University of South Australia

University of South Australia.

Photo credit: saibt

The University of South Australia has several campuses. As well as Adelaide campuses, Whyalla and Mount Gambier host facilities. UniSA is a multi-purpose, applied kind of university that fills some of the gaps in university education in South Australia (such as in distance education). If you've studied at UniSA, you're invited to rate the university and post a student review.

UniSA Rating

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User Rating 2.68 (112 votes)
Comments Rating 1.97 (39 reviews)

Student Reviews

63 Responses

  1. Robin Ang
    | Reply

    Administration

    Today visited the UniSA building at Currie Street 101. Noone wanted to assist and although they were in their offices nobody came to reception to ask me what am I waiting for. They insisted on me calling and talking on the phone to someone, somewhere, at the end I did and on the phone, they gave me wrong information even!!! Stay away from UniSA, very unprofessional and they do not care about your problems.

  2. Scott
    | Reply

    Great University

    I have found this University fantastic to study at. I have obtained degrees and post graduate degrees at three different universities in Australia and this is my second online university course. Any question that I have asked at UniSA they have responded super fast and if I didn’t understand, they have been quick to offer one-on-one zoom chats which I found very helpful. My previous online university course that I completed (Graduate Diploma) I did not enjoy, however, the UniSA course has been very enjoyable with great support which has changed my attitude towards online degrees.
    Yes, the course material is hard and challenging, but I am at university and it should be. If it wasn’t I would be disappointed, I am paying so I can be challenged and expand my thinking and knowledge. I believe many people on here have the wrong idea about what university is about. The lecturers will help when you ask for it, but they will not spoon feed you. This is a pathway to becoming an independent lifelong learner. I highly recommend University of South Australia.

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  3. Jimmy
    | Reply

    UNISA did the impossible,

    The degree is total worthless and nonsense, as an international student paying around $3-4000 for each unit (course) and teaching us by using really cheap, simple and poor power point. They always find a way to make you retake the course again to charge you more. I suppose to be graduating in this year 19th Dec, and they told me some issues happened in one of my course exam so they sent me an email about it on 6/12 and told me we will have a meeting on 14/12. What’s that supposed to mean? My graduation is on 19th. Can’t they sent me the email sooner, give me a call or even text me. The saddest part is my whole family bought the flight ticket all the way from my home to here south Australia, to do what? Just wasting their money lol😡😡. Do graduates have privileges? The privilege of repeating their studies, what a joke🤡🤡🤡. People who read this please do not come to UNISA, here have no future just pure stupidity and suffering.

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  4. Stephanie
    | Reply

    This University is a shocker - Under no circumstances enrol here

    Do not study Financial Accounting 2. The lecturer cannot clearly pronounce words and misses out half the words needed to properly construct a sentence, leaving you guessing to what they are actually saying, waste of time, just like reading a few words here and there from a script. If speaking publicly or online and you cannot speak so that the audience can actually understand you tare not suited to that role regardless of your intellect.
    Course staff do respond to emails most of the time and provide smug and rude answers in forums.
    These course staff would not employable in public sector.
    Inefficient, pooper people skills and unaccountable.

  5. Anon
    | Reply

    Don't do Game and Entertainment Design Program

    If you are a international student seeing this game design program, don’t choose it. No only you can’t choose your own course, the course they gave you give you bare minimum game related information, you can learn all that from YouTube. I am not sure about other courses or program but this one is a must avoid imo.

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  6. Craig
    | Reply

    I can’t believe that this place existed as a university. There are so many wrongs with this institution. Courses and teachers: Firstly, their program is all over the place. When I tried to transfer to different university in Melbourne for my third year, the academics in my new uni were kinda surprised at how little I had learnt in my 2 years at UniSA. Secondly, where do these academic lecturers come from?

    The answer to some of the above questions is that the university engaged in a purge of its senior research and teaching staff. This has occurred over the past ten years.

    Engaged many new academics with little experience in comparison to those exited. New staff utilise the old slides and materials – with little fresh material etc.

    The number of PhD staff has fallen while the administration has increased dramatically in size.

  7. Connie
    | Reply

    DO NOT ATTEND UNISA IF YOU WANT RESPECT!

    Highly disappointed with the attitude of staff and the policies in place. As a mature student who has taught in another country I find this institution shoddy , at best and non responsive. The elitist attitude of some of the staff leaves me with a bitter experience. In all the staff may I say only a handful were of humane and understanding nature. And even they seemed to believe the organisation a complete *Shit Show*. If you make a complaint about an issue that truly troubles you , they are eager to brush it off with ‘the policies in place’ and in defense of their own staff. I passed on what I believe valuable information for errors in correction by a staff member , along with all supporting evidence and explained this is the reason I do not want to continue the degree and the attitude was ‘SO LONG KAREN!’ it was not said but hugely implied as though I am the one at fault. This is why these institutions are businesses , not academic organisations in service of learning at all. They value faculty more than the students paying their high incomes. Could it be more disappointing when it is obvious to anyone they like the sound of their own voice, stature of their supposed power and position and take advantage of the policies in place. Do not go to this University. They will demean your efforts and make you feel you are at fault. As an experienced teacher I urge anybody wanting to get a degree, to research thoroughly. There are other options .

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  8. Chloe
    | Reply

    Go elsewhere if you hold any value in education

    Go elsewhere if you hold any value in learning and aren’t just seeking the piece of paper at the end.
    I have been a student of UniSA Online now for about 5 years and I continue to be disappointed with the university. We pay so much money and I have had the same experience over the years as many others – tutors holding zoom sessions at their childs martial arts class, suggesting we look things up on Google when we’ve asked a question, having to use Youtube to explain a concept because its more helpful than the UniSA tutors. Additionally, UniSA use a company based overseas for it IT services out of normal business hours. I called once on the weekend because the printers weren’t working and they were unable to remote in to assist and today I have called to log a serious security issue and they’ve not even been able to understand my phone number after 3 attempts because of my Australian accent!

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  9. Stephanie
    | Reply

    Do not choose University of South Australia

    They will sell you all the benefits of completing your study online but be warned it is all a sales pitch only. They do not want their students to succeed they just want your money. Constant mistakes are made in presentations and in exam questions. They will insist on group assessments that are compulsory but the other team members do not complete their responsibilities and you will be left with poor marks that you have not control over as you constantly try to get contact with other team members so you can proceed with your part of the task but are not able to as they fail to do so. The course co-ordinators will do nothing about it, just hand it back to you to tell you to make it work – how do you make slack students do the work when they don’t care, only about themselves. This is not learning how to work in a real world team, you would be sacked or demoted if you didn’t perform. When the instructors talk about their experience most of them haven’t lasted in the real world employment that is why they became lectures, all textbook kings.

  10. Professor Anne Onymous
    | Reply

    From a former employee of UniSA

    I write this as a former employee of the Uni of SA. I have taught in more than one course at the Mawson Lakes campus.

    It seems to me to be very easy to slag off on a university online under the cloak of anonymity. The comments here thus represent a fairly biased sample; mostly from former students who have an axe to grind. Prospective students of the university should take these comments with a grain of salt.

    As a former lecturer and course coordinator I am more than familiar with the shortcomings of the university, at least for the STEM faculty. The support offered to teaching staff is very low. No mentoring and minimal support. Nevertheless I appreciate the reasons for this; teaching staff are critically overworked. Support for junior and/or more recent beginners to teaching is low simply because the more longterm faculty members simply do not have time to administer coursework outside their own courses. I fervently wish I had been given better support; that I had been included with the core teaching staff; that requests I sent up the hierarchy had not been ignored or dismissed. But that’s the way it was. I got on with the teaching and did the best that I could.

    The most concerning aspect for me is the seeming willingness of the university to admit students to the courses when they are clearly not capable of it. A first-year IT student should have a working knowledge of high school arithmetic (addition, multiplication, fractions), yet too many of them recoil when anything remotely mathematical is mentioned. Masters-level engineering students are allowed to take courses when they do not have the requisite mathematical background. I say this from experience; I have taught such students. Are students being admitted to these courses only because they can pay the fees? In every class I have taught there has been a notable minority of international students wo do not attend classes, who do not submit assignments, who attend the exam only to submit a blank paper… are these people at the university only to qualify for a student visa?

    Nevertheless, it seems to me that too many students expect the coursework to be served to them on a platter; that the teacher is responsible for the students’ learning. Perhaps to a point – but too many students fail to take responsibility for their own learning. It isn’t the university’s responsibility. If you want to learn then MAKE THE EFFORT. Don’t blame the university when you bugger things up. Moaning on this forum won’t help you to pass. Knuckling down and doing the work WILL.

    Yet for all that I’ve had wonderful students who study hard, who avail themselves of the resources offered to them, who ask questions in class and attend lectures – and who do the work and pass the courses. These people are the quiet achievers, they do not bitch and moan about their experiences here. In 4-5 years of teaching I encountered a number of diamonds in the rough. It is these students I choose to remember.

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    • Hammy
      | Reply

      Your view / suggestion.

      Hello Anne , Hammy this side, I just need your suggestion as I have recieved a conditional offer letter from UNISA for Master of Information Technology (Enterprise Management), I saw many bad reviews here regarding then uni itself , something like the education is theoretical base without practical knowledge and the students watch youtube vids for leaning something instead of learning from the class.From your perspective is it worth it to opt for this university and course? It would a great help for me. Thank you.

  11. BobbyA
    | Reply

    If you like to read a textbook and watch youtube videos to get your degree with absolutely no help, than this university is for YOU!

    I’m studying a bachelor of psychology online and it’s possibly the worst learning experience I’ve ever had. In fact I couldn’t do it anymore and had to switch universities it was so bad. Not only is the learning experience here absolutely horrible, I would be seriously concerned about the quality of students this university produces.

    This is a university that doesn’t teach. The online courses sometimes gives you get a 5-10min overview video, directs you to read a pages in a textbook, and you have an option to post on a forum questions. They have drop in Q&A over zoom twice a week where they once again don’t teach or ellaborate on anything. It’s literally ask a question and they will answer it with as minimal effort as possible to move on.

    So let me give an analogy of the University of South Australia learning experience. Imagine you’ve never driven a car in your life and you turn up for your first lesson. You get into the drivers seat and the teacher gets into the passenger seat. The teacher tells you the steering wheel turns the car, the accelerator makes it go forward, the brake stops the car, and the gear stick makes the car go forward or backwards. Then the teacher hands your the car manual and says read this and you can ask me any questions you want. That’s the learning experience you can expect from UniSA. They don’t actually teach you like any normal teacher that would instruct a student to put the key in, put your foot on the brake, turn the key, put the gearstick into drive, pull down the handbrake, press on the accelerator. Instead you’re sitting there with a textbook and expected to ask questions that you don’t know what to ask for.

    What is even worse, they set essays and exams on topics you haven’t even learnt yet. That’s like after driving around the block, they tell you weren’t going to now have a driving test in a manual car which you’ve never driven before. That’s how ridiculous this learning experience is. You get taught nothing, you are given essays and tests on subjects you haven’t learnt, the feedback to essays don’t make sense and you are penalised because you didn’t do something to their standard when they never list what those standards are. You would expect psychology teachers to have the intelligence to understand the human thought process and empathises and tries to understand the student’s point of view but NO, they don’t even care. You will be lucky to get a response when they email them. Most of the time, they tell you to post to the course forum. If you don’t do that, they will take at least 7 days which you then need to follow up before they respond. They have over subscribed too many students as a cash grab and will enrol anyone they can without caring if they will continue or not. They’ve worked out they can at least get one unit of fees from the 300 enrolled students with at least 50% continuing on to do more because they don’t have options or don’t know any better. This is some info commercial manipulation right here. 30 days money back but they realise most people won’t bother to send the product back. That’s this university. They realise most people enrol, hate it, struggle, fail, learn nothing, and they are completely ok with that as long as they’ve got your money. It’s disgusting and this University and all it stands for should be ashamed of itself. The teaching is appalling and has the lowest regard. Do not waste your time, money, and energy on a University that cares nothing for you or your learning experience.

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    • Anonymous
      | Reply

      More info please Bobby

      Hi Bobby, I am considering studying my full psyche degree with UniSA. Can I ask, have you studied at university before? If not, have you an ATAR or completed a bridging course to prepare you for university study?

      • Zanezany
        | Reply

        UniSA Psychology Online

        I am in my 3rd year of the Psychology online degree at UniSA. It is not my first degree and I have studied remotely before. I have to disagree with what has been written here. I have had a great experience with only a few issues here and there which were ironed out by staff. As far as being assessed on content we didn’t learn, that is absolutely not something I have experienced at all. I have found the assessments more than fair and content related, and the support for the most part good. Why anyone would expect that reading and watching lectures is not what you do at University is beyond me. It is not high school or TAFE where you are spoon fed.

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    • Jen Cavanagh
      | Reply

      Disappointed

      Agree 100% with you, I have had a similar experience in my online accounting degree. So many errors and inconsistencies with course material. Terrible Accounting department tutors. I am transferring my degree as well.

      • Chloe
        | Reply

        Dont waste your money

        I am also doing an Accounting degree online and I will say straight up that I am a D/HD student (only one overall Credit) – so the following isn’t said because I’m annoyed at my grades. In my first year I recall one class where I recorded 17 errors in the course work… in the first 3 weeks. Its a joke. Admittedly it has improved over the years but the quality of teaching is still very very poor. I’ve only had two tutors that have actually cared and put the effort in. Two! There are a lot of tutors you cant understand because of the strong accents and you spend half your time trying to understand what they’ve said, not on the content itself. You are required to do work in teams and are assessed on others work. When you are a high achieving student who receives a low grade because others haven’t put the effort in, its very unfair. Fortunately I found a work around this but others have not. They say you need 15 hours a week but I easily double that to get through all the readings required, zoom sessions, weekly work and assignments. 15 hours a week would only get you through the weekly work. There is far too much content for 9 weeks of work. The 10th week still has content and yet its exam week. How are you expected to learn material in final last week when the exam is held midweek?
        Accounting exams are held at end of month which is ridiculous for accounting students as many of us are working in the field so this is the busiest time. I have had one tutor explain he is only paid so many hours to assess work – this was the excuse given for grading me incorrectly. There are no alternatives for sitting the exam on campus despite paying money for campus services. There are few benefits for students – we stopped being able to get discounted bus fares a few years ago even though we were full time students, simply because we were studying online.

    • Anita
      | Reply

      Disappointed

      I have had the same experience with online study with UNISA – Teachers that do not teach – mainly linked-in learning tutorials and YouTube. I have just completed one year but it seems to be getting worse, I am considering changing, hence why I am researching uni reviews! 🙂

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      • Joe k
        | Reply

        Do not study online at this uni there are better options

        I credit transferred from my online studies at Curtin, I had started a degree in psychology and had done very well at the online content and found it engaging and challenging with teachers and tutors easy to access, great open communication and quality prepared course material. I moved to Uni SA to take advantage of the dynamic term structure offered in the online materials and it seemed to fit into my busy work schedule.

        This was a very big mistake.

        The online enrollment system was the first red flag, a convoluted mess of outdated timetables and lack of classes. I was bewildered that a uni could call this a professional system.

        After navigating this minefield I was left with the course content, the lack of effort put into the content was obvious, contact pages with no contact details, broken assignment links, bizarrely written ambiguous assignment outlines with information in no clear order or place.

        A assignment was due at the end of the third week after navigating the minimal “self directed” content, results had been given at the end of week 5. My assignment had about 20 words in total, being generous, in the comments from the marker, some students had no comments at all. This was brought to the attention of the course coordinator on the forum which was responded to that they would be released in time, part 2 of the assignment was due in 2 weeks and there was no feedback and limited communication for students to improve.

        I could go on about the lack of organization and communication that this uni has, but the majority of the reviews here touch on this, there are much better online unis than Uni SA, you have been told so don’t say you didn’t know. I have now gone back to Curtin and am back enjoying the content and communication.

        To the reviewers saying that the uni shouldn’t hold your hand or the bad reviews have an axe to grind, you are part of the reason the uni is like it is, an absolute unprofessional mess, taking advantage of young naive people and suckering them into the money making scheme.

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  12. Jimboy
    | Reply

    Don't even bother with this uni

    I was given an empty promise that I would be sure to get a place in this uni by staff during the open day. Instead, my application was rejected the moment I apply for this uni. Here’s a tip, maybe next time don’t fill students with empty promises that would crush their inspiration and soul. It took me a while to recover from the shock and later I applied to Flinders instead. Suffice to say Flinders staff were more honest and transparent, and I finally got the offer to study with them.

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  13. student who wish to remain anonymous
    | Reply

    A lot of room for improvement would be an understatement

    I’m honestly fuming. I usually never do a review unless something is really good. If something is terrible I do not even bother. But I just have to say UniSA has the size of the universe to improve and not just the observable universe. So far, only one tutor and a course coordinator has my respect out of about 10 or more. I know University is serious I am currently very much putting in the work for my studies. Now I hope you take this review seriously.
    Firstly, everything must be from you. I appreciate that I guess this is the university’s way of teaching initiative BUT there is such a thing as too much and most of the current tutors and course coordinators take advantage of this. As an example, if you request something, even if it should only take them a couple of minutes if not literally one minute (if it was a student theres waiting times, uncertainty, but if it was a tutor/course coordinator it would be almost instant) they will send you an email in the nicest way possible to go do it yourself and here are the instructions to do so… after 2-5 business days. The amount of time they spent writing the email and the 2-5 days they could have already done your request. After that, as usual you do something yourself, they gave you instructions so at least now you know what to do, BUT now you have to wait another 2-5 days! the amount of time that could have been saved, more university assignments done, workshifts accepted and family/friends time wasted because you are there waiting for yet another email or doing something they should be doing. you think you did it correctly? NO! somehow they find a way to make their job yours and you do another task just so they finally do what you requested in the first place!

    I get that if they did every student’s request they would quite literally have no life, but ALL my inquiries/requests so far has gone exactly like this.

    Secondly AND thirdly, there seems to be a division amongst lecturers/tutors/course coordinators and it is very apparent. I had a class where my class’s room was also another class’s room. Neither tutors were aware. Already a false flag. What’s worse was tutor A throws shade at tutor B. Tutor B were already there before Tutor A, but Tutor A acted like the superior tutor and insists that this should be Tutor A’s class. The room was split into halves with the sliding gate/door thingy. All is resolved right? No. Tutor B felt the need to not get stepped on by Tutor A, so my conclusion is that Tutor B decided to increase the volume of their class video by 100%, Tutor A requests it be lowered. But I think it did not end there as Tutor A requests again it be lowered in the nicest way possible that even Tutor B’s class cannot hear the damn video. After this particular incident I just do not feel like going to the campus anymore.
    Fourthly, Fifthly, Sixthly… there’s a lot! Thanks for reading this review, I might add on to it at a later date.

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  14. Abbie
    | Reply

    Anyone got reviews about the UniSA Bachelor of Psychological Science online?

    • BobbyA
      | Reply

      UniSA is a joke

      Don’t do it. It’s a joke. Each unit is literally a 5-10min overview video, read a textbook by yourself, and watch a ridiculous amount of youtube videos. There is literally no teaching. There is 5 people to answer your questions which takes a minimum 7 days for a response mainly cause they’ve enrolled over 300 students and can’t respond to all the questions because everyone is lost since no one teaches.

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    • Zanezany
      | Reply

      UniSA online Bachelor of Psychology

      I am doing it and in my third year. It is great. I find some of these reviews to not be reflective of the overall views of the students in the degree at this Uni. You have to work very hard. as you should, to get good grades. The pathway to becoming a registered Psychologist is highly competitive so pampering students through the degree would not set them up for post grad studies. If you work hard and take advantage of what is there for you resource wise you will do well and enjoy the degree. Having studied online and remotely before, I can say UniSA online is an pleasurable experienced that is certainly no worse than any other University online. Nothing is perfect. Don’t expect to coast through this degree, it isn’t meant to be easy.

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  15. Jen
    | Reply

    Online studying Experience - Batchelor of Commerce (Accounting)

    I am thinking about doing Bachelor of commerce ( Accounting) at UniSA online. I have an Adv Diploma in Accounting so would expect to be given credit for 50% of the degree. Could you guys give me some reviews about online study here? Cheers.

  16. Pepper
    | Reply

    Disappointed

    I am a final year student studying at UniSA and must say my experience with the university has left me disappointed.
    The University has little to no understanding for how serious domestic issues impact students and have no way to compromise on requirements. They do not seek to accommodate circumstances beyond your control and have extremely poor communication. Outside of this, you will need to take a lot of initiative to make sure that the information you are given is accurate and that you receive the information you need to complete your requirements. That being said, the location of this information is difficult to navigate and you will need to constantly ask questions on how to find things that should be communicated throughout your degree. Your creativity and vigour for education will be crushed as there is no education happening here except for what not to do when trying to educate students. The cherry on top would definitely have to be their lack of receptiveness to feedback and their elitistic attitude; as they supposedly can do no wrong. I am genuinely disappointed by this University and would encourage others to pursue another university. Two stars given because of the free food from the University and another for the minority of genuine educators there.

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  17. R
    | Reply

    Save yourself the time, stress and the money

    The worst mistake of my life.
    Please DO NOT study at this university. I am a final year student studying my Bachelor’s in Software Development . The faculty is either incompetent or rude or both. There is ZERO co-ordination between the lecturers and the tutorial/practical supervisors. 80% of the lectures either do not respond to the emails or take forever to respond. I also studied at TAFE SA which I have to say was heaps better (at least in terms of tutoring). The lectures at Unisa make their notes unnecessarily complicated and just expect you to understand everything. More times than less the programming assignments are way too technical with very very minimal assistance from the educators. They had me thinking maybe I was stupid because I didn’t understand the assignments, it was only until I contacted a few tutors outside of uni (non unisa) to assist me with my courses (thanks to the brilliant idiots at uni) that I realized the assignments and the courses (most of the them) were wayyy too technical than they have to be. And mind you the tutors I contacted were either working in the industry or teaching at other universities, 98% of them either refused to tutor me because they did not understand a single thing from the lecture slides nor the assignment. In addition to this they have made the course website complicated as hell, which is pretty ironic considering they specialize in “Information Technology”.

    Please DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE I DID. Do not join this University unless it is absolutely necessary. There has been some sort of issue for every semester I have studied here.

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  18. Anonymous
    | Reply

    UniSA - generally poor quality and unprofessional delivery for the $$$ paid

    I have been a UniSA Online student for 3 years now and it has been both disappointing and frustrating with the quality of online tutors and teaching extremely poor. I am basing my opinion after a few years of studying on campus at Magill about 20 years ago, which I can only say positive things about. In the past few years, I have had multiple errors in course content – one class was 11 errors in the first 3 weeks from memory. This is both frustrating and wastes a lot of students time as you naturally think you are in the wrong and try to work out why. I’ve also had an online tutor trying to take a zoom class at their child’s taekwondo class with other children running around in the background. I’ve had tutors who’s response to basic course content questions has been to Google the answer (because they were unsure, not to improve the students research skills). I have had classes where tutors haven’t turned up for the zoom session because of poor internal communication on who was taking the class. I have experienced a number of times where the tutors accent is so heavy that you cannot understand what they are saying. Group assignments require you to receive a mark based on someone else’s work. How is that fair when a lot of students are only studying to get a passing mark?
    I am a D/HD average student, so these comments are not based on getting poor grades. Don’t get me wrong, I have had a few really good tutors who actually care about helping the student understand the concepts and support them in achieving a good result. However, from what I can tell, the tutors who run the class often don’t put the class curriculum together. Those that put the problems and solutions together don’t check the results. The tutors often have multiple classes they are involved in and don’t necessarily have the knowledge, time or care factor that a student requires. One tutor, when it was highlighted that they had marked incorrectly, justified this by highlighting that he was only paid for x amount of time to mark assignments.
    Overall, given the amount each module costs, I am extremely disappointed with the quality and professionalism of UniSA Online. Unfortunately I did not have much of a choice in whom to study with as there were very few options for online study at the time.

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    • Bob Terwilliger
      | Reply

      Just watch you tube, and make stuff on your own

      It’s cheaper to just open a LinkedIn learning account and just pick courses you want to do, especially digital arts courses in animation , video and Photoshop. Or you could watch YouTube for free , or pay someone via Patreon etc. Having done other degrees a lot of the digital art course was filler, or just plain wrong. The communications course was fluffy , PC nonsense. Most of the tutors seem to be sociology grads who know little to nothing about their topics. I found my marks were routinely high, but then I’d get marked down to pass level for certain parts reducing my mark overall. Eg HD to D. I wasn’t doing it for the marks, but for the learning and teaching but alas there was little teaching and not much learning going on.

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      • Bob
        | Reply

        Zero To Physics department and Dr Shekh Rubaiyat, arrogant coordinator

        Totally agree with you. I have a University degree and this would be my second one but I will not continue studying there. The quality of the lectures online in physics is poor, the quality of teaching is bad and they don’t accept feedback, only if it is positive. The arrogance of the coordinator makes the engineering course online the worst that I have ever seen. The coordinator likes to be called Dr and if you don’t call him Dr he doesn’t like it. Their material is ambiguous and confusing but if you ask for help they don’t help and imply that you have to study. The staff is unhelpful and makes the student feel bad in every opportunity. I don’t know about the other courses online but Engineering is a waste of money. Don’t bother.

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  19. Sam
    | Reply

    Bachelor of Digital Media at UniSA Online

    I am thinking of studying the Bachelor of Digital Media course at UniSA online. Should I do it?

    Can anyone who has completed or currently doing this course please offer an honest review on it?

    • Amber
      | Reply

      Digital Media

      Hi Sam,
      98% of the educators do nothing to help students. The marking is based on popularity and streamlining. The degree focuses on design, GLAM and social media. The structure for most courses are disorganised, and the content archaic. This degree will not prepare students for employment.

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      • Surfer
        | Reply

        Bachelor of Digital Media - Waste of Time

        I am a current student in this degree and agree with Sam that it will do nothing or very little to prepare you for employment, nor will you learn anything much more than you can learn by watching Linked-In videos they rely on instead of creating their own content. When content is created by UniSA it is often outdated and boring. The range of content in the degree is quite narrow and you will need to do many electives from other disciplines to complete. Having said that, I have had some great lecturers/tutors, but they are certainly very much in the minority. UniSA seems to be selling degrees rather than providing an education.

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  20. LIA
    | Reply

    Hey guys,
    I’m planning to do Bachelor of information technology in Unisa. Is it really worth the money? Please advice.

    • SyStar
      | Reply

      This uni should be your last choice, if any choice.

      NO. I do not recommend this university whatsoever, in any universe. I was stupid enough to think that studying online here would be awesome – im doing bach. of community health – first time this degree was run. I am used to structure, disclosure and support. There is NO structure, NO disclosure, NO support. They say there’s flexibility etc with online, there isn’t. You are given a bunch of youtube videos and readings in place of actual lectures, and when you ask questions, you are told to go back and read the readings. No powerpoints, no evidence of the actual theory that they’ve created themselves. 1/2 the time i skipped weeks because it was things i already knew in terms of repeated information or it was just so damn droll to read. Nothing is made interesting or even engaging. I remember for one of the assessments i had to challenge the actual structure of it because the content wasn’t even being taught. The excuse was the person who wrote the unit isn’t working there anymore, so it was assumed it was all good. Don’t they review these things? Don’t they try do actually perform their own assessments? There are only one or two lecturers who made the content interesting. I wonder if I’ve learnt that much in my degree. I’m finishing this year, and wondering if i need to do more study because i learnt so little. All i learnt is how to ‘get by’ because you get minimal instruction, almost an expectation that you are supposed to understand everything that is written and there’s almost this culture that if you ask questions, you must be dumb. I’ve been to QUT, Endeavour University of Natural Health, even TAFE has better instructions that Unisa….i transferred to unisa because it was fully online, and it was getting hard to commit to work and attend on campus at my previous uni – they’ll make excuses that its their first time run with the degree and they will improve next year, but tell that to my $30k+ university debt. This year i will be saying done and good bye.

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  21. Anonymous
    | Reply

    Useless for post career

    Bachelor of Communication and Media Management / Film & TV is useless for the real world. Some courses were great, but very few and far between. Most of the skills learned aren’t adequate for post career. The work I found post uni could have also been done without the degree as it hasn’t been relevant for getting a career in this field, also there was no internship opportunity.

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  22. wong hung
    | Reply

    I’m a first-year student who studies Bachelor of aviation (Flight) in UniSA, for those people who might wanna come study this major, please don’t.

    Like the previous comments that have given from above, the structure of the teaching staff and the teacher/ admin staff are terribly disorganized, lack of professionalism and even responsibility. Their responsiveness is hella slow regarding replying emails to students, yet they came to lectures and told us how hard their job has been apart from replying all the emails and stuff and how much time it takes for them, making it that we’re imposing on them. In my concern, their team is hella small and needs to expand bigger to relieve their workload, but ended up finding a few people who have just graduated from this major and come back to teach students and you pretty much see them most of the lecture that you have on your schedule. Their teaching attitude sometimes tuned really bad and you couldn’t find any experience and professionalism on them. Which really made me disappointed.

    The course structure in the first semester was fine, you might have a bit hard time studying but you should be fine if you put a bit more time on it, but the second semester was ridiculous, why? before I flew back to my home country every international student has confirmed that the second semester will be started on 29th July, we all have booked our flight pretty early but we ended up receiving the email that the course will begin on 22nd July. which made me spent an extra 200 AUD just to change my flight and some people might can’t be this lucky. The worst part is that even the UniSA director didn’t even know that it happened in this course and we assumed the course director didn’t have much communication with the uni either. And we also found out that this case violated the uni policy regarding school schedule.

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  23. yyimi
    | Reply

    Don’t trust UNISA International students scholarship!

  24. Patricia
    | Reply

    Easy learning experience so far...

    From reading these reviews I’m quite shocked and my heart goes out to all of you who have been mistreated its very sad and disappointing on the lecturers part. I experienced the same thing with a lecturer at ACU in strathfield. When my course started they said that she came back from a LONG break and it was quite a few years. She told me off for POLITELY REFUSING to sit in the front row when she picked on me for the second time when there were more than 20 students in our class ugh childish nonsense that is coming from a grown adult. Because of that I ended up withdrawing from the course – (Bachelor of Arts). Mind you, the arts degree is a waste of time, 3 years and an extra 2+ to become an accredited psychologist which is ridiculous. Might as well do the actual course and not waste time on units which will not benefit you and you end up having to pay for. I just recently enrolled in an online course with UNISA and have been constantly given so much support and feedback. Also, the way the online course is set out it’s so easy to access all of my coursework and there is an abundance of learning resources available. I’ve been enjoying actually LEARNING which is why I wanted to go back to uni in the first place. If any of you decide to do a course at UNISA that’s not prac heavy, I would recommend doing it online if it’s available as they only have a number of them and pick a specific course that would get you into the career you want. All the best!

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  25. Jaymi
    | Reply

    Superior university!

    I did two undergraduate degrees at UniSA and I have since decided to do my Masters at another university – I have say that UniSA is by far superior. The practical/real life experience gained from my UniSA degrees has been invaluable. From my experience, practical experience is what gets you the work in the field! I got a job in my field of study very easily and I put it down to the practical component of my education. My employer said that the practical program and UniSA is what draws them to graduates. The support at UniSA is incredible and I will always be a UniSA girl!

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  26. Chi
    | Reply

    A peaceful place to study

    I’m studying IMBA program (general) at UniSA and in my final year now. Compared to my Bachelor experience in Japan, this is a quite different environment but everything is so far so good. There are some very good lectures/lecturers and some boring ones (I reckon this happens in every uni) but even so I still learned a lot. The lecturers are very knowledgeable so I would say as long as you attend classes you would get great takeaways. There are 4 electives in IMBA so you can choose to either undertake specialized electives or internship/placement to enhance your employablity. I chose to undertake Industry Project (industry placement) in my second year and that was a wonderful experience: I utilized the frameworks and knowledge from other concurrent courses for the project and kinda got an “intensive” period of Marketing study during the placement. It was hard but you can’t imagine how much you can learn from it. For me, the placement adds great weight to my CV. Thus, I would really recommend the IMBA program to students who want to gain practical experience and become business consultants/managers.

    About Adelaide? If you want to live a peaceful life with not too much stress and a lot of opportunities to enjoy delicious foods, this is a perfect place for you. I just love to live here because of cheap costs of living and lots of Asian groceries.

    UniSA Sport: Haven’t tried yet but I’m impressed with the Pridham Hall facilities. Would definitely try the free morning time for exercise and the pool 🙂

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  27. Keeratpal Singh
    | Reply

    So far been soo good

    I am currently studying bachelors of commerce with majors in accounting. The infrastructure and campus facilities are excellent. You have 24*7 access to library which has become more of like a second home to me. Staff is highly cooperative, as in coming from a totally different education system of India I was not soo confident but the academic staff helped me in making this transition smooth, they are approachable easily.

    Campus life is pretty happening as a lot of events and fairs are run on the campus besides this for socializing the student lounge is good place to hang out with friends. Career shops is the place where you can go to get your resume fixed and get some tips for your job preparation.

    When it comes to networking again university puts some extra efforts to help out student with networking networking events are more of a ritual for the university besides this they run business career mentor program and executive partner programs, under these programs students are paired with people who are actually working in the industry. These opportunities were a great opportunity for me to network well got a lot of valuable insights of the industry from my mentors.

  28. Shubham Gupta
    | Reply

    My review on UniSA

    I study IT at UniSA, based in Mawson Lakes.
    The IT faculty and teaching methodologies are very good with heavy focus on practical assignments.

    For example, most of the programming assignments are quite fun as they are about building games and user interfaces. I feel that these assignments are a better way to learn a computer technology, as we are putting the theory learnt into practice.

    Mawson Lakes campus is peaceful and provides a great study environment: it has the sports, gym and student lounge on campus that can be accessed on weekends. I spend a lot of my time on campus due to the great facilities that are here.

    I am currently in the second year and have been able to get a summer internship through the Careerhub, one of the many great students services that UniSA has to offer.

    Overall, I enjoy the IT program here and would recommend it to a future student.

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  29. Sri
    | Reply

    Wonderful experience studying at UniSA

    I am soon graduating from Master of IT Enterprise Management at University of South Australia (UniSA). My experience for the last two years has been really good and I would strongly suggest anyone with aspirations in IT enterprise management to study this program at UniSA.

    The program structure is revised every year to be current with the industry and the courses offered are very engaging and interesting. All the lecturers I have seen are very knowledgeable and experienced. They go out of their way to help students with their issues. Two of my lecturers in my first year guided me to find a job in the relevant field and provided me with opportunities to work on their projects. I still consult with them if I need any guidance and they give me their time despite their busy schedule.

    The assignments and exams I have had were intriguing and interesting which helped me learn a lot of new things, not just about. The tutorials and workshop session were very practical and made studying enjoyable.

    I would highly recommend anyone with aspirations of becoming an IT business analyst or solution architect to opt for Master of IT Enterprise Management at UniSA.

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  30. danny
    | Reply

    UniSA is S**T!

    i am currently doing the Masters of teaching at UniSA. this place is bad, very bad …. i have worked at uni’s and studied at 3 different ones during my academic career. UniSA is by far the worst of them all. zero organisation skills. no placements for prac, which is a legal requirement, lecturers teaching the wrong information, i know as i have a masters in the subject! talking down to students and i quote ‘ it is a complicated system, you wouldnt understand it i am sure’ …which my reply was … ‘so how do you understand it if it above my level of undertstanding?’ … i have only ever met one teacher who knew what they were tlaking aobut and had interest in the students and he is considering leaving due to the lack of professionalism and standards he has to suffer working there. DO NOT WASTE A SINGLE CENT ON THIS HELL HOLE, YOU WILL REGRET IT – I CAN PROMISE YOU.

    • Mel
      | Reply

      Sadly agree with Danny

      Wow hearing Danny’s comments makes me feel better. I have studied my undergrad in Management at UniSA and loved it. Now I’m doing my Masters of Teaching and I’m sooooo disappointed. I thought it was just me.

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  31. George
    | Reply

    wow! Mind blowing in man respects. I feel that I may have had an opportunity at Uni in my late life, but after reading all these comments it seems nothing more than a circus for a Big Bill at the end of it.

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    • Hayley
      | Reply

      Lol if you read the reviews in most unis it may make you feel better. I’m in the same boat

  32. Amanda
    | Reply

    I’m study IT at UniSA Mawson Lakes campus about 3 years. study IT in UniSA is my biggest disappointment.

    DO NOT study IT in UniSA!
    Briefly :
    1. very poor teaching quality. 2. No campus life. 3.poor teaching equipment
    3. very disorganized 4. You will wast 4 years life at here !
    5. refusal to cooperate with creativity!

    Ok, let me to explain here.
    1. UniSA school of IT have the most poor teaching quality compare with other schools. There are few VERY GOOD lectures & many VERY BAD lectures(80%). BAD Lectures lecture materials are out of date mostly maned at 2013 and there no new updates since, they fourscore on student self learning, which means they assessing student learning less but you paid same amount money to them lol, let me ask if academic stuffs so focus on student self learning so much, we learn every thing by our self, why should we pay you to teaching us?
    Some lecture is inexperienced in teaching. Some lecture explain course contents so bad, you’d better look on YouTube and teach yourself. Practical tutor just sit there, if ask them they will tell you something else because they don’t know OR simply they don’t have time to replay you because practical class(1.5h) host ~25 student.

    2. No campus life.
    Mawson lake campus don’t have any campus life. Do you self a favor, just go UniSA MLK time and then go to Flinders & UofA you know which is better.
    3.Disorganized
    Academic staff is very disorganized from my past experience.
    4.You will wast 4 years life at here !
    Believe or not. I studied to two particular UofA & Flinders uni computer science course, i learned more CS knowledge. then my friend at UniSA who study same course. Good academics make learning fun and challenging! i made some my best friend outside UniSA & Flinders. If you study IT at UniSA, you will spend more time and learn less!

    5. refusal to cooperate with creativity!
    One particular course at UniSA lecture refuse to let student be more creative and suppress critical thinking! isn’t that the most important thing you should get from any

    So, for people who wanna study computer science, please don’t go to UniSA! go to Flinders Uni and Adelaide Uni. Because at Flinders uni & Adelaide Uni you will learn more, make more friends, and not wast you 4 years life

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  33. Mark
    | Reply

    Disgraceful Attitudes to Mature Age Students

    Started at Mawson Lakes early 2015 studying at School of Environment. Aggressive attitudes to my presence and career achievements directed from many persons, including students and teachers – made my mind up fairly quickly to leave and continue elsewhere. The worst experience studying anywhere in Australia since 1987. I am amazed at the levels of disrespect that are shown on campus these days between adults.

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    • Simone
      | Reply

      Digital Media

      Don’t waste your time and money at uniSA. The digital media degree is pathetic and will not equip anyone for employment.
      The woman who created it is self absorbed. It seems more likely that she is interested in furthering her own career. Do not ever say anything that she and her colleagues don’t want to hear or your grades will plummet.
      Most of the degree is made up of extremely basic social media, GLAM, and design.
      To learn useful information and techniques, I have needed to undertake private courses. The uniSA course materials are so outdated, poorly structured and disorganised. Most of the lecturers don’t understand basic questions, so it’s easier to use Google. They take forever to respond, and they change the assessment criteria on many occasions. I don’t know what they get paid for, and I’m basically paying for a piece of paper for kissing their arses.

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      • Nicole
        | Reply

        Digital Media

        Unfortunately, Simone, you are being too kind. 99% of the educators are lazy and skim through written submissions; don’t know how to teach; don’t know enough about the subject they are supposed to be teaching; don’t know the assessment criteria; and provide templates that they haven’t checked. The inadequacy of these people would be funny if we weren’t paying $1000s and spending years for VERY little.
        Their marking is confusing. Whatever the grade, they never tell you where you lost marks. Even when they do explain, it has been a penalty of 20% because the marker skimmed over information and completely missed it in the essay. Regardless of the bottles of wine they probably gussled, it means that the moderators aren’t doing their job either.
        If you want a good tertiary education, go to NSW or AIT in Melbourne.

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      • Johnno
        | Reply

        Digital Media Online

        I’m afraid I agree with what’s been said. I’m about to give up studying Bachelor of Digital Media at UniSA online. I’ve worked in the industry for years and idly thought I should get some formal qualifications. Some lecturers are great, but on the whole there’s lack of interest, reliance on outdated materials, and lack of understanding about their students and (in some cases) t avery real lack of understanding about realities, breadth and complexity of the industry. I agree about the laziness of skimming through assessment submissions and that it would be less dreadful if we weren’t paying a lot of money for years of work just to get a piece of paper rather than an education.

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        • Sam
          | Reply

          Wow. I’m glad I read your review. I was thinking about enrolling in the Bachelor of Digital Media at UniSA online. Do you think everyone else currently in the course would have similar views to you?

  34. Sherri
    | Reply

    If I had to use one word to describe this UniSA it would be “disappointing” – all around. I studied for 3.5 years at Adelaide Uni which was amazing and some of the best years I’ve ever had, and after experiencing the quality of Adelaide Uni the flaws in the UniSA experience immediately became obvious. I studied at the Mawson Lakes UniSA campus and I can’t even put into words how trapped you feel when you’re there. Because it is so isolated and has nothing to do there between seminars there is absolutely NO sense of university life. The city campuses are probably better in that aspect. While I did have maybe three really good lecturers and some okay ones, the rest were really quite useless, leftist and biased. The admin staff are also generally quite useless and I felt like I spent a lot of effort and time chasing them up and doing half their job for them. Often if you need to call the UniSA to ask a question, they either tell you to just look on the website (which isn’t always helpful) or they will redirect you several times until you can finally get to talk to someone who has some idea of what they’re talking about. I recommend that you save yourself the trouble and disappointment and enrol yourself into a better university like Adelaide or Flinders.
    It’s comforting to see that I am not the only person who has had a terrible UniSA experience.
    UniSA really is just a super-TAFE……and TAFE is more organised.

    • Anonymous
      | Reply

      Staff knowledge not the best

      I had to laugh Sherri – I had the same experience with Admin staff at Mawson lakes. My ID stopped working and it took conversations with Campus Central general staff, then Campus Central senior staff, then security, then back to Campus Central (and round and round) to rectify the situation. This went on for a couple of weeks. I was advised to come and collect my ID as the problem had been rectified but when I arrived it had not been. A very frustrating experience due to unprofessional service.
      Another time I had tried to contact IT after hours but they couldn’t rectify the situation because UniSA’s IT is outsourced to another country (for after hours work) and they were unable to remote in.

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  35. Rick
    | Reply

    I can’t believe that this place existed as a university. There are so many wrongs with this institution. Courses and teachers: Firstly, their program is all over the place. When I tried to transfer to different university in Melbourne for my third year, the academics in my new uni kinda surprised at how little I had learnt in my 2 years at UniSA. Secondly, where do these academic lecturers coming from? They are not expert in their fields. If you asked them too many hard questions, you might get disappointing mark for the semester . Probably, they think you’re trying to be a smart*ss. But I was simply curious for technical knowledge. I guess they don’t really have it in them.
    Accomodation/transport: At least there are decent bus routes toward all of their campuses.
    City life: Adelaide? Bleh…
    Campus life: Other than putting really loud music once every few weeks, there is nothing else…. nothing that might enrich your academic or social aspects of your life.
    One word: AVOID!

  36. MIS
    | Reply

    I have studied here for 4 years.

    City East Campus is mostly comprised of old structures which wouldn’t surprise me if they contained asbestos within them. Only the outside and most apparent areas have been renovated to improve the image of the uni presented.

    Lecturers and other teaching staff are, as other comments say, racist and will grade students heavily weighted on their personal opinions of them whether you are an international student or not. They’re not afraid to fail you and waste multiple years of your life because they didn’t really like you during a few weeks of on-site work placement.

    Adelaide Uni > Flinders > UniSA.
    Not sure about TAFE.

  37. lin
    | Reply

    For all the international students,
    this university is not worth of studying. i was failed by the rude and harsh marking. lecturers do not have any considerations to international students. my life is hell because of this uni. i regret to enrolled this uni. the lecturers remain in unity to defend themselves.
    i would have better with other university . SAY NO TO UNISA SA .

  38. Hdr
    | Reply

    This University proved to be a nightmare for me. Incompetent lecturers. The most racist University of the world. I regret why I enrolled in this University. I am now thinking to ask my fees back and never look back at this bloody racist University.

  39. Milo
    | Reply

    Fiona.
    I couldn’t agree with you more. As a student with a disability (It was diagnosed after I entered my course), their first and foremost priority was to get rid of me (in a way that would not get THEM in trouble with the equal opportunity organizations). I never forget the derogatory remarks of the senior staff. I hated my experience in there.

  40. Beth
    | Reply

    University of South Australia is probably the worst university I’ve been to. They do not care about the students at all (especially external/international students) and basically do the bare minimum. The whole entire time I have been working through my degree I have encountered problem after problem with the staff making constant mistakes. If I wasn’t so close to finishing my degree I would of left this incompetent University. Money hungry liars.

    • Jen Cavanagh
      | Reply

      Disappointed

      Yes I agree with Beth, I am halfway through my accounting degree and transferring to another Uni. Im letting my $$ do the talking and taking them elsewhere.

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  41. Mindar
    | Reply

    I’m studying at UniSA University of South Australia. Agreed with Fiona’s comment, the Student Experience in UniSA is horrible, my friends and i feel depressed when we are at UniSA. Some staff treats students like slave and forgot that they are paid to support/help them. UniSA Sport is a joke. I personally think that i wasted my time here and looking at move to other states.

    The transport and the city are the only thing positive.

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