University of Sydney

University of Sydney.

The University of Sydney is Australia's oldest university and remains one of its most prestigious. The main campus spreads across two inner-city suburbs and is attended by most of the university's students, many of whom are doing postgraduate courses.

If you've studied at Sydney Uni, post a review and share your experiences. Be sure to mention the course. For a detailed statistical snapshot from Lerna Courses, search "lerna usyd" in Google.

Sydney Uni Rating

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User Rating 2.66 (256 votes)
Comments Rating 1.55 (40 reviews)

Student Reviews

64 Responses

  1. Dave
    | Reply

    Worst University I have studied at; Out of five...

    I have now studied at FIVE universities in Australia. This has been my worst experience by an order of magnitude. My experience overall doing the USYD medical postgraduate coursework has been very poor. From enrolment, to support, and unfortunately sometimes to teaching quality. Some units had material obviously copied directly from undergraduate medical studies – What a waste of money. A recent experience has solidified my feelings and in turn I will not recommend anyone study here:
    1) Submitted online request to upgrade from diploma to masters -> Est completion time 4 weeks
    2) 3 months later the request was lost -> Contact faculty who encourage me to resubmit it -> Est complete time 4 weeks
    3) 4 weeks come around and the process has not been started
    4) Submit online enquiry -> Unanswered and unresolved 2 weeks later
    5) Ring support -> On hold for 1.5 hours to reach someone who couldn’t help or even forward me to someone who could
    6) I go around student services and contact faculty direct to try and resolve -> Finally make some progress
    7) Final day of enrolment today as semester starts tomorrow and I have discovered administration have not completed their end and I am still unable to enroll – I am now 1 hour into waiting on hold probably to only find out they wont be able to help me again and I will probably not be able to complete this degree until next year…

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  2. Darren
    | Reply

    This is a pretty good university to study in with an amazing campus.

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  3. Lili
    | Reply

    Over the course of my adult life, I have attended four Australian universities. The first three were great overall. I really enjoyed my time there. For my postgraduate degree, I chose Sydney University because of its reputation as one of the leading universities in Australia. At least that is the hype whispered in the corridors of other institutions, and in conversations about tertiary education generally. Now, I think it’s the remnants of an urban mythology that has gone on for some time. Perhaps it was true once upon a time, but it isn’t any longer. The lecturers were condescending which I found surprising, especially in a postgraduate course. Some of them may have been intelligent and accomplished in the world of academia, but their teaching style was haphazard and lacking. The biggest disappointment for me was the discouragement of independent thinking. Student hypotheses were only permitted to extend to the parameters of the worldview of that particular teacher and by extension, their professional clique and political affiliations. In no other institution has the delicate, ass-kissing dance between lecturers, guest speakers, academic colleagues, and the institution that has the power to either support or reject their work, been so overt. They were far more concerned with not stepping on each other’s toes, or playing the game to enhance their own chances at success, that the robust debate and analysis that hopefully propels us all forward, was thwarted. I did not experience that at any other university that I have attended. I completed my degree and did well, and for that I am grateful. However, on a personal level, I did not enjoy the experience at all. I did not feel welcome, respected, or have a sense of camaraderie. My advice would be to seriously weigh up your options before attending.

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  4. Johnny Depp
    | Reply

    First of all, don't judge by my name

    Countless people had made fun of my name. Let’s get that through, shall we?
    Usyd is actually very good if you like a good environment, in terms of your dorm and the campus. The education however… DON’T DO IT. JUST DON’T GO THERE. YOU WILL REGRET. I am a person who quitted the university because of its poor quality. THIS IS A WARNING.

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    • John
      | Reply

      Too much rum?

      Ahoy Johnny,

      When making an argument it helps to provide evidence for your claim.

      Just curious how you define poor quality education, and why you deem USYD has so much of it?

      By including more detail, your review will provide more benefit to those who read it.

      FYI for context I’m 3rd year engo Usyd engo student.

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    • Sophia
      | Reply

      Cannot be considered a high quality education

      Agreed, in 2022 not a single in person lecture. The uni announced back to face to face for 2023 and nope not a single lecture again this year in person for me (Economics). So if I stay it’s an online degree. How is this a world class academically rigorous degree?

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  5. T
    | Reply

    I don't think you belong in uni, fullstop.

    Not like there was/is a pandemic happening, or anything.
    Not like every other uni around the world was/is doing exactly the same thing due to said pandemic, or anything.
    All it comes down to is unfortunate timing, but you were a physics student, not a psychics student, so how could you have known?

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  6. Alan
    | Reply

    health sciences major

    I recently studied the health sciences major. the lecturers are really bad and course content was largely useless. do not study this course.

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    • ValardaVasquez
      | Reply

      At USyd a student is a $unit not a learner

      The reviews of Sydney University are spot on. It is a barbaric s#ithole. Management-led VC Mark Scott prioritises greed and dead prestige, which turns students and academics into business units. He is a career bureaucrat and does not have a PhD yet he was made a Professor! Hence, ethics and accountability at this University are non-existent. USyd is not short of money: see all the new expensive buildings with plenty of round-the-clock door gorillas. Vacuous ideology rules and academic promotions are based on gladiatorial woke Olympics. USyd makes a big deal about ‘diversity’ and ‘equity’ but it’s empty PR, and bullying is rife. Complaints about abuse are shut down. No, I would never recommend Sydney University.

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  7. J
    | Reply

    World class copy-paste research university

    Unfortunately, the University of Sydney offers very little value in develop a research/study post degree. Cancelled lectures, unskilled professors without a knowledge, missing supervisors, none existent projects, ignored emails and poor communication, the list goes on. Once they have your cash don’t expect much help, the laboratories are not the best (in my case never clean it up, dirty bench, no money to spend in your research or study, no rooms for post degree students). The graduates will be OK but in no way, are you ready for the working world with the ‘training’ provided which one is basically ” copy paste” technology and a massive lack of experience of supervisors in the field (do not ask for their help, they will provide a mountain of excuses as ” i do not have time”, “I do not remember now how it works” or “I am super busy” and you will have to perform your research/study alone.
    Simply a waste of money and time. No recommendable at all

  8. Ann
    | Reply

    Avoid

    Don’t come here for law.some lecturers won’t release recordings and if you don’t have a great internet connection you will miss the bulk of what is taught as well as instructions on assignments which they may not post on canvas. Slides are also often uncomprehensive though they will tell you that they will provide these instead. Avoid if you value your education

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    • A
      | Reply

      Definitely true with the canceled lectures – especially annoying when it’s for a strike. Since when where students expected to just follow along with the lecturers ideology? Oh wait, it’s Sydney. That’s what you come here for (at least in Arts).m

  9. Gigavaxxed
    | Reply

    The definition of entitlement: See the below reviews

    Imagine doing poorly and then writing a negative review here. Get good
    Annoyed that fees are increasing? Blame the government for continually gutting university funding.
    Annoyed that everything is online this semester? Well, it was planned to be all physical, but a certain state government decided that wasn’t going to happen.
    Annoyed that teachers might not have infinite time for you? Maybe think about all the other things they have to contend with, such as research, admin, hiring, keeping their job, etc.
    Seems that most people who have left reviews here either were disappointed they had to WORK at university, or took subjects which are not the focus of USYD.
    Look at which uni’s do which subjects better. I would probably do Psychology at Macquarie, or computer science at UNSW.
    -A guy who is currently doing his PhD here

  10. JT
    | Reply

    Worst experience ever

    I spent one year doing CS at USYD in 2020 and it is literally the worst experience in my life. Everything is a waste of time; classes are at the very best confusing and useless, if not misleading, and the assignments and exams are just fking brutal cramming + slave labour (though I got overall HD), that you just won’t learn anything from it.

    This page is very true. RUN AWAY FROM THIS MONEY MAKING MACHINE

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  11. Ethan
    | Reply

    As many others have commented, the University of Sydney has lost most of its credibility as a leading institution. As a new student, or even current student, the University offers very little in the way of student and customer support. From enrolment, to subject selection, to classes, this University fails to provide any processes of support. The systems which underpin the student experience, are built with a complete disregard for user experience. As someone who has also attended the University of Adelaide, the experiences are night and day. USyd educational system is subpar, their facilities are outdated and their professors are below the global standard for education. Many great universities in Australia, just don’t go here.

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  12. T
    | Reply

    Go elsewhere

    Sydney University used to be the premier university in Australia but that was a while ago. Now its just a money making machine. Go elsewhere.

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  13. psyd
    | Reply

    >>Read this before you decide to take a Physics Degree at Sydney Uni<<

    2nd year Physics Semester 1 2021

    * All Lectures are online.
    * All Tutorials are online.
    * IT Labs (non experimental labs) are online.

    If you value an in person teaching experience, look elsewhere.

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  14. Anne Balwitz
    | Reply

    Money making machine

    And just to add to the poor reviews about value for money, probably worth sharing that USyd is not paying their contractors either. I ended up banning them from my list of clients after chasing without success outstanding debts. Covid can’t be an excuse for bad ethical business conduct

  15. D
    | Reply

    I studied here as an undergraduate and have 3 degrees prior. The standard of education is of a higher level than anywhere else I studied before. In my previous education before coming to USyd (which was done interstate) the lecturer specifically mentioned that ‘English was to be spoken in class at all times’. At Usyd, I feel that the Chinese students are nice and hard working but I guess where is the line drawn between speaking Chinese and English in class?

    I was in a statistics class this year and I read a post a bit earlier from a poster who mentioned that in the tutorials all of the students that could speak Chinese – did just that, and with the tutor being from China, it left the non-speaking Chinese students out and being at an English speaking country, I felt a bit left out.

    Yes the students work hard, but it seems like there is not so much connection aside from the group tasks.

    I happen to have studied post covid 19, where alot of classes were conducted through Zoom , and I think the lecturers did the best they could. In one of the classes this year where I did attend, I hope the university can fix up this slight problem.

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  16. Darvin Patel
    | Reply

    Usyd Waste of Money

    The University of Sydney wasted my entire life. Being an international student, I wasted so much money and in return got online based learning. The professors do not know how to teach. No jobs after graduating. Biggest mistake.of my entire life studying at this Uni and wasting my parents money

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  17. Jonathan
    | Reply

    I hesitated for a long time to write a review, but, overall, think it’s finally time – enough is enough. While I have tried to give the Law School a chance, I would not recommend studying here. The Law School or University moved the start of this semester a whole month later allegedly due to COVID-19 and to improve classes for this semester – still, we are given old material, online enrolment is complicated, professors do not know how to upload materials so you won’t have materials before seminars sometimes, and you can’t enrol in online seminars for some classes. I do not know students abroad are dealing with this issue. While I have tried to connect with teachers during this time, teachers usually do not write back, which is annoying for law students who might need recommendations from law professors later. Maybe this sounds like a cliché, but professors seem snobbish and some mean and puerile. Professors do not listen well when you speak in seminars, and will say you said one thing when you said another. This might impact your oral grade. Administration holds you back and prevents you from taking courses for fairly mundane reasons – barely failing one unit (when you’ve taken more than half of the classes to complete your degree). When requesting special permission to take a class, the relevant faculty member who grants permission might not consider all the factors/seems to have an illusion of your story, and will prevent you from taking one class over the semester limit, even though this will disadvantage you/make if hard for you to take other classes later. Grading is harsh – I’ve pursued more than one degree before and other classes at some higher ranked universities and achieved higher grades. All grades at these schools were mostly As and Bs. I am inclined to believe that these grades are more accurate of my performance in academia. I am not sure why the Law School grades so harshly. Security personnel will scream at and berate you in ABS if you stay there five minutes past 21:00 (at least before semester 2 – too scared to be harassed again). Classes can stink – some are 80-100% exam-based, so you better hope you are feeling good that day or you’ll have to go through a tedious application for re-marking (which I’ve heard doesn’t really change your mark) and more likely pay the University more money. Residential colleges can be pretty dangerous – hazing, etc., and, of course, bad PR for the University so conveniently covered up. When I complained to the relevant body about being harassed, they said it was a grey line and can’t really do anything; the harassment continued for several more weeks. The University is said to be pretty – I think the library and science buildings look a little run down, though, and think you can find prettier universities in Australia, Canada, the US, and the UK. There is not much diversity – I have only met one African student while studying here, several years ago, and no African professors so far at the Law School. When I think about it, virtually all of my professors and tutors in the Law School are white, and I am getting close to the end of my degree. The Dean recently decided to not hold the law summer school, again, negatively impacting study plans. I don’t know what the study government has done, or can do, about this. Prices have gone up this semester, although we’re doing online. Tuition can be very expensive. You also have to pay the University two payments per year (I think, or semester?) of something like $150 – maintenance fees or something. People who can’t come back to Australia due to the pandemic travel restrictions still have to pay this fee, though they do not get to enjoy the maintenance of the University.

    The only positive things I can think of are the SULS committees students can participate in, the extracurricular events and talks, some students who are nice, and the offshore law units students can take – a class in Nepal, classes in the UK, etc. I thought these classes were organised really well, and appreciated seeing different institutions like a court as part of the programme. You can probably take these classes, though, while not a Sydney Law School student – think applications might be open to students from other universities, would check though.

    Overall, I would not recommend studying here. If you want to go to law school, probably look elsewhere.

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  18. Michael
    | Reply

    Poor experience - Avoid like COVID

    I am (soon to be was) studying a Masters in Data Science. USyd has no idea has to run courses online, one of my classes has 570 students enrolled and since we’re completely online its all done through zoom.

    Zoom only allows 300 participants so the other 270+ (TA’s and lecturers also count towards this cap) miss out each lecture. Assignments are all group work 6 – 7 students and exams make up at least 50% of the total mark (other subjects higher – up to 70%).

    High tuition, low quality of online delivery, disorganised and under staffed.

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  19. ANTHONY
    | Reply

    Sad Story

    Hey Guys, I am 51yrs of age…Hey, I was at Sydney University when everyone supported each other(70’s and 80’s) I wish you could have seen USYD when it was a real place of inspiration and an absolute pleasure to study and make friends. I will never forget those days.
    Guys, I feel for every one of your entries and what you wrote resonates so much after I sadly completed my first semester for all your reasons mentioned, and enrolled in another welcoming University two years ago.
    Very sad for Sydney U.

    • Asu
      | Reply

      Grateful

      I think you must also remember how people take their time to write bad reviews rather than the good things, so these 49 comments are just some of the experiences in USYD, but the good reviews are left behind, or at least in “university reviews”, because I have looked up at least 20 unis in AUS and all the reviews of any university are negative. There are approx 50 reviews or less in each uni, so it’s also very specific cases where bad things happen. I think that with time we as a society have lost the ability to be grateful for things like an education, or anything really, since it has become so common to have access to these things, that we forget that overall the experience is probably good.

  20. Rebecca C
    | Reply

    Like most other students on here, I did expect better from USyd but was disappointed.

    Staff have a tremendously high and mighty approach here and USyd’s systems and processes – from admission right through into curriculum delivery – are built without any customer or user journey/experience in mind. There seems to be an impression here that the university and its standing must be enough to override any deficiency in these areas – but both student expectations and the workforce receiving graduates are changing. USyd simply isn’t adapting.

    The university has had a good reputation and ranking, of course, but for those who care about being treated as more than a number, and having access to robust online learning capabilities – this simply isn’t the place to apply to. There are far better unis in Australia and globally to do your studies with, both among the GO8 and outside of them; good luck! 🙂

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  21. Starr
    | Reply

    Bad learning experience

    Actually I’m still in the first semester of the my first year of undergraduate economics and law at usyd. Even it’s a short period of time to judge the school, but I do feel something wrong with the school. I found the amount of study I have to complete at home a lot overwhelming. I feel like if I want to understand that lesson, I have to fully do more research at home by myself. The lectures’ slides and tutorial classes all seems not useful at all. I first think maybe it’s how university teach students. But after I did some research, I saw many students got ways better learning experience than here. I feel like the uni only teaches the way it wants not how it supposed to provide the learning that prepare students for their careers. Not to mention the very expensive fees. As an international student, I value every cents and dollars enrolled to the school in hope that my learning experience will be correlate to the fee. But it’s not. I didn’t want to waste my parents hardworking to pay my school fee to only learn to do the calculation and draw graph in microeconomics class. It’s supposed to be more about critical thinking and analysis skill of a much realistic economics concepts and contents. As this is just first introduction class to economics, it shouldn’t be so advanced and perfect, but at least I’ll be a lot happier if the school provide the teaching that is consistent with university’s standards. Also in law tutorial class, I found the class unhelpful and boring. I’m usually confused of what is the content of today’s class. It seems like tutor just randomly discuss and explain without any basic content. Even for mid-semester assignment, I didn’t get any clear explanation of the instructions from anyone. I’m still in the foundation of law class, how can I complete the word of case analysis and some kind of statute interpretation without assistance and guidelines. I know that if we’re in university, we should learn independently, but I feel like it’s more than independent learning. It’s like getting the attendance done in class, and study by yourself at home. The school really dissatisfy my expectations.

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    • Robert
      | Reply

      Even University of Sydney

      I searched for reviews on University of Queensland first. Then Monash. Then ANU. Then USyd. It’s amazing how for each and everyone of them reviews mostly returned one star. When even the very top unis ANU and USyd get one star, you know that the real problem of Australian universities might be that they are kind enough to accept baffoons with the lowest grades and absolutely no academic ability. This kind of students will only give 5 stars when the university hands them the degree, with no assignments and no exams!!

      • Mary
        | Reply

        Rude and unnecessary

        wow what a horrible thing to say to people, I really hope you are a genius because if you’re not you could just be an arsehole. Did you personally go to any of these universities ? If you did you probably studied arts. Some of the courses these students are talking about are incredibly hard and do you have any idea what they have going on in their lives apart from university. Learning is supposed to be enjoyable and we should support everyone who is trying to do just that.

    • Howard
      | Reply

      If you were struggling with “foundation of law” you should really quit law while you’re ahead.
      Cause that is defintily the easiest subject that you’ll ever face in your law curriculum!

      You’ll fail miserably in Private international law A, Real property. Equity, Corporation law and Equity with no chance of success whatsoever as those subjects are infinitely harder topics in law with many times more readings required than “FOL”, PILA and Equity are 100% 2 hour close book exam too (Before covid)

      FOL consists of “Class participation”, a mid sem short essay and a take home essay.
      You’ll never see any other unit of study gives “Class participation marks” again with the exception of Criminal law.

      You’ll not ever find a subject as easy as FOL, the markings are sooooo easy and the content is just slightly harder than your average year 12 legal studies. If you’re not happy about the relevance of FOL in the real world, then i got more bad news for you, because at some point do a jurisproduence subject. Which is not realated to any law whatsoever..

      You’ll explore “why do people need to be ruled by law and what types of laws are there”, basically “philoshophy in law”.

      In fact, your law degree in usyd does not prepare you for the real world law at all, Usyd will never teach you how to draft a contact, draft a correspondence, use PEXA or park billable hours. It’s suppose that after your pick up those skills up at GDLP and PLT.

      You should be glad that Covid changed the system so that there is practically no close book exams anymore, cause i had a semester with 2 closed book exams worth 100% just 2 days apart and it was hellish, i had to remember over 100 cases in my head just to pass it.

  22. Chantal
    | Reply

    worst nursing school studying experience ever

    In summary, the Usyd nursing school lacks proper educators. As a result of the unfortunate events of Covid-19 all teaching shifted to online and the educators are not equipped for that change and need to know how to be better at teaching in a multimedia context. A couple of lecturers just post old lecture slides and audios (some not clear as sometimes lecturer sick and kept complaining about it and the audio was just fuzzy) and bombard with many reviews. It is more like you have to self teach yourself and not having any assistance. I have studied another degree before at Usyd within the arts faculty and some units have online classes and the way they outline and run it is far more efficient, engaging and desirable, opposed to the mess and poorly organised units a the nursing school by uninterested educators who don’t seem like want to do more than what is required.
    In summation, I am leaving this course due to bad and appalling teaching by nursing school academics who just simply want to read work for work of slides that are old and not current to a university where they would actually make an effort to teach and not bombard with irrelevant information.

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  23. G
    | Reply

    Regret for not choosing elsewhere

    Just finished a 2nd degree at this university and, like many reviewers on here, I don’t know what has happened to reduce its overall quality this much. I have never been so disappointed in an organisation. While it is important that students take responsibility over their own study, and all associated admin, USYD seems to have put all onus on the student in order to wave its own accountability.

    It doesn’t even seem to be able to get the important testamur right, as my major has been stated incorrectly on that official document with its fancy sticker. This is despite immediately contacting admin to correct it as soon as I received an email to check the details for graduation. After a 40 minute wait to speak to admin, 2-3 subsequent calls and 2 follow-up emails where I was assured my major had been updated, my official degree details are still incorrect. I now, again, await reply in order to correct this. More shocking, is that another friend’s testamur, from the previous year, also had an error on it suggesting this occurs more frequently than previously thought, and we are expected to present incorrect degree details to future employers?

    The classroom was, overall, also disappointing. On one occasion a classmate was called stupid by staff in front of everyone. There have been other moments where assisting teaching staff, and even the faculty coordinator, have been rude or condescending. There felt like there was also an expectation to already know the content, despite the point of going to class was to learn it there. With staff attitudes like these, it is of no surprise that the learning environment with other students was uncomfortable. Cliques were formed and some bullying occurred. It felt like being back at high school, but even the staff were unprofessional.

    Not all teaching staff were horrible. Some lecturers were fantastic but sadly in the minority. My experience with most researchers, who did not teach, were also positive as many of them were inclusive and friendly, unlike their dual teaching counterparts. Unfortunately, this is not enough, nor is the pretty sandstone, to change my now extremely poor opinion of USYD. I think admin has been attempting to improve and become more efficient, as student offices have generally moved online and you now cannot find a physical faculty office to help you on campus. Its endeavour to become more efficient has seemingly yet to succeed. The only quick replies I received was when it related to payments.

    USYD, if you expect students to ‘act as grown ups’ then you need to hold up your part of the bargain and deliver too.

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  24. elv
    | Reply

    A recent graduate with Chinese background and 2 other degrees

    Just finished my M.Arch at USYD. I have 3 other degrees including my B.Arch from UNSW. Also I am a domestic student with Chinese background so hear me out.

    In terms of the amount of Chinese International Students (hot topic in this thread), I was actually happy to see only half of the class are Chinese, compared to like 80% in UNSW). As a Chinese myself I have to admit some of the fellow students are just here to get a degree without much of passion in the profession. Many of them do excel thou. I found the best performing students are often the Australian born Asian. They don’t have the language barrier but do possess the “hard working” attitude inherit from their parents. Also perhaps because their parent gives them full support so they can focus on study. I did part-time work and study full-time it had taken a toll on my life. You simply just never had enough time to perfect your design.

    I also urge the universities to crack down the “assignment writing services” targeting at the Chinese students. you can find the Ads online, flyers on campus walls, circulating in university emails and Chinese social media platforms. there must be a huge demand.

    The faculty has the “Australia #1 in Architecture” on screen at the entrance. But my experience proved otherwise. The uni paid good money to hire teaching staff from other countries. you very likely to get someone with an accent. In my two years I had Spanish, Italian, American Chinese, Sri Lankan and Chinese. imagine when most of the class are Chinese and you get a tutor from China. True story.

    The studio programs are not well designed and often a waste of time. I had similar experience in UNSW. They give you a brief and you design a project without really “being taught” much. in my other degrees I always learn some real knowledge or skills every week. But in Architecture most of the time we are just design-exercising. you might find your best project is the one from your 3rd year not the 5th year. The tutor gives their feedback but it’s often just an opinion that varies between each tutor. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy design but I learn most of the craft from the internet not from the school.

    The grad studio is supposed to be our show piece to wrap the whole 5 years up. but they give us a “modification” project that you can only demolish part of the existing building. that significantly limits the build form and creativity. My biggest complaint is there is a huge discrepancy on the brief between the tutors and the lecturer who design the brief. my tutor interpreted the brief differently and sequentially led us to the “wrong” direction. and guess what, at the end they come up with the idea to mark other group’s work. in other words, you get marked by other tutors who had never seen your work and make judgement solely based on your final portfolio. They must enjoy the fight in their staff meeting.

    Other than the studios I found most of the other subjects satisfying. maybe less theory more technology would be better.

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  25. Jimmy
    | Reply

    What happened?

    USYD is a pillar in Australian International education, so what has happened to it?

    Previously I’ve had wonderful experiences on the main campus as an undergraduate. There are no rose coloured glasses or features of nostalgia when remembering my undergraduate years, it was hard work and I earned my degree.

    However as a postgraduate student the circumstances is radically different and I am more than disappointed with the transparent selling of degrees. Academic standards have plunged with an emphasis towards group work tasks.

    Alumnus should be gravely disappointed by this. The senate needs to change the leadership and governance because this university has lost its core valule, standards and more significantly it’s ethics under the current reign.

    The wondeful learning experences USYD featured is a characteristic of yesteryear. The quality of lecturing is dismal.

    Consultant style academics create an environment that feels more like a blind social experiment than an elite learning experience.

    The university does not place emphasis on the fundamental basics of teaching and learning which quality education is supposed to provide. The institution is burning up the quality academics that it does employ by expecting these individuals to pick up the academic slack for other schools and departments that are raking in the cash selling garbage degrees.

    Real academics are under-supported and overworked, these expectations are unrealistic and unsustainable. Decent students are equally overloaded, everything is concerned with teaching yourself and learning on your own time. Postgraduate class time has become an utter waste of time, purely to mark rolls so that international students can adhere to the legalities of student visa requirements.

    The institution prides itself on diversity and inclusion, yet that has become a total joke! Apparently the university no longer grasps that ideological concepts of both ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’ extend beyond queer theory and multiculturalism.

    Essentially the university has no follow through. It does not practice what the marketing slogans preach with any depth of tangible authenticity. As a space the university has become a “do as I say and not as I do” elitist administrative forum in which a student and academic’s input retain exceedingly little value.

    Students do not feel comfortable providing feedback via Quality and Analytics Surveys regarding their student experiences. Enrolled students do not believe these to be anonymous feedback channels when they are required to use their student login to conduct the survey itself. Fundamentally, current students fear being reprimanded and receiving possible backlash. Therefore they would prefer to come to external independent websites such as this to document their genuine accounts.

    The postgraduate experience is pathetically substandard. It is not worth it and a shame when millennials are constantly being informed about the need to up-skill.

    Outside the university, obtaining a postgraduate degree is a helpful step many mature students take for career changes and yet the university career hub only caters for the undergraduate university leaver.

    Overall there is a major disconnect between the information the university projects and the tangible experiences a student actually receives. This is beyond failing to live up to the marketing hype, there are core tertiary educational components currently neglected throughout.

    Yes, this review is scathing. As i asked at the beginning;

    What has happened to the University of Sydney?

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  26. JD
    | Reply

    Not worth the mental health impact

    Warning: Do not study here!
    This so-called “university” has officially gone to the dogs. I’m was a domestic student doing a postgraduate coursework degree, but unfortunately I must refrain from revealing which faculty, as it’d be too easy to figure out who am on account of being one of only three domestic students in my class. I’m not joking.
    Now, I have absolutely nothing against international students, however I find it very concerning when 95% of the student body represent the same country. It is not diversity when there is a Chinese majority within the student body, and unfortunately the majority of these Chinese students do not speak, read or write English. I simply do not understand how it could be acceptable for a university to be setting up these international students up for failure, and very expensive failure at that!
    Classes were an absolute s***show, and honestly reminded me of the Tower of Babel, with students wandering around not understanding the teacher or what they’re supposed to be doing. And this is supposed to be a postgraduate course? It was less organised than preschool!
    On the rare occasion that the students were able to be settled down into chairs (note that the classrooms were incredibly overcrowded and quite possibly in breach of fire safety code), the “teachers” usually taught from YouTube videos or read word for word from slideshows. I know other reviews on here have mentioned the same thing, and it’s the truth. You could get the exact same “education” or better for free from the internet.
    Now, the staff were really something else. I would 100% bet everything I’m worth that the teaching staff are simply resting on the laurels of the university’s heritage and couldn’t be bothered to lift a finger to provide any form of quality education. I have never met a more snobby, elitist, superficial, sarcastic or downright rude group of people in any organisation. It’s really quite remarkable, to tell the truth.
    I remember one occasion where I could see that my teacher was struggling to move a piece of equipment, so I stepped in to lend a hand and she snapped at me with a nasty retort. Another time, after having been offered a job in my field and prompting my early exit from the course (thank god!), a different teacher asked me what the job was. When I told him my position title he mimicked my response sarcastically and laughed. So incredibly insulting and condescending.
    And on that note, do not expect to be treated like an adult. It doesn’t matter how old you are, the university are incapable of viewing you as an equal human being. It really goes to show a deep-seated culture of elitism which surely stems back to Sydney’s shameful colonial past, being that USYD is, I believe, the oldest university in the country. It certainly has a very shady and questionable history (see The Red Zone Report).
    If you were thinking about studying here, please, I beg you, think again! It simply isn’t worth the heartache, the alienation, the insults, the depression, anxiety or sense of hopelessness you will feel every moment you’re there.

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    • Jono
      | Reply

      All True from everyone on this page

      Sadly, the comments on this page are very accurate – In fact I would say these are the more intelligent students because most left their courses at the clearly overrated U of Sydney. It is enough for me that Tony Abbott graduated from U Syd (and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship)..Barely believable, though psychologically predictable, that he would have started his political career by bullying a female opponent out of a race in a student electoral process at USyd. Well that chicken came home to roost on his head this year, as I predicted would happen below. Political karma has its say, finally (it took far too long). U Syd clearly has an early role in this, promoting an unsuited human being to any prominence anywhere in the first place, says a great deal about Australia in general.

      Coming this year to U of Sydney, I was stunned how little care or thought was given to the student experience and particularly the way the JD course was set up – the law library was ‘seatless. there were so many students. The intransigence on simple matters like changing tutorial times shown by most of the lecturing staff was sad and pathetic – absurd. And to downplay ‘rights’ in law in an opening address to new students should be grounds at least for a severe reprimand by someone higher. Generally on foreign students I am very happy to welcome them and like very much studying with them, but if courses are designed to help them manage their lack of language skills, instead of creating a level they must already have, then it is unacceptable – proficiency in English should be a ‘given’. There can’t be any argument with that.
      V-C, you need to address all this, and fast. Or pay the consequences.

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  27. Jenny
    | Reply

    Avoid at All Cost

    WOW. The worst education I have received in my whole life. I just finished my Semester 1, and I am discontinuing my education at the University of Sydney and Australia. International students, unless you have really bad grades, or family business to take control after graduation (since this university is known for taking anyone and everyone), do not come to University of Sydney for education. Let me analyze the school one by one
    Social scene:
    I am currently doing a postgraduate degree, let me tell you, the program is 99% Chinese and 1% Asian from some other Asian countries. Nothing against Chinese students, but there is absolutely no diversity in postgraduate programs. It is also extremely hard to meet new people and make friends at Usyd. Have to pay a fee to join the clubs, and the clubs ain’t even worth it.
    Academic:
    1) as you guys can read from the previous ratings, everyone has a lot to say about the education here. And let me tell you every single one of the statements is true. I was so shocked after my first class at Usyd. Actually all four classes I was taking this semester, all professors read off PPT word for word. Like, literally, word for word, even for finance and math classes. Plus, my friends told me the PPT here has not updated for 5 years, and all bought by publishers. You get so much money from international students, yet cannot buy the most updated version of PPT. AND, as university professors, you cannot even make your own slides and explain the concept but reading like a recording machine? I did not pay to have someone read some outdated PPT to me. If it is all about PPT reading, I would rather sit at home and read it on my own.
    2) extremely inadequate teaching, yet exam problems you have never seen in your whole life. The professors do not teach anything or everything, and the tutorials and tutors are absolutely useless. My friend even told me once she went to the tutor for problems with marking, the tutor even threatened her saying she would lower her grade if my friend keeps bringing it up. How shocking is that? Even the tutors cannot explain the most simple concepts right. Exam questions are hard, alright, but at least teach right.
    3) your peers. Because universities in Australia are known for taking anyone and everyone, you will meet a lot of international students who do not speak, write, do work in English at all. They heavily rely upon google translator. Language can be fixed through translators but not the ideas. The standard of writing is also extremely weird here.
    4) Marks. University of Sydney professors would mark you down for no reason. We had a lot of group writing projects, and people told us the professors only read the introduction and conclusion, NOTHING ELSE. So we spend like 2 weeks writing a 12-page paper and this is how responsible they are? They would also purposely not give you any points because they want more people to fail. In the University of Sydney, there is an inside joke that once more people fail, the school is able to build new buildings. So kids, when you fail a class, especially a writing one, it is not because you are dumb, it is because they need money. The markers are also biased towards international students, they would do their best to give you the minimum score in every single subject simply because of that. The average of exams and papers are around 50
    5) Student help services
    The career help center is absolutely useless, they don’t have anyone there to actually help.
    Actually, there is no one on campus to help you. There are not even offices. Every time you have an issue with anything, nobody is there to help. The staff members are also rude and cold
    6) International students being the cash cow
    International students pay 50000 AUD a year, and the education worths 5 AUD, at least they bought PPT from the publishers. The University of Sydney has no international recognition. It’s not a degree you can take home and brag about.
    7) Library
    The library is extremely small and old, and there are very few seats
    8) Teachers
    A lot of teachers do not speak English, and there are many mistakes during a lecture, and in solutions they provide you

    Extra expenses
    The University of Sydney also try to take money whenever they can
    There are a lot of extra expenses to pay besides your tuition, such as ‘activities fee’ and other fees

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  28. Li
    | Reply

    View this page because I need to finish my report for my online course, as an international student, I feel exactly the same. I feel so disappointed at this stage. First, paying a lot of tuition fee not equal to Youtube channel study. My teachers love to play Youtube videos in the module, I don’t understand is that really hard to give an explanation as a uni teacher? Second, tuition fee again, extremely high, and also raise up every single year, if you did not pass the class in this semester, in next year, wow, the price gets higher again. I heard from my friend different countries international students need to pay different tuition fee, I do not know is that true or not. It is true, it will be ridiculous.

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    • Erika T.
      | Reply

      hate to tell you this but it is true that international students pay much more than the domestic students. You should be able to find such information on the uni’s website easily.

  29. Jono
    | Reply

    Poor University, Poor Law School

    Very interesting, all these comments. Coming from another JD and university I can understand them. I have some experience so I can compare. I expected far, far better from the U Syd Law school and was very disappointed. Day one of JD – desultory experience. The acting dean made a poor speech in which he decried “rights’ as a goal of in legal studies. This at a time when rights of individuals and communities are being attacked by bullying, dishonest political regimes all around the world. The JD course is oversubscribed – clearly the school and administration only wants the fees money from students, especially from overseas – with too many students how can the experience be one of quality? The lectures are like sitting in a football stadium. Students are treated as if they were at high school. My advice: Choose another law school, one that values university life as a community, one that looks at legal studies as a study that involves critique of itself. U Syd also has a reputation for bullying – look at the political world in Australia, one prime example still holding on to his constituency by the skin of his teeth. The last Dean of the Law School left quickly after some trouble – look in to that. My advice: go elsewhere.

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  30. Sarah
    | Reply

    The Reality...

    A disgrace to say the least. You are considered lucky to find a lecturer or tutor that actually cares if you do well. Not only that, but the courses are extremely inadequate, leaving you to teach most content to yourself.
    I’ve been involved in the Disability Services and I can tell you they only want to ‘look’ like they help. They couldn’t give a s*** about you or how you are going. Certainly not an environment I would expect.
    The administration in every faculty is appalling (many friends with similar experiences to me). No time frames are given and you are lucky to receive any help within two weeks. And usually this is minimal and requires your own follow-up.
    Let’s not even talk about the fees. Somehow they have a good reputation for high achieving students and now think they are so above everyone that they can charge what they like. I’m not sure why USYD would look better on a resume when, to achieve results you’ve got to slog it out by yourself.
    They are very snobbish (staff) and it’s a highly over-rated Uni.
    I would pay to leave the University, if only it weren’t for the support I have received from the people i’ve met through sport. Personally, I really feel I need them and unfortunately I have to be enrolled to join the sport. It’s interesting how the only positive comes independently from the Uni itself.
    I wish more people would read these reviews as the majority is easily negative.
    If you’re looking for the so called ‘prestige’, then go ahead and enrol. Be prepared for a lot of teaching yourself the content and running through hoops to get any help or assistance. I would highly recommend a smaller university. It’s not worth being strung around, paying inflated fees just to write USYD on your resume. Three years (or more) is a long time in a place with no community or care.
    p.s.
    It’s January 23rd and I’m yet to receive my exam results with enrolment closing in 5 days. Got to love the anxiety that comes with that. (Shout out to the Psychology faculty).

  31. Ratish
    | Reply

    Too bad to be true

    Usyd charges about 80k for a two year masters by coursework degree, and the amount of money I spent as an international student here is unimaginable. As an Indian, the currency rate already does not favor me but then Usyd, for all its prestige, tries to rob every international student. For the amount of money I have paid, the administration is not only poor but extremely incompetent. I failed a course for which I had to repeat the entire credit and pay 5k for doing another unit, but because of this I finished my course two months later than expected. Since my course ended later than expected, once I finished my course, my student visa was about to expire in a month. Not only did the admin made me run in circles for weeks to get the completion letter (which is still not ready), but they failed to provide me with a time frame of when they are going to do it. After spending so much money, I expected the work done by the uni to be swift, efficient and at least competent, to provide me with the completion letter and the academic transcript ASAP. Their student services are weak, and told me it’ll take me a couple of weeks to get all the necessary docs. These docs are necessary for me to apply for my Temporary Residence Visa, but if they do not provide me with the docs in time, I will have no other option but to extend my student visa. This extension is going to cost me another 1200$, and once I do receive my docs, I’ll have to spend another 1600$ on the TR visa. Quite possibly the worst experience I could have had with a uni in terms of efficiency and competency, mind you, I come from India. All they want is your money, try paying fees late, and you’ll realize what the uni cares about.

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  32. Sarah
    | Reply

    DO NOT COME HERE!!! SAVE YOUR $$$

    DO NOT COME! Save your $$ if you are an international student!! It is not worth the 50K! I am from the US and have a 4 year honor degree in finance. I came here for my MBA… what a waste of time and money! Teachers barely speak English, standard of writing is poor, teachers are so subjective and bias towards the country you come from, you will be stuck doing ALL the group work, no help from career services to land a job..etc. Zero help comes to you! I even wrote an email asking the dean of the business school to meet with me to help me with some issues I was having and he had his SECRETARY email me back saying “The dean does not associate with students..”!!!!!!! The dean!!! Its nice knowing that the tuition I pay goes to that man’s salary and he can’t even meet with a student to discuss the issues I was facing about the course and program!

    If you decide to come anyway, one teacher to stay away from: [name removed]! Worst teacher EVER! Cannot stress this enough. Seriously, just stay in your home country to study. USYD is not worth a single penny.

    I know you are reading this thinking, well maybe it was just a bad experience for her…. but please please please think twice about coming here. Out of my class of 33 students, almost ALL of them regret this school! We were all international students wondering how we could possibly be paying $50,000 for this…

    Stay home..

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    • Kol
      | Reply

      Sarah can you reach out to me. Starting MBA next month at USYD

      Kol dot Lockwood at gmail dot com

    • Mitchell
      | Reply

      hi i went to sydney uni too. i was a white westerner borne in Australia. i saw exactly the same thing you did. its is average to say the least. please don;t judge Australia in these guys. we are actually human and don’t believe our own left wing bulshit.

  33. Mik Zhao
    | Reply

    Over priced for a poor education. I was quite shocked.

    Good parts:
    – Great location.
    – Lots of beautiful buildings.
    – Free filtered water.
    – People at the Student Service Centre are helpful.

    Bad parts:
    – Extremely over priced for an extremely poor quality education. I am quite surprised.
    – You Pay over $5000 per unit but need to rely on Youtube, Udemy and Coursera to understand the topic.
    – Some lecturers have a really poor English.
    – The lecture slides and the tutorial solutions have a lot of mistakes.
    – Teach very little but bombard and overwhelm you with a lot of homework.
    – They do not provide sample exam papers at all until very end
    – Sometimes you have 2 final exams on the same day

    Conclusion:
    – Stay the hell out of this university. Over hyped.
    – If you wanna learn something, invest $15 on Udemy or something.
    – If you want a degree, find a cheapest and easiest to pass university.
    – I would rather study in a crappy, easy to pass, cheap University than crappy, hard to pass and expensive University.

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  34. Lena
    | Reply

    Arts degree - disappointing

    Maybe it was just me, or maybe my cohort, but I found that University of Sydney is all prestige and no community. It is incredibly difficult to make friends unless you commit yourself to a society or SRC, which not everyone has the luxury of doing due to time constraints or work commitments.

    I found most of the Arts tutorials to be tense, highly competitive, judgemental, and generally uninspiring environments. It’s ironic that university is supposed to encourage critical thinking yet students are judged so harshly for expressing a unique opinion. I barely felt motivated to contribute to discussions because of this unwelcoming environment. Aside from some nice people, I found most students to be cliquey and condescending.

    I attended a smaller university before Sydney and the learning environments were wildly different – very collaborative, enjoyable, helpful, personal, and inspiring.

    The course content is really interesting, but not done justice by the suffocating learning environments.

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  35. Brendan and Julie Kelliher
    | Reply

    Poor Graduation Ceremony

    We made a 4 hour trip to Sydney to watch our daughter receive her certificate for Master of Pharmacy at her graduation ceremony today 9/3/18. What a disappointment.
    We sat and waited as each masters graduate’s name was read out in alphabetical order and our daughter’s name was not called out.
    We sat and waited as every graduates name was called out in the Bachelor of Pharmacy. Still no mention of our daughter.
    At last we saw our daughter stand to be awarded her certificate. They did not even acknowledge that she had been awarded a Master of Pharmacy just called out her name.
    When we spoke to her after the awards and asked her why she wasn’t called out in the correct order, she said that she had been told there had been a “computer glitch”.
    What a lame excuse, University of Sydney.
    Our daughter achieved great marks when studying for her Master of Pharmacy, and you couldn’t even acknowledge her hard work by awarding her, her certificate correctly.
    Thank goodness, no more of our children are enrolled at your university.
    The graduation ceremony was such a let down for us and our daughter and as Sydney University is supposed to be the best University in Australia, you should lift your game. If you can’t get a graduation ceremony to run smoothly, we don’t have much faith in the way you run your University.
    Glad we won’t be back.

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    • Tanya
      | Reply

      Terrible Graduation

      I agree with this review. My son graduated with a Masters degree and we travelled interstate for the ceremony. Usyd has clearly chosen quantity over quality in all respects. Graduates, parents and guests were treated like cattle – rude personnel, refreshments all grudgingly given and embarrassing quality. Usyd needs to think through their long term goals instead of being so obviously complacent and focussed on short-term profit. This is reflected also in both of my sons’ experiences with the teaching and learning experience.

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  36. Mohammed Mustafa
    | Reply

    Great Experience

    I have studied a single semester at University of Sydney. I must say it has been a great experience. I have learnt alot in my first semester of study and expect to learn more and more in the upcomming semesters. I dont know about the arts or commerce faculty but the faculty of science and Engineering&IT has been the best. Alot of practical experience in IT was provided to me. Moreover there are clubs and societies that you can join so you dont get bored at uni! Do consider joining Usyd 🙂

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  37. Jaded
    | Reply

    Run!

    Thieving tyrants, that is I can say about this disgrace of an institution. High fees for low quality education and admin that would make a 3rd world dictatorship appear fair and well organised.

    The admin of the faculty of veterinary medicine really do not care about you as a person and they will use your enrolment/ability to graduate against you at every opportunity they can

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  38. Michelle
    | Reply

    Grad Cert of Pain - a very expensive way to get access to a course written in 2012 and not updated since.

    I’ve studied the online Graduate Certificate of Pain Management and have been completely shocked by the low quality of the course materials and ITS support. The online learning system is antiquated and all communications occur via discussion forum only. The course materials are massively out of date, and are all time stamped 2012, when I studied in 2017! You spend your whole time looking up the latest articles to try to plug the enormous, out of date gaps in the (often incompletely referenced, and often with no learning outcomes) learning modules.
    There are no written for purpose video lectures to accompany each weeks 20-45 page module and 2-5 articles, so the each week is just reading 100-200 pages of dense scientific prose and trying to extract some understanding and knowledge from it. The only videos are some recorded for another conference which have been crowbarred into the Grad Cert content.
    The assessments are ridiculous, and are based around contributing to a discussion forum (which eats up huge amounts of time as you desperately try to research the weeks largely unrelated new case information) and a huge case study at the end that is most of your mark in which you cannot receive any assistance, and your “feedback” consists of three x one line comments on the 3000 word paper you took a week off work to write.
    The contributing authors may well be leaders in the field of pain management, but many of them need to consider doing basic Grad Certs in Tertiary learning to understand how to construct units and courses, that have actual learning outcomes that align with fit for purpose assessment tasks in a learning system that utilises live video interactive classrooms so you can actually discuss and get assistance with learning the complex content. The person who leads the facilitation and marking is a bloody PhD student, not even qualified to teach!
    The most useful thing about this course was the access to the Uni of Sydney library. Bloody expensive subscription though at $15,000AUD. They had 40 students enrolled in most units when I did it, so thats Approx $150,000 for the uni each time a unit runs. You think they could actually spend some it updating the course and paying some people who understand education.

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  39. Ann
    | Reply

    Excellent Master of Educational Management and Leadership

    I am an alumni of Macquarie Uni as I completed my BA Dip Ed there many years ago. I recently completed my Master of Educational Management and Leadership at the Uni of Sydney. I loved it. The teaching, choice of courses, lecturers, assessment and opportunity to research in an area of interest, were all excellent. All lecturers demonstrated great expertise and experience in their fields, I could chooses course which interested me and suited my experience. I enjoyed it so much that I am now enrolled in a PhD at this uni.
    The USyd physical environment, relationships I have developed with staff and students, facilities and environment are wonderful. I have also had the opportunity to meet and study with students who are not teachers, nor in education, but did the MEd in Management and Leadership to develop their own leadership in a variety of different jobs, as it was originally a human resources degree.
    I highly recommend this degree.

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  40. shawn
    | Reply

    Don’t come here. Someone once told me that the only thing excellent here is the grass. I couldn’t agree more. The student experience is both disappointing and expensive.

  41. Afif
    | Reply

    I hate Sydney and the University of Sydney more than Hitler hated jews. Everywhere I’ve been I’ve had friends, had a social life, and I’ve studied at 3 other institutions. This is by far the worst city and the worst institution I’ve been at.

    If you come to the university of sydney, you are going to have no social life. You will have hardly have any friends and will be in your room writing 8,000 words for 1 of the 4 assignments that you have been assigned.

    If anyone is thinking of coming here, don’t. DO NOT. Go to Melbourne instead. My friends in Melbourne are having a blast whilst I rot in the “beautiful” Central Park.

    • Debbie Galiatsatos
      | Reply

      I went to Sydney University and studied law. I have to agree with you. Sydney University has really gone down hill. Your better off going to ANU or Melbourne University. Sydney can be boring too because the people are mostly stuck up.

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    • Ratish
      | Reply

      Absolutely. Very difficult to make friends

  42. Peter
    | Reply

    This is a review is from a potential employer, there does not appear to be another public venue to provide feedback regarding the graduates produced by the University.
    In regards to the Bachelor of Science (Exercise & Sport Science) course offered. Over the past 8 years I have encountered several graduates/enrollees of this course. Generally, the graduates have exited or are several semesters into the course, and are then finding out that they are not getting the skills and education that were marketed and sold to them.

    Advertisements, like the YT upload from the University itself, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKxmegIHqAo give the impression that the education is vocational in nature and that the course they are paying for prepares them for employment.

    To the contrary, students from the undergraduate degree program later find out that the course is only setting them up for the graduate program and further study. The University should be more honest in advising enrollees that their future quality as an employee or business owner will come down to their own initiative to learn; as the course work is not vocational.

    All of the graduates I have encountered have gone on to comment on how poorly they have been taught to instruct and prescribe exercise. That includes locomotion instruction and analysis, strength adaptation skills, energy system measurement and training stimulus awareness, therapeutic interventions….. it is difficult to find a praise-worthy area covered by the course work.

    Credential is emphasized over experience (as one would expect with the business model of the University), and enrollees should be made aware of this phenomena when choosing how to use their dollars.

    Whilst for a period my business made available free work placement for under-graduates, it quickly became apparent that the University was being paid whilst the students were gaining an education from elsewhere.

    All potential enrollees should clearly think out what their end-goal is; gain a credential or gain an education. The only guarantee the money they spend on their credential at this University will be worth anything (and competitor Universities UOW and UWS are the same, and I suspect all others as well) is the extent of the additional work they do themselves.

    • Debbie Galiatsatos
      | Reply

      I agree. I’ve had many professors admit to me that what they mostly teach the students is nonsense and it doesnt prepare them for the real world. If it were up to me I would make it compulsory for every university student in their final year to do volunteer work in their chosen field of study or else they dont graduate. Simply having a degree doesnt guarantee you anything except HECS debt. Employers want you to have experience BEFORE you graduate. Employers dont care about grades.

      60% of law graduates cannot find a job. REMEMBER THAT!. Most students are sitting in their safe spoiled little world living with their soccer mum and burying their heads in books thinking that a job is just waiting for them..they are so stupid, gullible and naive.

      As a successul Self Representative Litigant that has appeared in various jurisdiction before I even graduated..I can assure you that all of those crappy law students with no experience ( ahhh, no! moot trials are NOT considered to be experience nor are debating teams going to impress me)..we want you in the courtroom! in the legal centers! working as paralegals!..spare me the childish nonsense. Can you handle the pressure or clients? your boss? the work load?..Dont expect me to treat you law students with courtesy. because I have been known to create anxiety and even fear in my opponents. You better know your stuff.

  43. J
    | Reply

    A big disappointment! I am a postgraduate student and I am shocked at the quality of the content. I am feeling bombarded with homework rather than inspired and motivated to dig deeper into the content. I have completed a diploma at TAFE before and learned more in 2 weeks there than in 7 weeks at USYD.

    By saying this I have extensive work experience and feel that many times I actually know more than the lecturers. Also, the lecturers’ level of English is shocking – we are required to do an IELTS test do get accepted to uni but some of the lecturers can barely speak a sentence (don’t get me started with spelling).

  44. Adil
    | Reply

    I was doing master of professional accounting and I have got to say those 2 years were the worst time of my life, the teaching quality varied a lot. From great lecturers to absolutely clueless ones. There is a lot of politics among the different department regarding the student marks. Plus the marking criteria is absolutely pathetic.
    Plus there is no diversity among students, I’d rather go to Shanghai than study at Sydney.
    Overall I have been extremely disappointed with the standard of education at this university.

  45. Maya
    | Reply

    While the course itself has been delivered to a high standard, I’m quite disappointed in other aspects of uni at USYD. I find campus social life to be seriously lacking, the only good events are the pub crawls organised independently by societies.

    I’m also quite disappointed in USYD’s tendency to cram as many people as physically possible into tutorials. Psychology units are a perfect example of this. As a direct result of this, I’ve found it difficult to receive help from tutors.

    Another criticism I have of USYD, is the lack of internship opportunities offered. If you want to do well and eventually (dare I say) get a job once you graduate, you have to actively seek internships independently, there certainly isn’t much guidance or assistance from USYD when trying to find them. ANU, by comparison, integrates internships into most of their courses.

    My final criticism is that USYD can be seriously depressing. The confluence of all of these factors will make you feel as though you’re simply a number. I’m realistic about this being likely to be the experience of many uni students across a range of institutions, but I hear this the most from other USYD students.

    On the flip side of this, USYD has some truly amazing lecturers. Some of them are incredible people. This alone can be redeeming at times.

  46. SC
    | Reply

    I am a Master’s student at Uni of Sydney. I find it to be a good place to learn with a helpful, engaging staff, so far. The big minus is the anti-semitism on campus due to its Socialist Alliance who enjoy bullying and harassing those with a different opinion. I commute two hours each way for a two hour class every week. I don’t need someone with juvenile politics having a tantrum in my ear because I support a certain cause.

    • Debbie Galiatsatos
      | Reply

      I agree with you

      I agree with you! the Socialist Alliance are an embarrassment to the university of Sydney. As a law student I found them to be rude, tedious, obnoxious, naive with juvenile delinquent behavior none of which has anything to do with education and future career prospects. All the Socialist Alliance are is a bunch of extreme left-wing anarchists.

  47. Ricky
    | Reply

    Sydney Uni is the best uni in Australia! The location is amazing in the heart of Sydney. Proximity to the City is ideal for those who like to walk around the city. Public transport around the City is convenient with buses and trains running every few minutes.

    I am currently in my first year doing a Bachelor of Design Computing and it has been a great experience. In my first Semester, we had the chance to produce a video to be shown to the public at Central Park’s 15m long digital wall which was an amazing opportunity and experience. Fisher Library (One of 11 on the campus) is one of the biggest (with 9 floors!), cleanest and most quiet libraries I have ever visited with many incredible learning resources.

    It is definitely worth the 1.5 hour commute!

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