Swinburne University of Technology

Swinburne University of Technology.

Swinburne University of Technology is a dual tertiary and vocational education institution. The main campus is at Hawthorn in suburban Melbourne. Swinburne mainly teaches undergraduate students, a high % of whom come from overseas.

If you're a current or former Swinburne student, post a review and give your rating. Be sure to mention the course. For a detailed statistical snapshot from Lerna Courses, search "lerna swinburne" in Google.

Swinburne Rating

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User Rating 2.84 (309 votes)
Comments Rating 2.21 (75 reviews)

Student Reviews

136 Responses

  1. Janet
    | Reply

    BACHELOR OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES

    I have just finished the Bach of Psych at Swinburne by pure perseverance. The grading seems rigged to me, and I assume that’s to do with the politics of the Psych industry. Swinburne were one of the only places doing remote degrees at the time I started. There are many Universities now with online options such as UTS and New England to name two that I have heard are very supportive to students and set them up to succeed. I am looking to go onto further study in a different area, and at UNSW.

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  2. Dom
    | Reply

    Negligent, Unprofessional & Chaotic

    I don’t even know where to begin here.
    Over my time with Swinburne I found there were some positives over other unis, which makes me afraid looking into their feedback, but then I’ve also had the pleasure of interacting with the complaints team at least half a dozen times by now.
    -> Their invoice format is misleading and does not give a true reflection of due amounts (breach of ACL S18)
    -> Their I.T. team most recently did not respond to a mission critical issue concerning submission of an assignment
    -> Every single unit has typos, syntax errors, mathematical errors and broken hyperlinks (I am sorry – but for an institution that dobbs their students points for putting a comma into the wrong place in a reference list you cannot afford having a single typo anywhere. Nobody at Swinburne seems to be proof reading / testing the online modules)
    -> I found a lot of tutors provide great feedback, yet somehow you wind up with only 75% of the marks anyways?!
    -> team work in every single unit is getting very tiresome. I get we work as teams these days, but give it a break! We also have our own assignments in the real world, thanks!
    -> Their complaints handling is atrocious
    -> Issues that I raised more than 2 years ago are still outstanding
    -> Students seem to be test bunnies for new gimmicks, such as an integrated feedback platform, yet the integrations seems to not have been tested, as my team mates, and I could only see a truncated version of the captions within, effectively guessing what feedback we were providing – mind you, this is a marked assignment
    -> Year 3 units entail a detailed introduction into team work, and teachers treat students like they’re in a kindergarten. Sorry, but that type of unit belongs into Year 1, not at the end of the course, when we have all gone through two years of team work already and well and truly know how it works.
    -> The university doesn’t update statutory content (i.e. in FY2024 I was provided with learning material that was referencing i.e. 10% SG – Sorry but that’s been 2 years, so nobody bothered updating this? Same with aged care units: in FY2024 we were provided with Centrelink tables from “Pre-COVID”….speechless. In another Fin Planning unit we were required to learn about Fin Planners standards that no longer are in effect and have been overhauled for many years
    -> Swin doesn’t allow you to take a piece of paper and pen with into exams monitored through ProctorU, and instead requires you to buy a whiteboard with erasable pen, yet they won’t pay for it, nor can you deduct that on tax – so who wants to have forced expenses?! (And don’t even get me started on ProcotrU – half those people seem to have an IQ of less than a rock)
    -> Certain units that don’t have a set text book, but consolidate many different, will just throw hundreds of pages of “mandatory” readings at you within the first 3 or 4 weeks – required time per week = 10hrs up my *
    They don’t seem to appreciate that working on assignments, and reading thousands of pages doesn’t just happen within minutes. Thus, advertisement is also misleading

    Overall, I am glad I had a comparatively “easy” run through Uni, but I seriously do not believe that I learned much. Frankly, it could have been much better, and from an educational institution I would expect that
    A) I am not treated like a kindergarten child
    B) I don’t have to educate them on how not to have typos
    C) All content provided is relevant, current and TESTED

    If I allowed myself just half the faux pas’ Swinburne allows themselves, I would be fired within the week!

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  3. Si
    | Reply

    Don't consider doing a PhD there

    Don’t consider doing a PhD there unless really sure about project and supervisor(s), and it’s in one of their core areas like astronomy. They won’t provide adequate support or resources). They are running some reckless experiment with 500+ PhD students digging for diamonds and burning the rest. Problem is that means they can’t provide enough resources for each student. Desk was like a pen in a chicken coup. Administration, leadership team basically non existent. They don’t care about you or what happens to you if your project (which is often industry sponsored) doesn’t work out.

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  4. Ricky
    | Reply

    What the f

    I was promised the world over the phone by Swinburne open ed, with super amazing access to teachers 6 days a week, a great course that updated way before every other TAFE to government requirements since the laws have changed in the last year.
    I’ve done one module of CERT 2 animal attendant, it’s trash. The course is broken, the questions in assessments you have to answer incorrectly because it’s so broken, so you’re learning incorrect information. I asked a question 5 days ago and still have yet to get a simple yes or no answer. I watched one of the videos and the teacher made her run through the ENTIRE quiz instead of just answering the questions she had about 2 out of 12 questions.
    They use a forum system, which is actually an awful forum system since most of the stuff is over a year old anyway and they don’t update it with an intake of new students and wipe the slate clean.
    The content is all over the place, with spelling mistakes, poor wording. The website runs like crap and takes at least 3 minutes to load a page with barely anything on it.
    And god forbid you can get ahold of their support team.

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  5. Elizabeth
    | Reply

    Unethical Conduct

    Swinburne has changed. I have started with distinction to high distinction grades when all of a sudden [name hidden by moderator] graded my work to pass only which affects my average overall score. I highly recommend avoiding him as aLA. However, overall average student grades plummeted dramatically due to Swinburne grading. I suspect they grade students very low to lock them in the Swinburne. If you don’t perform average 65 you can not transfer to another uni, therefore Swinburne has secured their income stream but it will impact student’s career opportunities. So, I highly recommend choosing a different university or you will waste your money.

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  6. linton
    | Reply

    Swinburne university is pure and utter garbage. Hopelessly disorganized on the admin side, and none (and I mean none) of the IT teachers/tutors know anything about computers or programming. Swinburne should be fully closed down and the former staff forced to pay back all their salaries.

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  7. Beren Scott
    | Reply

    Swinburne Online University

    Swinburne Online UniversitySpecific to Online learning, not the university itself, here are the issues I have encountered:
    1. Expensive. Around double the price of other providers.
    2. Very gated unlocking of units. “Study at your own pace” is not true, it takes at least 12 months due to the module unlocking system that requires assessors to have completed marking before the next module is unlocked. Longer due to upcoming issues.
    3. High turnover in assessors. Many assessors quit, leaving month long plus marking backlogs that were not rectified all year. This resulted in Swinburne being in breach of their own contract for the majority of the year.
    4. Little to no support from assessors.
    5. Poorly written and unintelligible content subcontracted out to another provider and not properly reviewed. Broken links & errors abound that make completing the course close to impossible without multiple attempts.
    6. Problems in synergy between Swinburne open & Swinburne university that meant that my transcript was not accurate.
    7. Extremely dissatisfied students who had given up or were forcing themselves through. Expected very low course completion rate (though I don’t have the data, aside from extremely despondent student forums.)
    8. Very low willingness to compromise for students given the above problems. At best “Have another two months to complete the course.”
    Stay away, unless you rhetorically enjoy smashing your head against a brick wall and like to waste $5000 while doing so.

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  8. David Tom Holzgrefe
    | Reply

    shame education instruction should be stripped of it right to host online courses

    Waste of time and money. This uni should be stripped of its right to offer online training. Teachers are impossible to contact, courses seem to be written by AI, and reference links are dead or lead to irrelevant content. This is meant to be a Diploma Level 3 course, likely taken by people for whom English is their second language, and they will have little hope of completing.

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  9. Michael
    | Reply

    Grad Dip Psych is great until half way. Then it's just an embarrassing debacle.

    I was all set to finish the Grad Dip Psych with Swinburne and then go straight into Advanced (Honours) with Swinburne, but after my experience of the poor quality and organisation of the higher level subjects, I’ll be going elsewhere. I’m finding it so awful, with no *actual* support. Up until half way or so, it is well organised and ok. After there? Honestly, it’s so bad. Assignment worksheets with dead links (so haven’t been checked for currency in at least 3 years), no access to materials you’re meant to use for assignments, basically fobbed off from any actual help and told ‘Ask another student!’. Honestly, if I wasn’t so far through (and have already spent that money), I’d be considering just ditching it. I’ve never felt like a cash cow… until now. There’s the bare minimum of investment in the course for what you are paying. I mean, come on. Couldn’t you even be bothered to check the materials?

    So beware…

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  10. Bel
    | Reply

    Don't bother with them

    I haven’t even gotten started with Swinburne Online and I’m already deeply frustrated. After reading these comments (grateful) I’m not going to bother with it.
    Just trying to get my account setup to finalise my enrollment has been like ‘pulling teeth’…maybe even worse. I can’t even get onto anyone on the phone…getting hung up on after waiting 15 minutes. Seriously seems like no one there gives a sh#t.

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  11. Andrew Jones
    | Reply

    Not impressed.

    I am not very happy with SOL.
    I I made a request to transfer to another course, the student adviser told me to withdraw from the current course or I would still be charge for it. I followed his advice, and now I am advised that I can’t transfer because I withdrew from my previous course.
    My advice, don’t study with Swinburne Online, I hope their campus is more efficient, I am off to another Uni.

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  12. George
    | Reply

    Garbage.

    I am deeply dissatisfied with the quality of the ICT degree I am pursuing through Swinburne Online. Even though the tuition fee is equivalent to that of an on-campus university, the curriculum falls short, comprising YouTube videos without proper context and outdated pre-recorded lectures. Echoing other reviews, the curriculum is riddled with buzzwords and appears to be delivered by lecturers who lack hands-on computer experience.

    The university seems to be actively trying to hide the outdated nature of the course units. A case in point is the ‘Introduction to Web Development’ unit, where the pre-recorded videos are labeled as 2023, yet the date displayed on the instructor’s computer is 2019 – truly embarrassing.

    In the ‘ICT Project’ unit, the university has replaced recorded videos with ‘seminars,’ calling them podcasts (dated and uploaded in 2023). Regrettably, these so-called podcasts appear to be the same old pre-recorded videos with their video removed. The ‘instructor’ often refers to materials (such as diagrams) that we should be able to view on our screens, causing frustration as this content is directly related to the assignments required for the unit.

    Swinburne Online epitomises the current state of Australian ‘universities’ – profit-driven institutions offering a mere semblance of an education. To learn more about factors contributing to my description of Swinburne, I recommend reading the Guardian article titled ‘Why Australian universities are outsourcing courses to for-profit providers.’

    This is only scratching the surface and I could elaborate at length about why you should consider other options, but in short: If you have the choice, please explore alternatives.

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  13. Matilda Embry
    | Reply

    I wouldn't wish this learning facility on my worst enemy

    I have studied online courses from other learning facilities and no other has come even close to being the horrific experience of Swinburne. I have had trainers blatantly refuse to give me adequate feedback and as a result, I have waited months to get modules unlocked so I can even continue my studies.
    I’ve had assessments marked with minor adjustments needed only for the trainer to turn around on resubmission and decide that major adjustments are needed.
    Swinburne does not want you to succeed, they want to give you countless obstacles so that they destroy any spirit and motivation you ever had to further your studies. Swinburne wants you to fail miserably and provide as little support as possible. They want you to spend hours on hold with student support, whilst actually providing none.
    They want you to pay for your courses and make it impossible for you to complete them so they can take your money without giving anything back.

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    • Sam
      | Reply

      Inexperienced staff

      I can’t stand Swinburne! those elas, teachers have no marking experience!
      Modules are full of YouTube videos….they encourage students to ask questionss ‘even it’s a stupid question, no question is a stupid question ‘ then you ask about the references lol 😆 and they insult the stupid!
      such a scam….they just want money 💰
      no support, the elas mark the where, 90% of the time, their marking in either wrong….mark me down apa7 lol 😆 😂 the ela doesn’t know herself, luckily I got my grade increased as the ela marked me down for something she didn’t even know!!!!!!!!
      STAY AWAY FROM THIS ONLINE SWINBURNE….PLENTY OF OTHER ONLINE UNIVERSITIES
      ALL THE BEST

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  14. DavidS
    | Reply

    A reasonable university

    I don’t have anything to compare Swinburne to other than a stint with UNSW about 15 years ago, but I decided to get into psychology and completed the undergraduate social science degree with Swinburne online. Overall the experience was pleasant and rather than blanket praising or condemning the university or even the faculty, the positives and negatives came down to the individual ELA. Some were great, prompt at answering questions and offered advice outside of study when asked. Some were active in reminding you to contribute to group discussions and would email you asking if there were any issues if you were absent from logging in for a certain amount of time which was appreciated. Others could not be bothered responding emails. Some you could tell were very knowledgeable, others seemed like they should have re-taken their bachelors of psychology. The only persistent issue I had with Swinburne Online was the constant ad-hoc changes to assessment criteria, particularly when writing reports and the inconsistency of APA structure and referencing from different ELA’s. Overall though a fairly good experience which has allowed me to continue further tertiary education.

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  15. international student
    | Reply

    Mid University

    just dont go here unless you really have no other choice. transferring next semester cause i am not getting my money’s worth. peace out.

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  16. Nicola
    | Reply

    Criminology Major - so disappointed with the whole online Uni experience.

    Online Criminology Major.
    I have had little to no support or response from eLAs. Very little interaction from them other than to post a copy and paste to the discussion forums. Haven’t even received weekly emails from eLAs about the up coming week. The unit coordinators seem a little more engaged but lets face it, the day to day stuff should be handled in a timely manner by the eLAs. So disappointed and unsupported that I am withdrawing from the degree altogether in the next few days, (just curious at this point how long it will take for a response to my latest correspondence). Having a complete rethink about the whole Uni experience at this point. Surely they can all be like this when studying online???

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  17. Internation Student
    | Reply

    Disappointing (Cybersecurity Degree)

    As others have mentioned, any IT degree here is garbage. However, my review is about the utter trash that is the Master’s degree in Cybersecurity offered by Swinburne. This might help other international students like me who are thinking of applying for this course here.

    1. The actual curriculum bears no resemblance to the advertised one. For example, I picked up this because the units “Glass Box Project” and “Reverse Engineering Project” seemed interesting. The former was apparently about inferring the inner workings of a binary given only black-box access to it, while the latter was apparently about dissecting a binary given white-box access to it.

    However, as it turned out, for Glass Box Project, we were asked to create an interactive dashboard that visualized data about vulnerabilities as our final project! Ridiculous! If we wanted to be vanilla front-end web developers, we would have applied for a web-dev course on Udemy. This is just one example; There were at least 4 other units that were diluted like this.

    If you look at the course details for this degree now, you will see a bunch of “Innovation”-themed units (Swinburne seems to have restructured the course by removing some of the previously mentioned units). Stay away from these! You’ll basically be creating dashboards and presentations based on some buzzwords that your “tutor” mentions. Speaking of tutors:

    2. Most of the younger tutors (Ph.D. students / recent graduates) have either zero knowledge or poor English (or both). There were a couple of excellent tutors in the first semester, one international and one Aussie tutor. The Aussie tutor resigned after the first semester and since then, everything went downhill.

    One of the other Aussie tutors – he is in charge of the “Innovation”-themed lectures – is quite simply a fraud. He literally never taught a single thing through three units! His “lecture” consisted of him showing up to the classroom, asking all of us to do some “research” while he presumably surfed the internet on his laptop! And this for three months! To prove to us that he knows his stuff, he occasionally mentions keywords from research papers such as “concept drift” and “Monte Carlo simulations”. If we ask him any doubt about any of these topics, he tells us that it’s our job as students to “research” and find out the answer to these questions. Then what’s his job, I wonder? After about three units with the guy, I was convinced that he knows little about AI and Cybersecurity (You can look up some of the papers that he’s published: his major contributions are surveys and lazy visualizations).

    The other tutors mean well but cannot speak any English. One of them had such a thick accent that we couldn’t make out the majority of the words they spoke.

    To summarize, this is a marketing degree in the guise of a technical degree. Do yourself a favor and don’t make the mistake I made. It’s more important to know the professors that you’ll be working with rather than the course or units or even the reputation of the university. There are some really awesome computer science professors in Australia: Study at the universities they work in.

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  18. Ashley
    | Reply

    Swinburne is utter garbage-avoid

    Swinburne university is complete and utter garbage. Studying IT at Swinburne Hawthorn is a complete waste of time, none of the staff had ever even used a computer, knew nothing about IT, and we just a bunch of failures reading business buzzwords from the latest online article. How can you forget the one lecture you have to attend on a Friday morning, which consists of a lecturer who’s never used a computer reading out a chapter from a book in 20 minutes.
    You learn nothing, no programming, no practical stuff, just nothing. The tutors are mostly foreign students who can’t speak english being given jobs because they pay full fees.
    There are no jobs in IT anyway, Swinburne is a fraud taught by failures, and should be completely shut down.

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  19. Rebecca
    | Reply

    Stay away Swinburne

    I transferred to Swinburne from Chisholm to complete my Diploma of Community Services in the Accredited field. I work so hard on all my assignments, spending up to 60 plus hours on them. My core work was finished early July 2021, with placement in a suitable organisation pending. Placement required a focus on case management and supervision on the job. Swinburne sent me to a grass roots op shop in Frankston North that they had not checked for suitability. When I expressed my concerns about the suitability, I was strongly encouraged to stay. Swinburne dide not meet their duty of care to me by checking the placement or supporting me when I had concerns. After a 4 weeks and over 30 hours, I left unable to take the bullying and religious indoctronation I was subjected to. I was a mess. Swinburne student life sanctioned me for standing up to the faculty and used the fact the I walked out of placement as a weapon in their sancfion. I have nightmares, Swinburne will not support me to finish my coure and I have wasted 3.5 years of hard work. I am not covered by Worksafe as student placements are out of their domain. I have cannot look for work, my depression worsens as they kick the boots in harder and they have stripped me of my right to feel safe. Phil from Student Advocacy will pretend to be helpful and then drop and block your number. I just don’t think there is any lower I can go. I beg you to stay away. I winever finish and the nightmares aren’t going away. Four months ago despite some adversities I was ok. Now I have confirmation that I have no rights and that speaking out will get you persecuted .

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  20. George
    | Reply

    Swinburne IT is garbage

    Swinburne University is garbage. I did IT at the Hawthorn campus. None of the staff had any real experience in computers, and there was no, literally no, practical instruction in the course. The teachers are just dropped out humanities teachers who teach you the latest business buzzword rubbish. I studied in the dot com boom and all of us were desperate to find out how to set up a website, or a web server etc. No chance, the staff didn’t have any skills or knowledge of computers. I got so frustrated I paid for a seperate course in how to build websites.
    The tutors are almost exclusively overseas students, many of whom can barely speak English and who have no knowledge (like the staff) of IT issues. Many dont even turn up to tutes. A senior faculty member at Swinburne admitted the tutors were hopeless, but they gave them the jobs because they paid full fees and wanted to recycle the money.
    Everyone enrolled at Swinburne should immediately withdraw and demand a full refund. The place should be shut.

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  21. LOLO
    | Reply

    Don't do it... AVOID Swinburne

    The worst, and I mean the worst university I have attended!!! I was accepted by 2 universities that I had applied to do my Masters in Education with. Swinburne was one of them. I spoke to the intake officer who assured me that THEY would be responsible for finding placements…. WRONG.. I had no idea until halfway through my 2nd year that finding placements rested solely on myself… NEITHER was I told about having to sit for numeracy and literacy. Out of all the tutors for my subjects, I would have to say 2 were helpful, the rest it seemed it was just a way of working from home and making easy money! Save yourself the stress and tears, go with ANY OTHER UNI, don’t go to Swinburne Online!!!! If I could give it minus ten stars, I would.

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  22. Me
    | Reply

    Avoid Swinburne if you want to avoid trauma

    I wish I could get back the five weeks of my life I lost at Swinburne. I was tricked into enrolling into a Certificate 3 in Early Childhood Education and Care by multiple staff members who told me I had the option of changing to part-time if I couldn’t handle full-time study, which turned out to be a lie. One teacher told us one thing, then a different teacher would tell us the exact opposite thing, and clarification was never given. They told us bizarre, dangerous lies that blatantly denied science and history. The words that the teachers gave us in “response” to our questions had no relation to the questions that were asked. They must have noticed that most of the students did not have English as their first language, but they still used ridiculous euphemisms, and shamed the CALD students for asking for clarification. The teachers had no interest in dealing with the people who showed up to class to distract others by whispering, chatting, laughing and loudly singing, which meant that the rest of us learned nothing. The teachers have no knowledge of the industry, despite claiming to have extensive experience in same. One of these people who claims to have worked with children for twenty years, and is a mother, could not talk to us about feeding children in complete sentences, instead snickering and calling it “whipping it out” and “flashing”. Another teacher told us what to do “when” we gave birth, as if this were mandatory, rather than an individual choice. She also spent most of one class talking about the “fact”, as she sees it, that women are incapable of communicating directly, and that we are instead passive-aggressive and dishonest. Another teacher delighted in labelling us bigots because she didn’t understand what we were saying. She works from the assumption that all non-Indigenous Australians actively despise Indigenous Australians and believe that they are invariably a drain on society. Knowing that everything I say will be twisted and condemned, because of the colour of my skin, is not conducive to having a classroom environment in which I feel safe enough to contribute and have open and honest discussions. She herself was extremely racist against Indigenous Australians, expecting us to believe that Europeans introduced the concept of violence to Indigenous Australians, who were so innocent that they had never previously considered it, and that only non-Aboriginal people understand and consent to being religious; that Indigenous Australians are so stupid that they only accept religion because they have been, in her exact words, “brainwashed” into it. She was also very homophobic, and having the trauma of my own experience of homophobia explained to me, trivialised, and justified, by someone who gets paid to boast about being gay-friendly, was itself a traumatic experience. It is also just generally exhausting to try to have a sincere discussion with someone who isn’t interested in actually hearing me, when it is that person’s job to listen. Her favourite hobby is putting random words in her students’ mouths to make us out to be as monstrous as possible. Providing coherent and appropriate answers to students’ questions seems like the most basic and necessary thing an educator can do, but she prefers to psychologically break us. When another student assaulted me during class, the teacher explained to me that I was overreacting, that the other student had every right to assault me, and asked me three times if I enjoyed the assault. I am now so traumatised that I no longer feel safe enrolling in a classroom-based course in any university, so I feel I have no choice but to resort to online study.

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  23. Matt P
    | Reply

    A bit underrated.

    Psychological Science student here. (SOL)

    I think Swinburne is a bit underrated for some of its fields and my experience with it is quite good!

    I came to Swinburne in my early 30s and having a bit of life experience and several professional roles prior to this I came into learning with a different view. I find the content well presented (Canvas and Cengage are exceptional and something a lot of institutions seriously lack- “better ranked” universities have much, much worse!- though some of the Cengage text books I do find to be a little too ‘conversational’ rather than just getting to the point… minor stuff) The teaching staff I have found to be very helpful and approachable, though as an adult learner I find myself adopting a more ‘constructivist’ style of learning; I hold myself accountable for seeking out knowledge rather than holding the lecturer or uni accountable for handing it all to me. I like that, in the sense that it hones research skills and critical thinking, and maybe this is why I have found the staff approachable and supportive, because I’ve motivated myself to seek knowledge rather than just expect them to hand it all to me..

    I have friends studying at other uni’s, even “prestigious” ones, and we commonly compare experiences. Those people find themselves longing for simpler access to content (Canvas wins here…) and they struggle with the content that their uni provides because it’s so complicated and intent in being overly “academic” in its language that they simply don’t understand the concepts behind it all.

    Swinburne seems to balance it all a bit better, have its feet in planted in the real world a bit more, and for this, it certainly should be higher ranking.

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    • Luke
      | Reply

      Good luck getting a job at the end of your degree. All good if you’re studying business or IT, however, teaching, nursing and psych professions won’t hire anyone from swinburne. Be careful, finish your undergrad and move to an actual uni for post grad. That way you can get a job

      • CuriousStudent
        | Reply

        Panik

        Hey, could you please tell me more Om this matter? I am currently doing a double degree in health science and media communications. I’m not sure which path I’ll be taking between the two yet, but I do plan on majoring in psych. So could you let me know where you got this information from?

  24. KT
    | Reply

    Definitely underrated

    I have always had a soft spot for Swinburne. This is evident in my completion of an undergraduate and two postgraduate degrees there.
    Also, having experienced RMIT I was reassured that my love and respect for Swinburne was not misplaced.
    I found RMIT courses/dergrees not being worthy of the paper they are written on. Anyhow, this review is about Swinburne.
    My experience with Swinburne was pleasing and fruitful. However, seeing some of the posts here especially the post by Shane Murray worries me. If this rude, unpleasant, and unprofessional individual is a teacher at Swinburne, I worry for Swinburne and its future as I don’t think this person has neither professionalism nor the patience to qualify as a teacher.

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  25. Hayley
    | Reply

    Bachelor of Business (Marketing) ??? Any feedback?

    I’m looking at possibly transferring from another university (LTU); does anyone have any feedback regarding their experience with a Bachelor of Business (Marketing Major) degree at Swinburne?

    I’d hopefully like to get recognition of prior learning too as I’ve completed quite a few subjects at LTU.

    I’m hoping to find an institution that provides a degree with ACTUAL transferrable skills that will help me in my field.

    Happy to chat personally if anyone has any detailed feedback 🙂

    Thanks!

  26. Steph T
    | Reply

    Amazing Online Study Experience - Bachelor of Business (Management)

    I could not recommend Swinburne online enough! The student advisors and tutors are so flexible, always available to help and genuinely want you to do well. I completed my Bachelor of Business with a major in Management doing 2 units per Teaching Period while working full time and had no issues balancing my workload.

    When applying, the course adviser actually wanted to help me gain recognition of prior learning where possible so that I could reduce the amount of time required to completed my degree. I had been tossing up between Swinburne Online and another university, the other university was more expensive and didn’t seem to want to help me as much.

    I have previously completed another degree with a different university on campus and was a little nervous to study online – now that I’ve finished, I have no regrets! Highly recommend!

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    • Hayley
      | Reply

      Hi there,

      Do you mind if I reach out to you personally to discuss your experience? 🙂 I’m thinking of transferring from another university into the Bachelor of Business (Marketing), and I’m worried about not being able to be credited for my previous subjects.

      I also want to ensure I’m transferring to a university that will help equip me with transferrable skills for my career!

      Thanks! 🙂

  27. Chloe
    | Reply

    Swinburne Online - Bach Social Science, Major in Crim

    I’m due to finish my degree this month and cannot speak highly enough if Swinburne Online.

    Teaching staff are incredibly helpful and supportive, plus the Swinburne Help phone line is great too.

    Assessment task instructions are clear, as are the learning materials and requirements.

    I previously went to a uni with a great reputation (D3@K!N) and had a horrible experience there and was very unsupported. 100% recommend Swinburne.

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  28. nope
    | Reply

    Avoid for Education degrees!!!!!

    If you are considering an Education course at Swinburne university, RUN THE OTHER WAY.

    For each subject you get 5, maybe 6 tutes for the semester with the rest being self taught with pre recorded lectures posted in a different location per subject so they are difficult to find. Yes this is for the “on campus” version of the course. This might be okay if the tutors actually cared about their students enough to do some actual teaching in their classes instead of 45 minutes of nothing much out of whats meant to be the 2 hour tute and then calling it a day. If you want to go to Swinburne you may as well just enrol to study online.

    The only positive they have is that they do take students mid year which may allow you to graduate 6 months earlier depending on your situation but in my experience, it isn’t worth it. I can only pray now that I can get the marks to transfer for next semester.

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  29. Shane Murray
    | Reply

    Whoah There! In defence of Swinburne Online, common sense, the data; and in supporting new and curious psychology students who will learn that this sample is extremely non-representative!

    ATTENTION FUTURE PSYCHOLOGY STUDENTS:
    So, here’s the thing. I came across this review quite by accident (while researching some health promotion electives I want to pick up from the University of South Australia [online]). At first glance, any prospective student, including psychology students, could be forgiven for reading this and running for the hills (or at least slowly exiting stage left). But I would encourage these kinds of good folks to largely disregard most of what you’ve read on here, and to read on.

    A REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE
    One of the first things you’re going to learn about is Research Methods. And given that you’re researching your options, this is quite apt. The most important thing you’ll learn, without question, is that any study or experiment must be inherently flawed if you have not based your data collection on a representative sample. Your design is inherently flawed (myriad internal and external ‘validity’ issues), and therefore your data will mean less than nothing. And I can tell you, with great confidence, that most of the data here means nothing (let’s call them ‘statistical outliers’ [to be kind and generous]). These are what we could fairly label, ‘The flawed and the failed and the furious’ (FFF). Why am I confident of this? If you go and look at the University of Melbourne (Australia’s number 1 university) or any of the Go8 crowd (e.g. University of Queensland), you’ll find that they are similarly scored (and similarly eviscerated) by the same kinds of FFFs. If we were content to live in an echo chamber, then we might consider such data to be accurate (e.g. 2.7/5 stars vs 2.5/5 stars). Here’s the thing: (1) these data vary by very little; certainly by not enough to be statistically significant (another great thing you’ll learn), and (2) they are in no way consistent with data published by any of the university’s on student satisfaction (let’s call this ‘triangulation’ – with real, robust, verified data). Therefore, what can we infer or conclude?

    OUR HYPOTHESES
    1. The types of folks who come on here to vent their spleen and criticise are more likely to be FFF than those who work hard, overcome obstacles, and get the job done.
    2. The former is represented here (vs the latter) at a ratio of approximately 8:1; the latter being too busy working hard rather than being focused on manufacturing such calumnious tripe
    3. Therefore, the data cannot be relied upon

    THE RESULTS
    Psychology is hard. Damned hard! You have to THINK. Constantly! While this pursuit may seem impossible according to many in the FFF cohort, I’m here to tell you that it is possible. But you have to forgo that party with your friends, you have to forgo this and that special occasion. Because you’re working towards something that few have the desire or the capacity to truly comprehend – an understanding of the most complex thing in the world. And if you want to progress to honours year and beyond, then you NEED great results. Not OK results. Not good results. But great results. Did I mention it’s hard?

    DISCUSSION
    If you’ve read to here, then there’s only one thing I need to say: the field of psychology needs good folks just like you. Persistence. Stickability. The thoroughness and attention to detail to see through what appears to be, to what IS. Try getting in to see a psychologist. It’ll be a 4, 5, 6-week wait. And even then they might not be the right fit. Why? Probably because you’re not there yet; because you might be the one, the ‘right fit’. Yes, you’re going to be studying the same length of time as a doctor of medicine (or even more if you want to be a doctor of psychology), and at the end you’re gong to receive perhaps one-third the pay. Who cares! You’ll learn that if you compare yourself to those ‘better off’ than you, you’re always going to suffer by comparison. But can their 12-minute chat and a prescription for Valium (even Word spell-checker recognised that I hadn’t capitalised it) really compare to you getting to know that person over many hours, over many weeks, and perhaps months or years? No! Because instead of masking or hiding the problem, you’re eventually going to help them to help themselves to get to the root cause of the problem. Make no mistake, many of these types of prescriptions are great, but often times because the individual has left it so long that they need to be medicated in order to get to a place where we can help. Take social anxiety disorder (SAD) for example. The onset is typically between the ages of 8-15 years, yet according to the DSM-5, most people wait 15 to 20 years to get help – and even then it’s only a small proportion of those effected that make the choice to reach out after all this time. And how many pills have they been on in the meantime? How many drinks have they drunk? How many substances have they abused? And how many co-morbid conditions have onset because of the social isolation inherent in the condition (e.g. major depressive disorder)?

    WHO KNOWS?
    Maybe you do. But you’re not if you’re in any way taking part in validating the spurious data on this platform. Yes, the attrition rates are large (in any university course – or TAFE course, or army induction training or trade apprenticeship or charity fun run or whatever have you). Especially making it to the end and going on to honours. And then even more so in making it into a masters or beyond. Are you going to be part of the 80%, or are you going to be part of the 20% (or less) who make it through to make a difference? I would encourage you to enrol in a unit or two, to try it out for yourself, to see what the eLA’s are like, to see what the discussion boards and the help and the collaborate sessions are like. Try your own experiment.

    The great Democrat senator, Daniel Moynihan, once said, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but no one is entitled to their own facts”.

    Kind regards,

    Shane Murray (proud SOL psychology student)

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    • Michael
      | Reply

      Stay clear of SwinBURNe

      You are entitled to your opinion, but I disagree.

      Swinburne is lousy and I can give you multiple examples and situations to back this up.

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    • Christie
      | Reply

      You’re a legend. Are you single?

    • Doug
      | Reply

      Who are you?

      Your wrote this in the wee hours of the morning, no? Lots of parts are incoherent. And a suffice “swinbournes the best, forget the rest” would do.

  30. Anthony
    | Reply

    Useless. Was studying the Diploma of Business and the course was not well supported.
    I failed a section, raised why I failed the section with the teacher, who then agreed it was incorrect and I was correct, however was told to resubmit the incorrect response.
    There were many other instances where information appeared incorrect or lacking support.
    Would not recommend for working professionals looking to upskill.

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  31. Nicholas Pantelis
    | Reply

    Master of primary teaching online - primarily rubbish

    Swinburne seems content to do little more than push some outdated literature at you, call it a course and go for an early lunch. Here I was thinking because i was doing my readings and getting decent grades on my assignments I would be ready for some actual teaching and would do fairly well in my placements, well Im now one week in on my first placement and my mentor teacher took me aside and asked to have a look at the Swinburne curriculum and what do would you know, none of it has much practical application in a class.

    Lets take teaching english for example (reading), fairly important and fundamental for primary school teaching I think we can all agree. What are we taught to focus on at Swinburne: the four resource model, a model developed in 1990! Sure it’s a solid basis to start from but once again Swinburne decided to call it done there, pop out for a liquid lunch and call in sick the next day. My placement mentor teacher was kind enough to show me where to find the information I am missing, you know what key learning components Swinburn decided weren’t worth going into much detail about in reading alone:
    – concepts of print
    – phonics
    – phonological awareness
    – word morphology
    – vocabulary
    – fluency
    – comprehension
    – literature
    – visual literacy
    – the different teaching techniques teachers use to join all of the above together to teach
    Each of the above requires a full lesson in their own right and I am now cramming them over the weekend to be of some use to my mentor teacher. Sure some of the above Swinburn sort of covers, you are maybe given one resource from an ancient academic paper whose relevance in 2021 is questionable at best.

    Also no lectures, I mean come on, some ELA’s have some half-decent recordings but most of those are over 5 years old! Congratulations Swinburne with this degree I would make a fantastic teacher in 18th century England.

    My advice go to your state department for education’s website, read through what’s there and get out of Swinburne. I hear Deakin Uni has a much better course.

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    • Shane Murray
      | Reply

      Goodness me!

      I don’t think you’d make a ‘fantastic’ teacher at any time in history. So many items you discuss are covered adequately in the course, but perhaps not by You. Teaching is about learning, but of course that’s someone else’s responsibility. Maybe you could be a professional whinger instead of a teacher. Do Deakin have a course in that? Straight HDs for you, my friend.

      • Noneofyourbusiness
        | Reply

        Low Blow from the Swinburne teacher!

        wow for a Swinburne teacher you are quite rude! you would make a better argument if you remained polite and stick to facts instead of resorting to the name calling of the poster. He may be a whinger as you so delicately put it, however, he has every right to voice his opinion. You are supposed to be a professional, you should probably act like one and pitch the response with facts not insults.

  32. Mark
    | Reply

    Business degree is pretty good

    Just finished double major economics and finance. I only had 2 issues in my 3 years of study, other than that I think business faculty is the best out of all my friends from rmit,deak,Monash when we look at each other assignments requirements and lectures. My 1 issue is the typical uni bullshit with group members l. 2nd 1 unit that gave low marks to everyone as well as not providing information to prepare for exam. Other than that business course is very good, I don’t know about other courses buy my course teacher reply within 5 hours.,easy.canvas online platform Is easy to navigate , lectures have basic content to understand ,unless heavy subjects such as econometrics or statistics. Everything else in books or google which I don’t mind , during covid online transfer they did good job adjusting to online content with some teachers struggling as never done before I understand. I met a lot of extremely smart ane good finance and economics teachers with good life experinces and tips. Even made frinds with some that talk outside of school regarding stock trading. My only criticism is the 2 capstone units in final year of degree, it’s real life industry assignments but students struggle due to being young. I would recommend business degree especially finance in swiny.

    • Varshinee
      | Reply

      Hi mark,

      Your review was helpful can I get in touch with you to know more on business faculties, I am varshinee checking for business degree HR this year

  33. George
    | Reply

    I made a correctable mistake

    I have enrolled in the bachelor of psychological sciences, after reading these reviews and seeing what friends who attended Swinburne also had to say, I am out of here before the census commences. They appear to give all students low marks and take points off students too! A few eLAs don’t post their email, so you cannot contact them with questions. The student community is wonderful, and I can’t fault them, I just wish they could all transfer with me.

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  34. Shan
    | Reply

    Education degree online

    Hi everyone,
    I’m planning to start my bachelor of early childhood and primary education online with Swinburne next month. Haven’t officially enrolled yet. After reading the comments I’m having cold feet. I appreciate it if anyone can advise me on whether to go with this uni.

    Thanks in advance.

    • Deb
      | Reply

      Swinburne is shite

      Don’t bother with Swinburne for an education degree. There are some great teachers with lots of experiences in education but the benefits end there. You will not have access to a supportive schedule, especially on your placements, you will get very limited and glossed over practical support. Swinburne has changed the way classes have been structed three times in the 4 years I’ve been there with no explanation as to why, and they don’t make these changes to support students, things have just been getting more and more difficult. There will be many timetable conflicts, meaning you’ll miss out on a lot of the content you are paying for with the expectation that you just do all the learning yourself. Choosing Swinburne university has been the worst choice I’ve ever made.

  35. Joshua
    | Reply

    Not the Place of Aviation.

    If you are interested in the Bachelor of Aviation or Aviation Management course – do not enrol here. I am a fourth year student, and have been absolutely disgusted with the way such course is managed, as well as the way the students are treated by staff. Even today, I hear stories in which the negligent actions or lack of action by staff have resulted in students having to increase the length of their courses. If ever you need help, the phones go unanswered, the emails go unanswered and the people you see try to handball your problems down the line.
    Even in management, there is no certainty to anything. I was told different things by different people who all work in the same office, this resulted in my course having to be extended as well – it is infuriating.

    I went to uni expecting to be working in a professional educational environment – Swinburne is far from it. I would not recommend it to anyone, and this feeling is one many in my cohort also feel.

    Seek other options.

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    • Spencer
      | Reply

      Hi Joshua,

      Please elaborate further on this further regarding the Aviation courses. Are unhappy with the staff or the course itself?

  36. Lori
    | Reply

    Avoid Swinburne Online and go elsewhere.

    Would not recommend Swinburne Online.

    The requirements for assignments are not solely placed in formal “assignment criteria”. The e Learning Advisors place bits and pieces of added criteria at their discretion throughout the trimester that are needed to pass the assignments in weekly discussion boards, collaboration streams, emails etc. If you finalise an assignment and you complete only the formal criteria in the assignments tab then you will fail if you’ve miss the informally added criteria in all those other places.

    There is very little support. They respond almost immediately which is a bonus. It’s not a bonus when the response is “please re-read the rubric, here’s a YouTube video on the subject of the course, I discussed this vaguely on one of the collaborations”. There are 12 collaborations a trimester at over an hour each. Good luck with finding that information again.

    If you need a review on an assignment or would like to provide feedback, don’t! Some of the e Learning Advisors are quite insensitive and will have their superiors reply to your emails supporting the e Learning Advisor and making it a you versus them scenario rather than critically exploring the issue and coming to a resolution.

    Most of the subjects will be very similar with similar assessments which can be confusing at times especially with the information clashing.

    They encourage team assignments in an online environment. This can be successful but they do not seem to acknowledge that majority of the students who are studying online are working full time with mature aged commitments requiring flexibility which is the whole reason they’re studying online. For example, if I only have between 10pm-1am to study while my family is asleep and I’m not at work then it’s pretty unreasonable to assume I will have time to schedule in with five other people who also have commitments five to ten hours a week to work together simultaneously for an assessment. There is no flexibility or options for alternate arrangements. When asked why this is the case the response received was “this will teach you how to work in teams in the real world”. I had a chuckle at this being middle aged whilst working in a corporate managerial role.

    The list could go on. Avoid and go elsewhere.

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    • Big Stu
      | Reply

      Thanks very much for this Lori, will steer well clear

  37. Riley
    | Reply

    Extremely disappointing and not recommended

    Extremely disappointing and not recommended.
    I completed my Bachelor of Psychological Sciences online with Swinburne and the quality of teaching was extremely poor in all units aside from a few. Not unusual to be listening to lectures delivered from lecturers with poor English, so I found I had to listen to lectures many times or post questions on the discussion board to grasp what they were trying to communicate. In addition, it was not unusual to come across egotistical unit convenors who only used jargon rather than plain English, or on the opposite end of the scale recent graduates who lacked real life experience and were therefore unable to answer legitimate questions that arose.
    Much of the reading from main textbooks was of a poor quality and it was not uncommon to need a lot of further reading to grasp concepts as you are are mainly left to your own device, and expected to find your own answers to valid questions on topic either through doing excessive research, or chatting with other students on the discussion board. This was very discouraging as I was hoping to learn from ‘experts’ in the field, rather than merely surmising between students.
    Feedback on assessments mostly focused on whether you were ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ with vague comments here and there, but rarely included detailed responses on how you could better your work.
    I completed all my electives through two other universities and this only magnified how inadequate the teaching standards are at Swinburne.
    Two positive aspects of my Swinburne experience was the sheer volume of online resources through their library (clearly it was much needed), and how simple the learning platforms were to navigate.

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    • John
      | Reply

      Poor Sciences, glad to have left and gone to a real University

      Have to Agree, Swinburne, rates in my case less than one star. Their Lecturers seemed to be placed because of their want of rather than experience. Essentially they are trumped up secondary school teachers. Department Heads seem to be more interested in attending Administrative meetings rather than attending to curriculum and other student related concerns. Swinburne should be embarrassed to call itself a ‘university’ because it is not! Suggested texts are not the most current or up to date and lecturers seem to be unaware of this. Tutors/Mentors (if they decide to show up) don’t seem to know any more than the students!
      Fortunately for me I was accepted at University of Melbourne and within 18 Months, completed an Honours Degree in Science – Honours Degrees seem unheard of at Swinburne. So Glad I left.

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  38. jayb
    | Reply

    Architecture undergrad- reviews needed!!!

    Hi all, i am an international student looking to study Architecture (undergrad) at Swinburne University in march 2021. I have recieved an offer letter from the university along with a 75% scholarship on the entire fees. I am confused if i should accept it or not. The scholarship will save me a looooooot of money and prevent student debts as i also want to get a masters degree from australia. would you recommend accepting this offer and study from a reputed university for masters ? Will my job prospects be affected if i have a undergrad degree from swinburne ?

    • Rafa
      | Reply

      Should I accept their scholarship?

      I’m looking forward to this 75% scholarship in Bachelor of Design (Architecture). I’m so confused whether I should go or not. Any Architecture student to help me out in this case?

  39. anonymous
    | Reply

    How is Civil Engineering in Swinburne?

    After briefly skimming through the mostly negative reviews here, I wanted to ask current or former undergrad/grad students about their experience with Civil Engineering classes. I’ve heard from a friend that it’s pretty decent, but I wanted someone else’s opinion for this matter.

    Is the experience worth it? How is the employability post-graduation?

  40. Jacqui
    | Reply

    I would recommend Science at Swinburne

    My first comment is in regards to Covid Isolation:
    I just completed the first semester (of my final year of my degree) online due to Covid. I can honestly say from that semester alone, Swinburne did an amazing job. I always got email responses within 30 minutes, all staff and tutors answered any questions and queries I had, and for my classes, the staff did their best to make sure we were getting the most out of their teaching. I was very happy with the semester.

    I am completing a Bachelor of Science, major in Physics. When initially applying for universities, Swinburne I found was the most approachable and helpful, while delivering the same content as other universities (I’m comparing to Melbourne, Monash, Deakin, RMIT). I am now in my final year of my degree.

    The WORST part of the university is indeed specific teachers/tutors. For majority of my course, my lecturers and tutors have been extremely knowledgable, helpful, and approachable. I was always able to email them and get quick responses, ask any questions regarding the units, and even voice my concerns. But for some classes the teachers would read directly from the Study Guide, and copy the exact content we already have. Situations like those – in my experience – has resulted in feedback from students, which has then seen those tutors be replaced the following year.

    What I love about Swinburne, is the amount of practical work, and experience you can get. I know all the staff in my faculty/department very well, and during my years here I have taken part in various projects and events. If you actually take the time to experience the university as a whole, rather than just attend classes and go home, it is a very resourceful university.

    Obviously from the comments on here, there are lots of people who really didn’t like their time at Swinburne, and these comments are also from different faculties and departments, which I cannot comment on. I can only speak from my experience from FSET and my science degree. If you are interested in studying Science at Swinburne, I would definitely recommend it.

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    • Rachel
      | Reply

      Hi, I’m thinking of doing my first year of Science (Professional) Bachelor Degree majoring in Environmental Science. I know you recommend Science and that is great to hear, but do you know much about how good the Environmental Science classes are?

  41. Teresa
    | Reply

    Waste of Money, save your stress and a$40 k HECS fee lifetime of debt for a useless degree

    Swinburne online probably has their heart in the right place in helping students who live in remote places or who have full time jobs but unless you have a full time job in a relevant field and this degree will enable you to get a promotion DO NOT BOTHER.
    Fees are charged at the same rate as on campus despite having far less resources available to you, for example ignoring the obvious, that you most likely aren’t actual able to use physical facilities, some of the job placement and career advice is not available to you as an online student.

    The marking was frequently opinionated and in order to receive a good mark you just had to be the lecturers echo chamber. Lectures 50% consist of the speakers going “guys can you hear me, I’m just making sure you can hear me, everyone still hearing me?”. I’m also of the understanding these lecturers/teachers are often paid extremely well, in the vicinity of $500 per day. for every great teacher there where a couple of terrible teachers who didn’t have any relevant industry knowledge, training or the ability to “teach” or get back to you for weeks at a time.

    You didn’t really learn anything from the course content because it was often the exact same across units, there where an embarrassing amount of basic grammatical mistakes in the online work. Even worse most of the weekly work was “watch this youtube video and answer some questions”. I can watch youtube for free (apart from ads yes). You weren’t learning different skills in different units or to think critically and the assignments always followed the same pattern. The focus on “team work” really demonstrated to me the level of some people attending the university. These where people that would have failed the Level 2 literacy and numeracy tests that you are required to pass in order to get into the most basic tafe certificate courses which is the only way I can comprehend 40-60% of marks being “team based” in the majority of units.

    When I actually worked in a relevant field I found what I had learned was extremely useless and hadn’t covered real world application in any way and that obtaining relevant lisencing and actual job experience and simply actual experience in tasks involved in the industry was more beneficial and cost less or actually paid me.

    if I could go back in time I would have just found a job or done a basic tafe course rather than indebt myself tens of thousands of dollars for something that didn’t really help me in any way.

    I think this university in online form does have a place in the educational sphere, but only suits those who are ready to be highly involved and enthusiastic online and simply cant attend for whatever reason or those who need a degree to move up in a field they are already working in.
    My problem with Swinburne Online is that it accepted several students that just didn’t have the academic aptitude to do the work and it was extremely overpriced for the level of quality of teaching and content received.

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  42. Isaac
    | Reply

    Deteriorating academic standards for churning profits, low-grade educational delivery, teachers incompetent

    How do I put this. Bad. Bad. Bad

    Pros:
    – Great cafe
    – Great location to do your grocery shopping
    – Great restaurants
    – Close to the city
    – Basically no merit to Swinburne for any achievement whatsoever

    Cons:
    – Pushy course advertisements identifying “fear of future” pain points to sell you a course
    – Academic standards are superficial at best
    – Student advocacy might as well go on vacation
    – Peer review is just a process that they churn out every year
    – Some tutoring staff don’t even show up to do their assigned work
    – Political system exploited by international students
    – Money laundering by the locals to exploit student and amenities because they just don’t care
    – Lowering the passing grade for stupid internationals who have rich parents
    – Sub-par course material. Some of it were seen to be copied from other university
    – University have contract with Microsoft so they won’t outsource other skills. For example, in IT they fail to teach AWS tech because it is against their interest
    – In short, this uni has gone to the sharks. All you get is a bunch of student loans and a graduation gift that cost you even more money.

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    • Isaac Cry
      | Reply

      lols

      Man, “lowering the passing grade for stupid intl students with rich parents”?? It just shows that you have something against intl students lmao. Some of the cons you states are based on your personal feelings lol “money laundering” ????

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  43. Malji
    | Reply

    hey, I’m planning to do my bachelors in psychology at Swinburne in 2020, would appreciate to know further information about this decision i took as i have studied business management half way and is it worth for me to invest at Swinburne?
    Thank you!

    • BJR
      | Reply

      Look elsewhere

      Hi Malji, I’m a 3rd year Bachelor of Psychological Sciences student at Swinburne (online). A couple of things that I’ve discovered – your credit points for prior study are not counted towards you GPA. Swinburne Psych exams are HARD. The highest average grade (for the entire class) that I’ve seen so far is 61%. Exams usually weigh 40% of your overall unit grade, so this will drag your GPA down. This is a problem if you’re counting on your GPA for acceptance into post-grad study at any good uni. My GPA before joining Swinburne was 3.86 (on 4 point scale). Now unfortunately it’s 2.75. So now that I live in the USA, where GPA is EVERYTHING, my post-grad plans have changed.
      A pro? The eLAs are very responsive. No complaints there.
      I’d reconsider Swinburne.

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    • Riley
      | Reply

      Look elsewhere

      I agree, certainly look elsewhere. I completed my BAPsycSc in 2020 and my comments are posted in “Extremely disappointed and not recommended”.

    • Martha
      | Reply

      My experience with Swinburne online was great

      Hi Malji, I have to disagree with the other reviewers. I completed my Bachelor of Psychological Sciences with Swinburne online last year and had a great experience. I did well in all my subjects (all HD’s) and found that overall my eLA’s (tutors) and coordinators were helpful and invested in my study, and I did not find the exams overly difficult at all. Of course, as with any uni, there were a couple of eLA’s/one subject that I felt were poorly organised but I found that there were enough resources for me to still understand the coursework/assignments and I still got HD’s for those subjects. I found all the eLA’s and coordinators (even those who were less organised/I disliked) were always readily available to answer any questions I had, as was the university’s support team for any non-coursework related questions. I encourage you not to be discouraged by the other reviewers and give it a go yourself as you can always drop out before the census date. I’m completing my honours year at a different university this year (I came on here looking for reviews to help me select which uni to go with, and saw a pretty bad rating for Swinburne which surprised me so I had to check it out) because I need to study online due to relocation commitments and Swinburne’s online offering for psychology 4th year is only a grad diploma which is much more expensive, so I’m going elsewhere, but I’m sad to be leaving and honestly very nervous that the other online uni’s appear to be a big step down from Swinburne from my experiences so far 🙁 Best of luck!

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      • Mai
        | Reply

        Advanced diploma of psychology

        Dear Martha I was impressed with your review and encouraged to start my studies with Swinburne but what I don’t understand is that Swinburne offers the advanced diploma of psychology ( honours) so why do you have to look for another uni??

    • EC
      | Reply

      Swinburne Online - Great Experience if you're not looking for a handout

      Hi Malji,

      I just finished my psychology degree at Swinburne online and I had a great experience. This is my second degree and I have to say it was hard at times, you will now receive an HD mark after rushing an assignment. Always try to remember that you are studying to learn. For example, the stats part at Swinburne is brilliant but a bit challenging, I have friends from other more prestigious universities that will not pass stats at Swinburne. If you are looking for a handout, don’t go to Swinburne. Good luck!

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  44. Jaha
    | Reply

    Reconsider options before enrolling to any course

    Many issues to be fixed.

    Student HQ (Student admin) is useless to its core. Admin staff lack basic ‘How to…’ . Consistently they redirect students in to chaotic messes. Be aware. Its their job to help students. However they are so freaking lazy. Very few staff about 3-4 are really assisting.

    Swinburne late lab advertised as its open 24/7, yet it is not. During holidays its closed. So be aware. Swinburne is so keen to have their useless student HQ staff on premises. No priority for students educational needs.

    Some facilities are really good. However they do employ unqualified staff for teaching. Therefore, the facilities become useless. I agree with some of the above comment on teaching staff. I came across some tutors who were well under qualified. Territory educations is so expensive. It should be about quality.

    Swinburne Online is a disaster. Majority of teaching staff are in other jobs. Hence Swin Online becomes their part time play ground. Their initial approaches and plans changes mid way to end of teaching periods. Some staff are extremely racists. Wonder how they got employed in first place. Whenever their mood changes results of students changes.

    The word around is many universities in Australia are at the same level, more or less of above. Swinburne course contents are way outdated. Its high time for them to limit expenses on fancy buildings and unnecessary hipster amenities. They better provide quality education with great course contents for the longevity.

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  45. Sean Dunn
    | Reply

    Avoid at all costs

    AVOID STUDYING HERE VIA CORRESPONDENCE!!!

    They treat you like a second rate student and never help with any queries and place huge restrictions on where you can complete work experience for teaching.

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  46. Darren
    | Reply

    Swinburne is okay but expensive

    I studied at both Swinburne and Deakin (Burwood Campus) but I felt Deakin was overall better. Swinburne has the advantages of good location (close to shops and restaurants) and facilities however I felt the overall quality of teaching and educational experience was better at Deakin. While Swinburne has the better resources and labs, but gaining access to those labs and resources outside of the allocated lab sessions (which were insufficient) was often problematic. Deakin, while not perfect, is better managed and organised. Deakin online cloud and enrolment systems were easier to navigate and better than Swinburne’s systems. The quality of course content at Deakin is better. When I checked my CHESSN debt, I noted Swinburne is much more expensive than Deakin.

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  47. Tarang
    | Reply

    Hey There !! Is it really this bad ,like they all said ? Anyone have done Master of professional Accounting from Swimburn ? I am looking to apply for same for march 2020 intake.please suggest me 😄

  48. Adrea (BSc Chemistry)
    | Reply

    Great Uni. It is what you make of it though

    Hey All,
    I’m not going to say that Swinburne is amazing or terrible. It has a diverse range of entry opportunities for people from non VCE backgrounds, however this leads to a very diverse skill level of the student base and quite often enrolled students that simply don’t have the skills or aptitude to study at a university level.
    ## for reference, I am a mature age student who came in through the STAT tests and off the back of previous TAFE qualifications ##

    The MASSIVE benefit of Swinburne over other universities is the size. It’s one of the few places that faculty know you by name and will stop and have a chat with you or sit down in cafe and get a coffee with you. you never feel disconnected or like you’re just another number. This however is completely dependent on whether or not you are engaged. If you ask questions, stay around till the end of labs/tutes, and utilise the open door policies that most of the faculty have, you will very quickly find yourself with opportunities and scholarships around every corner.

    A lot of the faculty at Swinburne (higher ed) have specifically chosen to be there. There are so many faculty members that have moved over from Monash and Melbourne uni to be at Swinburne, so you can rest assured that nobody is there just to make money or for a fancy title. Furthering the education of faculty and growing through feedback is also fundamental to Swinburne’s policy, so where you see there is room to improve, open a dialogue and provide appropriate feedback, not just “this unit sucks! make it better.”

    I can’t emphasise this enough:
    DO NOT STUDY ONLINE UNLESS YOU HAVE NO OTHER OPTION!
    Reading down the comments list on here, there are plenty of comments from online students and simply put, the main benefit of going to uni (instead of learning from a textbook) is the engagement. The ability to have a personal discussion with your tute/lecturer when you need it, or to have a long seminar where you discuss and debate (in person) with your fellow classmates is something that you simply can’t replicate online. There are so many supports (writing, programming, maths, statistics, academic skills) put in place that are designed to help you, though you simply can’t access them online.

    The one big thing that Swinburne lacks is a strong theoretical education. This is both a good and a bad thing, as industry employers would rather you understand how to do things and to have had some actual quality lab experience than for you to know some obscure, theoretical, specific thing.
    For those of you who ask “will I get a job after I graduate from Swinburne” the answer is simple:
    “You will get a job if you apply yourself, build a CV, join your relevant industry group and network”. A degree IS NOT a pathway to employment. It’s a simple as that.

    Like any universities, Swinburne has its strong and weak areas of interest and this comes across in its teaching. The ERA 5 ratings will give a decent idea of where the interests of the faculty lies:
    https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/latest-news/2019/03/swinburnes-reputation-rises-in-national-assessment-of-research-excellence.php
    Be aware that this is not the same as what the strengths of each course are.

    As with any university however, the system is what it is and these processes can be hard to navigate. Your advisors, tutors, lecturers and support services may often be better than going straight to StudentHQ
    and simply put, like EVERY SINGLE UNIVERSITY, it is an entity with a goal to make money. Education has for quite a while (specifically in Australia) been capitalised and nowhere that you go will be immune to these issues. For those studying online, who are complaining about SAF (student ammenities fees), remember that the online portal is a service in itself that requires a whole team of IT people to maintain. being on campus does not exclude you from using the resources provided. The SAF also covers things like, library resources, eduroam access and journal access.

    I hope this helps. I’ll try to answer any questions you may have 🙂
    Adrea

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    • Syed Tafhim Shams
      | Reply

      The Professional year

      Thank you so much for the review, I would like to study here in Swinburne , I heard about the professional year course, will it help to find jobs afterward and also are these placements paid? If so then what’s the minimum salary I will get in the placement year of Swinburne University, if I study computer Science.

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      • Jacqui
        | Reply

        Professional Year

        One of my friends who is in my degree – Bachelor of Science (Physics) enrolled in the professional year placement, and was offered a position at NAB in their Data Science Division. Her placement was for a year, and now she continues to work there part-time while completing her studies. The salary depends entirely on the institution you get accepted in.

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        • Syed Tafhim Shams
          | Reply

          The Professional year

          Thank you so much

  49. Mark
    | Reply

    Swinburne

    The only thing I enjoyed about it is the architectural structures, most of the tutors are not sufficiently knowledgeable, while there are some who are most of them seem very unqualified. Most of the tutors take a whole week to get to your answers. The unit ouline and structures are way outdated. The discussion group looks unmanaged as well, there are attempts to it but mostly architected by students. Few lecturers don’t record lectures while having them at late night and give out 0 clues for exams; if you are behind a week or so better luck on your own coz the tutors aren’t gonna be around to help you, they’ll be busy marking off other students and will come to help you tommorow which never comes by the way. Consultation hours varies and if you do want to get an answer to your question, you might need to contact your lecturer than the tutor. If the tutors don’t know the answers quite well they will answer by saying “Google the answers “, don’t see the point of having a full-time course when I can google all the answers, obviously, I can but it takes ridiculous amount of time. Lectures are all boring and the management takes quite some time to get to you, student hQ people give advice even in sectors they have 0 knowledge about, its like they know what they are doing but in reality they’re robots following scripts. The club activities are fun but its unmanaged to begin with, while social events are slowly building up but not good enough at the moment. The whole university thrives on sucking your finance, career advice people give only base idea knowledge. The library keeps getting smaller for some reason. In my opinion while it may look like a good university for an course such as Computer Science or IT where you can get most of your answers solved by enrolling in an online course. You’re far better staying away from this university, I’d go with Deakin but they say its not far from swinburne, maybe go with monash

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  50. Harrison
    | Reply

    Greedy and deceptive

    Swinburne seems to design all it’s systems to intentional confuse Students into spending more money. Documents, websites, and “helpful” contacts are so absurdly convoluted that it feels like studying for a class just trying to figure out what units you need to enroll in. Want help with something? Between making bookings for all the phone calls and finding out that you have called the wrong department again it will take you a month to get the answers you need.
    And if you are a Student who will need to travel for study, don’t believe any of Swinburne’s stories about how accommodating they are to that kind of thing; you will have classes at 7:30 in the morning, and classes at 8:30 at night. And since every unit is required to have three contact hours a week, some classes will be three hours of “private study” because there isn’t enough material, and others will require hours of additional reading because they can’t fit it all in.
    I fully support Swinburne’s international student program, but ever single semester I was required to do a group project i was grouped with some kid who barely spoke English, didn’t understand the material, and made more work for everyone else.
    Swinburne University? Would not recommend.

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  51. Kim BR
    | Reply

    It seems Swinburne has been dragging its feet for a while.

    The teachers are pretty great, but that seems to be where it ends. Swinburne management is still obsessed with the campus being “cool”, “hip”, and “totally rad”. They will funnel up prospects and undecided highschoolers, with no real desire to provide the quality of support that their students deserve. The student admin & help desk teams are friendly; but their work is so lazy, that it regularly makes things worse. Naturally, this means Swinburne’s online services are a hackneyed mess.

    Does anyone else feel like tertiary ed in Australia has lost its meaning?

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  52. e
    | Reply

    Good moments destroyed by overall inadequacy and laziness

    Firstly, I’ll start with the positives. The portal, although a bit confusing to newcomers, has been helpful. It has its’ flaws, but it isn’t completely useless. The campus is quite nice and feels lively. It can be hard to find a place to sit/eat/study/relax at the peak of each day, but that’s not too bad. There’s plenty of food around and the residences are quite nice. I will say that the bachelor of Games and Interactivity has had one of my favourite units with my favourite teachers. That course has proven to be pretty awesome, but do keep in mind that, unlike Computer Science, we don’t use the portal too much and also don’t have exams for it. I’ve had regular calls from Swinburne advisors, checking in with how I’m feeling (I mentioned in my first call I wanted to change and they called every two weeks to make sure I was happy and if I had any questions or doubts, it was fantastic). Furthermore, many teachers have not made getting deserved extensions difficult, or have made a point about the importance of keeping one’s sanity and health in check, and that if they had troubles they could ask.

    Overall, on the outside and at first glance/experience it seems to be quite a pleasant and chill place.

    While the teachers and staff are mostly kind and polite in person, every unit I have had in Computer science, has shown that the university does not care. Tutors have neglected to tell me information that has then resulted in me failing assignments (for example; informing me they can help with a certain part of an assignment, and waited until after I have handed it in past the due date that they are not allowed to help me with it), failed to give us enough content to study for our exams on the portal (giving us a 13 page exam and then posting the answers to one question – probably the easiest one in the entire paper), or told me to “just google it” when I have asked questions in class. I would not recommend not only this course, but this uni, to anyone, despite how good G&I has been. It has resulted in many sleepless nights, lots of crying, and a severe decline in mental health for me and for many others I know.

    Many other experiences either myself or friends have encountered are:
    -When going to the help desk because of an error I’ve never learnt about, seen before, nor can I find any information about has appeared, they’ve said that they can’t help me because I have a Mac and even though it’s because someone didn’t upload the proper Mac files to the portal, it’s still my fault, and I had to run it on a windows computer. I don’t have a windows computer at all.
    -When accused of plagiarism, was yelled at and treated with incredible hostility, despite trying to provide proof that they hadn’t plagiarised whatsoever. Regardless of whether he did copy or not, I think yelling at students and speaking down to them when they speak to you calmly (ESPECIALLY when you don’t have damning evidence they plagiarised) is unacceptable.
    -Been told that my question was very basic compared to my peers, and that I shouldn’t waste time asking questions like that when I can just look through the notes to get an answer, which I did. On the portal, and then elsewhere online as well.
    -Many incidents of teachers wasting their own time and mine because they insist that I am wrong (a piece of code doesn’t work and they insist it’s because of a coding error when it just didn’t seem to work on my computer but worked on theirs), and when I finally show them what the real issue is, they have just curtly said “I don’t know” and left without another word to help me.
    -Our first programming language was one that has been dead for a long time. Everyone around me complained about using it and questioned why we didn’t start with a language that was perhaps a little harder, but would have been more useful.
    -Adding on from the last point, the tasks themselves jump in difficulty quite a lot and are very vague. I found it incredibly hard to do the tasks without people – other students, not teachers – literally walking through it with me step by step. Even now, I couldn’t code a proper program. (However, one unit that did do this moderately well was Creating Web Applications; the tasks were easy to follow, and provided instructions for a certain step and then let you do it yourself, which made them easy but educational.)

    I was excited to study my passion and go to uni, but Swinburne has done nothing but destroyed all of that in the span of 3-4 months – I’ve been studying for a year but I was defeated in the first semester. I will be changing course next year, hopefully finding more joy in a subject where the teachers have been more reliable and dedicated to teaching things they love, and will hopefully actually want to go to uni again. Don’t get me wrong, most of the teachers are lovely. But everything behind the scenes has been so unpleasant and unforgettable, and my experiences have totally changed my viewpoint and enjoyment of things I once loved.

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  53. Fiona
    | Reply

    A good uni with plenty to learn

    I have nearly finished my Bachelor in Business (Supply Chain and Logistics) through Swinburne Online and I have found the whole experience worthwhile. I am not sure why there are so many negative reviews here. I have learnt more than I have expected to learn and even just being enrolled has helped my career enormously. The student advisers and eLAs are always helpful. It is expensive although I am not sure whether it is comparable with other online universities- I have never checked. There are only two things that are annoying-
    1. The amount of group assignments- I often find you have to do most the work to ensure a good mark. It seems to be difficult for people to work together in an online environment as there is not enough accountability. Sadly I find myself going through electives to find ones with no group assignments to avoid the irritation.
    2. The facilities fee which is charged. This is an online course. I am not using any campus facilities.

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  54. Joe
    | Reply

    OUA Be aware of issues listed

    When enrolling:
    Enroll into each unit separately, do not sign up for a full bachelors or ‘commonwealth supported position’ until much later in the game or they will charge you $44 student union fees per unit even if you aren’t anywhere near campus. There are no benefits for OUA students to do this and you can see all the units required to complete a degree regardless. Its just an additional cost that isn’t mentioned until you’re billed and they will kick you from units if you dont pay it. OUA and Swinburne are unapologetic in pushing students into this additional cost without notice.

    Enrolling can sometimes have issues in itself, should enrollments not make it from OUA to Swinburne ect you may find yourself in the lurch as neither party seems flexible with late enrollments even if the fault lies with them.

    Confirm with them if there is restructuring coming as previously when they have restructured units much of what you want to study may not be available when it comes time to enroll. If a unit is restructured you’re given the choice to move to the new format where some of the major units you’ve completed may not count and instead are used as electives which may set you back months in time and thousands in dollars. Or you can power on with the former structure but then unit availability becomes an issue and if you step into a newly formatted unit it may be a 3rd year level but you have no prerequisite skills that may apply for it as the track you were on no longer exists.

    Administration:
    Their administration is lack luster. They seem to have a very strict process that allows zero flexibility even in fixing their own mistakes. Very much a ‘yes we screwed up, but theres nothing our processes allow us to do now, sorry’. You’ll find yourself bounced from section to section when trying to solve an even moderately complicated issue. Some departments have MULTIPLE MONTH LONG WAITS to hear back from them. Thats not an exaggeration. Expect it when you need to create a study plan or manage completed units.

    Lecturers:
    Some of the lecturers are fantastic, there are websites where they are rated if you need examples. Some however are awful. For distance learning the lectures can often amount to a text book being read to you, sometimes inaudibly or with such thick accent and deep mumbling you can’t understand it should the audio equipment even be functioning properly. Be prepared to teach yourself.

    Learning style:
    Due to some units having poor lecturer quality, you may need to learn independently. There are some lecturers who like things done a certain way, or certain language being used and this may differ from the wider academic communities writings so learning the comparative translations is important. (Youtube is a great source for lectures as well)

    Course Material:
    The course Material in the Stem and Finance subject I’ve done have been reasonably good. It differs from lecturer to lecturer. You’re generally able to determine the quality of a units path as soon as you start the unit as a well structured week to week plan is often set for you. Not all units have this. And while some units are supposed to run into others often if the lecturer is different a prerequisite course is no help. Sometimes you will just come across obvious problems like doing a written computer science and programming exams. Coding a program with pen and limited paper.

    Overall impression.
    Some units have been great though I haven’t learnt as much as I had expected. Makes me question whether it was worth it. If I had to do it again, I would have done it with a different university.

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    • Stephanie
      | Reply

      Terrible uni wouldnt recommend it at all. OUA are just as bad..

      A well rounded comment of the uni, i agree with all points. I have just completed my degree with them just waiting for my final semester resuls and i just got an email advisin gme that my “withrawal from the course has been processed and approved” this pretty much sums up the level of incompetency at Swinburne Uni.. After doing this degree part-time over 6 years i would highly recommend you go elsewhere..

  55. RhiRhi
    | Reply

    Fantastic Uni for Master of Teaching

    I have been studying a Master of Teaching with Swinburne online and love it.
    I do but understand the negative comments on here, the University is known to be of high caliber and the education is worth the money.
    I live Launceston Tasmania, and the only other option was the Uni of Tas. Swinburne is much better, the teachers know their stuff and really offer support. If you need extra time on an assignment they give you an extension no questions asked, if you’re feeling unsupported other students are very helpful and so are the student support team. There are also SOL Meet up groups that are real life meet ups for online students, and there is a group in Hobart. Where they meet up and discuss Uni and help each other out. I do not regret my choice of Swinburne, it is such a great uni and I’ve loved every minute of it. I’d rate it 10/10

    • zainab
      | Reply

      Thank you

      Thanks, you are the only one who gave a positive comment, I was going to decline my offer.

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  56. kevin
    | Reply

    bad school.

    Did BA CS, was awful.

    I’m not even bitter about low marks or anything, I did pretty well, but just the capstone project (SWE40001/2) has really put me out.

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  57. T
    | Reply

    Average, expensive

    Pretty average. I think they are always trying to improve and do all they can to offer ease of access though so that’s something.

    Extremely expensive for online.

    The group assignments are a joke, by some of the fools I was lumped with I suspect my work, my yes MY WORK, would assist them in getting far closer to getting a pass than they would otherwise, so it’s obviously a money grub. Otherwise it just seems lazy, “yay 6 presentations to mark, not 30.”

    There are some fantastic teachers, but some abysmal ones who can’t even give you a formula to answer a question and think they can call paraphrasing a question teaching so you have to teach yourself, not to mention basic errors in spelling in the tutorial work. I don’t think the grading is consistent either, it’s come across as opinionated a number of times.

    I’ve had good experience with the paperwork related stuff and student advisors but I think I’ve been lucky.

    I’m not convinced I’ll get a job out of my degree either but I’m too far through it to quit.

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  58. Elmsley
    | Reply

    Swinburne Online Psychology: Poor quality course

    Swinburne online is very expensive and provides little to no real support. The learning materials contain typos and the online most tutors don’t even bother checking their spelling when communicating information. This shows little regard for the quality they deliver. It’s as if they threw the content together in a hurry just to start profiting from the hapless students. No feedback on exams, so students don’t know which questions they answered correctly or not. Online group projects are are a farce. I would not recommend this institution. Don’t waste your money or time.

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  59. Belinda
    | Reply

    Only for those who are desperate

    I commenced a Health Science degree in 2017 and was disappointed by the lack of support from the disability advocacy service and the attitude of a number of academics. I was diagnosed with ASD last year and told by my Psychologist that I did not need to participate in group assessments, that I could request to do them on my own. I followed her advice and the lecturers did not have an issue with it except for one instructor Carolynne White who refused to allow me to complete the assessment on my own. She called me in to meet with her and then 7 weeks later told me I had to complete the assignment as a group. When I made a fuss it was obvious the rest of the faculty became aware of the issue, and I believe this bias was reflected in a mark I received for one of my assessments. There is not a very high level of professionalism, the tutors are quite good, but most of the lecturers are lazy, they couldn’t care less about providing quality material to students. Two exams contained multiple errors and they had to interrupt us during the exam to provide instructions as to how we deal with the errors. I have studied with other institutions and am currently studying with another University and I have never come across anything like it.

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  60. Yang
    | Reply

    Haven’t tried other courses, but do NOT study Diploma of Project Management (Online) with them!!! They run weekly webinars which are more like the question and answer sessions. There is no actual teaching or training. You need to read all the books yourself because you won’t be able to get any highlights or summary from your trainer.

    The trainer has 10 online students as well as 30 odd on-campus students. He only works 3 and a half days a week, which are including his on-campus training. Therefore, if you ever get stuck, you have no one to go to. He kept promising marking assessments on time and contacted students. Never happened.

    In terms of the assessments, I don’t think the trainer really understands the concept of Vocational Education. Too much emphasis on the theory. You are expected to summarise everything in the recommended textbook as well as the industry standards in your assessments. Trust me, even your postgraduate study is more reasonable than this one.

    Don’t waste your time and energy on this course. Find some decent RTOs who work closely with industry, you will be able to learn more real-life stories.

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    • LM
      | Reply

      It's what you make it

      You don’t seem understand what university education is all about. Yes, of course you have to “read all the books yourself”. What did you expect? No, the trainer (in fact, no one) is going to highlight/summarise the key info for you – as the student, that’s your responsibility. What’s more, in an online course, there’s even more onus on you to do the work in a self-directed way. And it seems like your complaints are levelled at one particular lecturer – Newsflash! All unis, even the elite ones, have good and bad academics.
      No one to turn to? Try reaching out to the other students via Blackboard/Canvas. They’re probably having the same struggles. At the very least, you might make a friend or a future professional connection.
      Swinburne is actually very big on vocational education and they’re renowned for their industry placement and overseas exchange programs. Perhaps these options aren’t available to online students, so again, that’s where you need to show initiative. If you want to work for industry, you need to go to them, they won’t come to you.
      FYI, I did a bachelors on-campus at Swinburne Hawthorn. It wasn’t a perfect experience, but after doing a higher degree at the University of Melbourne (where they really don’t care if you live, die, or learn anything) I realised that Swinburne was actually very good.

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  61. Harry Los’e
    | Reply

    Be really careful choosing Swinburne money hungry university

    I enrolled with Swinburne but was then sent overseas to a remote area and cancelled my course. Swinburne charged me through the tax office anyway and I have spent 2 years trying to have the debt cleared. Be careful as they r so quick to charge but do not want to refund and correct issues. This is now in the hands of the Ombudsman

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    • Natalie
      | Reply

      Disappointing !!!

      I agree with Harry. I was charged for two subjects I didn’t even enroll into. Just about to go through the same process myself of clearing my debt. I would never recommend them to anybody. I am hoping it won’t take me two years to sort out. I am glad I changed universities, just sorry I started with them in the first place.

      By the way, this is my first post on any type of forum, I never usually comment – I just don’t want this to happen to anybody else.

      ZERO STARS FROM ME!!!

      • kimy
        | Reply

        Do not enrol OUA/Swinburne Hawthorne Online

        I had such a terrible lecturer, I couldn’t understand his pronunciations and he just read out lecture notes/textbook. No elaboration and no link with the current issues examples explained and linked to. Why do I even pay to listen to lecture recordings? I can just lecture too just like him. It was just a boring self-study, very lack of support. I didn’t withdraw a unit on time, so I had to complete. It was waste of my time and money.

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        • Yang
          | Reply

          Totally agree with Kim. No support, all about boring self-study. I’m in the same boat. Once I’m done with the two subjects, I will never go back again. My lecture is worse, he doesn’t even read out the textbook.

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  62. Adva
    | Reply

    Hi ALL,
    Very scary reviews I am reading here. Did anyone complete a Bachelor of Social Science
    With a Major in Criminology at this Uni?
    I am living in Perth and was excited to complete the Degree On-line, can anyone give me feedback on that program or another uni that offer the same degree and is recommended?

    Many thanks 🙂

  63. Bob
    | Reply

    The university itself seems alright, but the Bachelor of Games and Interactivity Media course I did was useless. The course is marketed towards people that want to get into games development, but the course offers little to no training on actual technical skills. There’s odd unit here and there(no more than 3 units) that actually teaches you skills that would get you employed, or at least give you some chance. On Open Days the tutors will make it sound like the industry in Australia is booming and a career can be made out of it(not a stable one that is), but in reality the industry is barely alive with little to no funds as the government quite frankly thinks it’s a waste of money to invest in this industry. You won’t realize that until the second year where they start bringing in guest speakers from the previous years and veterans from the industry.

    Overall, if you’re thinking about getting into games, proper degrees in animation, writing, audio engineering and such is far better and would better equip you than this close of scam course.

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  64. Sarah
    | Reply

    Interested in Bachelor of Education (Primary) online as I currently work full time and plan to continue doing so. Can anyone share the experience on doing this course?

  65. Kunal
    | Reply

    Hi, I am looking to come to swinburne university for a Masters in Information Technology. I would like to know how the education here is particularly for this course and also what kind of support does the university provide for acquiring internships.

    • Arav
      | Reply

      Hello Kunal
      I’m also looking for pursuing master of information technology(professional computing) is it good to pursue from Swinburne

      • Ajmal
        | Reply

        Nope, as far as general knowledge goes, the Information Technology courses offered at Swinburne University of Technology include little information about Technology itself.

        It is more business and project sided and recycling outdated material.

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    • Shally
      | Reply

      Hi Kunal,
      I am also an Indian and wanting to apply in this Univ. Did you get any further review/feedback?

  66. Jye F
    | Reply

    Certificate IV in Information Technology Networking.

    It was obvious that the teachers were there because they liked teaching. There was only one of my five teachers that was slightly below adequate. I’m not trying to pass it off and excuse it, but he was retired and had to, unfortunately, come out of it and find work at the age of 64. This one teacher, whilst being somewhat slower and harder to interpret still had plenty of relevant experience in his field so getting help was necessary but easy.

    I cannot say much about administration; I never really had to deal with them. if I needed assistance in finding something it wasn’t super quick or easy but it wasn’t obscured or difficult to find either. It was obvious what you needed to do most of the time.

    The only real complaint is that I had to spend $15 to get an official transcript because I never received one. I didn’t follow them up on it, I just sucked it up and paid the 15. It wasn’t a whole lot of money anyways.

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  67. Rebecca
    | Reply

    Very happy!

    Not sure why so many negative reviews. I enrolled with Swinburne Online mid-year. I’m an Australian currently living in Canada and had absolutely no problem whatsover enrolling and starting. Everyone who I spoke to was totally helpful and supportive (Even with the 19 hr time difference). The whole process was basically effortless on my end. I find the online working environment very suitable to my needs. I work full time and have been since high school, it’s one of the reasons I chose online study, I don’t want to be going to a campus. You most certainly have to be able to motivate yourself or you will not succeed. I think that’s quite logical though, when it comes to choosing to study online. There is certainly help/support if and when you need it – eLa’s are always available. I’d reccomend it to any one wanting to study who is not fresh out of school.

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    • Brett
      | Reply

      Hi Rebecca,

      Im considering studying online with Swinburne and would love to get some questions answered.

      I’m looking at doing Psychology online and am wondering if i’m going to be left unsupported and if the quality of the education is second rate.

      Love to hear your thoughts.

      • Ganesh Sen
        | Reply

        Highly Recommend Swinburne

        Hi Rebecca,
        I am not sure why Swinburne is receiving such negative reviews? I will be graduating with a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Information Systems in December 2021, and have completed all my 11 units 100% online. My student journey throughout the course was exceptional, given the support from the course director, the course convenors, and recently the engagement of employability advisors. I am 4 units from finishing my Masters, which I am planning to complete next year.

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  68. Henry
    | Reply

    Paving a new pathway to higher education

    I studied on-campus and with Swinburne Online for my undergraduate degree. I want to provide some clarification on Swinburne Online and the reason why people fail. First off, Swinburne Online is great in the fact that it’s really flexible and very personal when it comes to interacting with your lecturers (eLA) but I believe it’s undoubtedly harder than studying on-campus, in the fact that you have really have to be able to study independently and be determined to push yourself to the finish line. It’s the same work on-campus students do but minus the face-to-face contact. If you put in the effort, you will graduate. Yes, the lecturers always check up on you but in the end there’s only so much they can do and trust me, the experience is so personalised that if you’re inactive for more than 48 hrs, you’ll be receiving emails from your lecturers. However, if you think it will be a walk in the park and don’t put in any effort, you’re bound to fail. I can’t regard highly enough the experiences I had with Swinburne Uni online and at Swinburne Hawthorn. I’m now half way through my Masters but would not be in the position I’m in today without Swinburne and all the support I received from everyone there. To all those out there who are determined, yet want the flexibility of online studying, Swinburne Online is just for you.

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    • belle
      | Reply

      Swinburne through OUA or SwinOnline?

      Hi Henry
      Thanks for sharing your insightful feedback, I found it very helpful! I also agree with you (wholeheartedly) that students must be determined, work hard, etc. very true indeed. Only hard work can warrant success I think. I personally find Swinburne teaching stuff to be genuinely helpful and highly skilled. Their encouragements and guidance is very helpful, if we want the help.

      Best wishes to all in 2018 and beyond!

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  69. unhappy
    | Reply

    Please everyone. Do not enrol with Swinburne Online. I have been fighting them a long time, and with Swinburne University to get my qualification. I have finished all the requirements. They act with impunity. They do not care. DO not touch Swinburne Online. Swinburne University have a dysfunctional complaint system as well. I am over $20,000 in course fee debts and have no qualification to show for it.

    • AB
      | Reply

      Contact

      Hi there. I work for ABC and would be keen to chat to you about your experience. Would you be able to drop me a line [email protected]

  70. Sergio
    | Reply

    Did my undegrad here. Not bad at all with lots of good lecturers. However, there were a lot of sesisonal guys who either were doing their PhD and did not speak English well or just teaching everywhere people with no resaerch background and bookreading…

  71. nothappy
    | Reply

    6 weeks into the course and i still haven’t been enrolled. Absolutely pathetic. After contacting the “Student HQ” i was told my issues were fixed, surprise surprise things were worse in fact now i can’t even see my enrolment details. Trash uni and trash service.

  72. sachin
    | Reply

    such a bad university
    classes held monday to friday
    8:30am 8:30pm

    • Srinu
      | Reply

      Really classes from Monday to Friday??

      Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

  73. Nick
    | Reply

    Transferred from Monash (Accounting) to Swinburne (Supply-Chain Management). Overall Swinburne provides a wider range of disciplines than most universities in Victoria. Campus facilities are not as great as Monash or Melbourne Uni, however it feels spacious compared to RMIT.

    Teaching standards were high, since the tutors and lecturers were professors as opposed to post-graduate students or tutors filling in part-time (which happens very often at Monash).

    Swinburne seems to be more practical and Monash more theoretical. The big financial service/consulting firms (Big4) tend to favour Monash and their style of education. Where else Industry companies (Mining, Consumer Goods, IT, Transport, Pharmaceuticals) prefer a more practical approach.

    • Kira
      | Reply

      Hi Nick,

      I am planning to Masters in SCM and have offers from RMIT and Swinburne. What would be your suggestion based on your experience. Based on tution fess RMIT is quite costly.

      Did you find this review helpful? Yes No

    • Wendy
      | Reply

      Hi Nick,

      I’m planning to study logistics at Swinburne (Bachelor degree + one professional year). I’m an international student, will I get employed once I graduate?

  74. Josh
    | Reply

    I have been to 3 universities. Swinburne is the best in terms of employability for Engineering. Many students get jobs before being graduated. I did not see that happening in other two universities that I went to, although they are high ranked universities. The main drawback especially in the engineering precinct is that the lack of ground space. Feels tight between tall buildings.

  75. Max
    | Reply

    Overall this Uni has been okay, But I definitely would not recommend it to family or friends.
    Best part about Swinburne is the location, so many restaurants, cafes and places to enjoy around the campus, more so than every university other than RMIT(Melbourne Campus). Although Swinburne has the worse Admin in Victoria, which always leads to terrible communication for the students, and slow/incorrect enrolment situations. On campus life is pretty bad, better off spending the money on your own place not a 1 square metre of nothing. They also accept almost anyone into their courses which creates a lower standard of work and general community for the campus. Try and avoid Swinburne, at least it’s better than ACU & VIC.

  76. Mark
    | Reply

    I don’t understand why everyone is complaining, my experience of five years at Swinburne has been nothing short of excellent, teachers are great they support the students and their needs and update the material consistently. The university has also enabled me to have multiple job opportunities even before completing my degree, I don’t understand the negativity around the comments above…. maybe they were poor students lacking the work ethic required today.

    • cj
      | Reply

      Hey Mark!
      I’m planning to take up Masters in Civil engineering(building design) and Construction management. Do you happen to have any idea about this course and a review if possible?
      Thanks!

  77. Me
    | Reply

    Was studying a diploma here and was pretty much treated like a child. Felt no different to high school.
    Their ads they go on about how their students have endless options, when I saw an advisor about wanting to change my course I was pretty much told that I had to stay in a course that I hated and had no other options? And as a previous comment said, all they care about is money.
    The uni is also incredibly disorganised, its defiantly not worth all the trouble to enroll when you’re getting so little out of the course itself.
    On the brighter side, most of my teachers where pretty great, They actually cared about their students and did their jobs well

  78. Khiara
    | Reply

    I’m studying a bachelors of Technology (Info Systems) at Swinburne through OUA.
    I find the course is bland and repetitive, I’ve often seen copy and paste jobs in different unit content because the unit content is so similar. The subjects that they teach in the degree are too broad to feel qualified to apply for any job in IT and there is not enough units that teach everyday practical skills that we can use in a job (ie a lot of entry level IT jobs are in helpdesk but I haven’t learn one thing about troubleshooting a computer).
    With regards to the application and ongoing structure of the degree, this is my third year and every year the course structure has changed. New units are added and others taken away so that the next year it is different to the previous year. I understand that technology is a fast moving industry therefore content will change regularly but there are quite a lot of changes every year (first year I needed to learnt statistics and then the uni decided it’s not relevant and dropped the subject the next year, each something similar happens). The university doesn’t advise you of the changes or the updates. I only see these changes having stumbled across next year’s course structure on the OUA website. It makes it really hard to set a study plan or to know what your degree is even about as it changes year to year.
    I’m too far in to stop studying (massive waste of money if I stop now) but I wish I had of known how confusing and useless the degree is before I started.

  79. SadLad
    | Reply

    I do the Enrolled Nursing course at Wantirna…and it sucks. Talk about disorganisation skills, and lack of interest from the teachers. Next level stuff right here mate.

  80. Rosie Nelson
    | Reply

    I am thrilled with my study at Swinburne Online. It is convenient, I feel supported, everything is made available and easy to use and it is just modern and across so many new technologies. I highly recommend it and I have studied elsewhere and it comes out on top in terms of support and relevance of content.

  81. Lyndo
    | Reply

    I’ve been studying at Swinburne Online for 3 teaching periods so far, completing a Bachelor of Design.

    There was one subject that I dropped out of not long after it had begun because I felt I didn’t receive enough support, however since that time it’s been smooth sailing in all other units. For online study you feel you are left to your own devices although the teachers are there if you need them, all you have to do is ask. The more you put into discussion boards and collaboration sessions, the more you get out of it.

    I was hoping to find some reviews on here about the marking – I’ve completed 5 units so far and received all HD’s of varying percentages, is everyone receiving that or am I actually doing a bang up job?…

    • Rimjhim
      | Reply

      Hey Lyndo, how is your overall experience been ? Also, how are the placements for international students after the bachelors degree in Design?

  82. Concerned
    | Reply

    Would not recommend them. They focus on collecting fees, not students. No accountability, complaints process is dysfunctional. Course is poor and does not meet training needs for the profession. Some nice and helpful staff but leadership has no integrity

  83. Mariana Bianchi
    | Reply

    I am extremely disappointed with Swinburne online. I got enrolled and I was on my second week of study when they realized that I was a temporary resident, even though I mentioned it twice (on the phone and in my application) They said that as a non permanent resident/citizen of Australia/NZ I am not allowed to be on Swinburne online and they terminated my studies immediately. It took more than 2 weeks to get a refund for the units I paid. I now have wasted a study term because of they mistake. I put in a formal complaint but all I got back was an apology. They didn’t offer a way to amend or compensation for the amount of time money and distress caused. It is hard to trust an institution that makes such a big mistake and does so little to repair the damaged caused.

  84. Joe + Jono (Current Students)
    | Reply

    The courses are great, the teachers and staff are really nice and friendly. The campus is easy to navigate and there is lots of transport around.
    There are a lot of events and opportunities for students.
    The Hawthorn hotel is close by too.
    Very Satisfied, would recommend.

  85. Rob Laym
    | Reply

    I’m a online ‘learner’. They talked me into studying something that really is not relevant to what we discussed. I’m already enrolled and found out later. Customer service is horrible. Ela’s are a joke. Their marking guide is joke. As mentioned above, all we talk about is the future pathway to 2010… They give no real explanation of anything. Ela’s aren’t even qualified (I’ve checked after the fact). According to their selection, I could finish my degree and become a Ela myself! They have a collaborative session for each assessment, one week prior to the due date (that’s 5 or 7 days). How about doing the session 2 or 3 weeks before it’s due? Logic! We need time to research and put it all together. I regret joining. I’ve had an appointment with their career advisor that left me more confused.

  86. Paul G
    | Reply

    My wife and myself both started a course. She chose Swinburne, myself at another UNI. They where post degrees and we had both done other studies before. Their staff where rude and lacked knowledge. Content they offered was severely lacking. I could go on and on with the issues that University had. She pulled out early and was in our rights for a refund, they did not honour this and left us out of pocket (with a large HECS Debt) for absolutely nothing. They are low lives STAY AWAY FROM SWINBURNE. After studying and working with multiple institutions I can clearly say that Swinburne would have to be one of the worst institutions in the country if not the world.

    • Roe
      | Reply

      Hmm sounds like someone is just butt hurt about the money willing to bet you pulled out a day after census.

      • Concerned
        | Reply

        I have to say that what Paul G wrote is plausible and could be genuine. It is illegal under consumer protection law for any institution not to deliver a course properly and appropriately, and content that is lacking and not current could be grounds for money back, even if well after census dates.

  87. Shalini kakkar
    | Reply

    I was trapped in this univ to do a masters course in information technology. My name is shalini and i am from Mumbai which is in India. At first counselors told me that this is one of the best univ. to do a masters course in IT because of it’s reputation and exposure. Believe me, this univ does not provide a decent college education. I have a feeling that i’ve been looted by the counselors and the univ. After completing my 2 year masters studies, it’s not easy to get the job here because of the reputation of the univ and Australian policy regarding international students. Don’t waste your time and money in this univ people, i am suffering from that.

    • Ninad Mirajkar
      | Reply

      Hi, my name is Ninad , I have applied to Swinebrune University. I feel I have a quiet a similar case like you. Even I was advised by my counselors the same. Even I am planning to do my Masters in IT / MIS .
      I wanted to ask you some specific questions, regarding job prospects and life in Australia.

  88. Steve Rose
    | Reply

    Bit of a rant, so apologies in advance. Amazing….. As a student of 4 years with Swinburne uni of Tech they no longer offer my degree online even though I’m not finished. They farm me off to OUA and they send me back. I’ve also been told by Swinburne that this information is incorrect and that they’ll sort it…..not heard anything since, left messages and emails….nothing.

    Very disappointing service Swinburne, missed two study periods, spent over 5 hours in calls in the last week alone, and authored numerous emails because of this. What makes it more annoying is that separately I’ve been contacted and asked why I’m not enrolling on any units….grrr. With this kind of service, how they make money is a mystery to me. I’ve raised a complaint but I have very low confidence anything will actually be done.

    This is bad for their lecturers and teachers as well, the service they provide is great…if you can actually enroll on it. I’m now transitioning to OUA, I’ve lost complete faith in Swinburne.

    If you want to undertake a correspondence degree with Swinburne, make sure you consider all potential providers of such a course first.

  89. Jarrod P
    | Reply

    As a distance student I can say that out of the 4 post graduate subjects I have studied in Construction Management, three of them were rubbish. Teacher notes are old and irrelevant, and there is very little quality review.. some of the material references future works to take place in 2010!.

    For $3000 per subject I feel the graduate degree is not worth the paper it is written on.. or it could be parchment like the age of the rest of the material.

  90. Michelle Bond
    | Reply

    Brilliant University. Teachers both knowledgable and genuinely involved, whilst revered IBL Program maintains industry links providing graduates with post – graduation career opportunities.

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