available. Would recommend to anyone looking for a real world high quality university education.

  22. DeBron DeRulo (Alias)
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    The best quality of UC is the practical assessments that forces creativity and innovation out of the students. Some students might say that the courses and units are horrible and unorganised, but that is really down to the students themselves, you just have to be enthusiastic about the assessments you receive because you chose the course yourself. real life is just going to be the same, if not, even harder. Most tutors are incredibly engaging and passionate about the units that they teach in, and they really take their time to tend to each student, who require assistance in achieving a high grade. As I mentioned earlier, UC presents viable practical teachings. Keyword: practical. If you’re planning to study law, or striving a doctorate degree, or anything of the similar sort, you’d best be off to another university. That’s not to say the theory work at UC is inadequate, but it can be better.

    Alongside these cons about UC, it also possess a friendly campus environment. I can guarantee that you’ll make a few friends in the course that you will do. One small warning though is the fact that some students can drop out in the middle of the semester, and if that student is part of your group assessment, then it can cause some stress, BUT as I mentioned, the tutors are great. They are well balanced in a sense that they’re strict enough to not give everyone the same scores and gives marks deservingly, but they are also understanding and forgiving, so if there are any issues regarding any of your assessments, then you shouldn’t fear much at all.

    I don’t live on campus, so I can’t exactly judge the quality of accommodation here at the university, although I have been in several places of fellow peers who live on campus, and I must say that the dwellings are habitable at least. I do live far from UC (from the other side of Canberra), which really drains the amount of petrol I spend to drive there, but that is not anyone’s fault, especially not the university’s.

    And lastly the “city life” here is pretty much nonexistent, I mean, it is Canberra after all. Although, the Belconnen Shopping Centre is close to the university, so there’s always a place one can travel during lunch breaks or if they need to buy materials and equipment for their studies.

    Overall, UC is surprisingly not as bad as people say.

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