University of New England (UNE)

TLDR: consider studying somewhere else if you are planning to do online learning.

I am studying a unit at UNE through cross-institutional study, so my experience is pretty limited. However I'd like to share my experience so far. The teaching staff have been very unprofessional and disorganised.  The sole lecturer for the unit was away for the first two weeks, and did not set up the Moodle site properly (e.g. unfinished content, incorrect lectures uploaded, not enough information on assessments even though we were told to start them right away.) The lecturer also had to take further time off due to contracting covid, even though the unit is entirely online and he could have easily worked from home to fix the issues which were preventing all the students from progressing through the content. It really gives me the impression that the staff are not that invested in teaching. Also, as far as I can tell there is no clear way to find out whether attendance actually affects your grades or not, where this should be clearly stated.

Also, my home university is notorious for having a very confusing online learning platform, and I thought ours was bad, but Moodle is hell on earth. The way things are laid out is so unclear and confusing, and there is virtually no guidance given on how to use the site (there is a tutorial but it really taught me nothing). There is so much information hidden under all these little secret tabs and things and I don;t think I'll ever fully understand how it works. It also looked incredibly outdated. 

I'd also like to mention that the unit I am taking frequently has "notes" on Moodle that use terms that I have never heard in my life, which are left undefined. I have no idea what is being talked about a lot of the time because I'm just expected to know what specialist terms mean. Furthermore, I have noticed several examples of incorrect referencing and formatting, which doesn't really give me a lot of faith in the teaching staff.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend UNE online to anyone. I hated my home university for its unprofessionalism and disorganisation, but now that I've had this experience, I'd much rather study there than UNE.

They decided that my biology degree somehow doesn't count as a relevant degree for biology. I need to redo a bunch of 1st year science units, despite my having studied the subjects up to Masters level already. This is apparently about being "fair" to all students (I'm assuming that means they do this to people regularly).

I was also repeatedly given bad advice about what was going on and how to proceed. If I'd understood what was really happening I probably would have applied at other unis, not continued wasting time. 

I have enjoyed the units I've taken and found teaching to be up to a high standard. But having to retake 1st year level units over and over is something I have literal nightmares about. So I will be finding another uni.

UNE is a pipeline school. If you do everything that they tell you to do, you will get a good NCLEX or MCAT score. However they do not care if you succeed. There is a strong expectation that you are responsible for your own education. A lot of people complain that UNE expects you you to teach yourself, and that is kinda true. There is little to no support for students, and if you find yourself struggling, UNE is more than happy to let you fail. Tuition is expensive, and honestly, the courses are about par with SMCC or CMCC in terms of quality. UNE is a great place to go if you just need a piece of paper to get a job. UNE is not a good place to go if you want an education.

13 pieces of assessment across 2 subjects,  all HD. Until the meeting of Carlie Drew and Wellett Potter, a duo lecturer team of the law school that seem to enjoy playing favourites with some, while destroying other students.  13 pieces of assessment,  all HD, until the assignment for this particular law class (Law100. Try to avoid, unless you're willing to suck up & be The Favourite). Barely received a pass mark, was refused the opportunity for a remark, which I believed to be a student right. The law school blocked every avenue of appeal. The law school admin boss sent me emails saying the marking is fair, yet all evidence points otherwise.  I was treated like poop on toast when I argued this pass mark was unfair, and I suspect The Favourite student that all others were compared by was cheating as well. This student got very basic information wrong in our private study group, that any dummy should know,  yet shined in front of the lecturers.  Also said a couple of things that we had never been taught, which made me ponder they were being handed info from somewhere.  Yet the law school lecturers cannot see this, or see a good student.  They are blinded by a good show, which explains why they're teaching (poorly), instead of out being a good lawyer. Feel like I was treated like garbage when I argued the pass mark, yet you're training future lawyers in how to argue. Careless teaching, careless marking,  careless responses from student admin...all round careless, shoddy work yet they charge an absolute fortune to attend. Pick any other school. Do not go here.

I'm currently studying a Diploma with UNE. I had a family member pass away and I was told that I would be eligible for assignment extensions. However, all of my extensions were rejected. Furthermore, not one of my lecturers talk fluent and intellectual English. If you thought the above was bad than wait until you read this: during a lecture, I told the lecturer that I was very confused what the assignment was about. I was ignored. In a lecture dedicated to the assignment discussion I told the lecture again that I was very confused what the assignment was about and I was ignored again! Finally, I decided to email the lecturer that although I have a pretty good understanding of the unit, I was still very confused what the assignment was about because very little information and instructions were provided about it. The outcome of this email was again being ignored. I than made a complaint to the university about this and asked for support and I was again ignored. I tried for 4 weeks to get help with my assignment and still to date, I have no idea what it's even about. The assignment is now overdue by a week.

I'm paying the university $9,000 a trimester! You'd expect with the amount you pay that you'd receive at least a little bit of support!

Quiet honestly at this stage I'm at the point where I just want to withdraw from the qualification and take the $9,000 loss before heading into the next Trimester and loosing over $16,000 for subpar studies. My personal opinion at the moment is that the university is quiet happy to take your money but aren't happy to provide you with an education. 

My recommendation is to research for an alternative university.

This uni is horrible. People don't work after hours and it's so hard to get in contact with anyone. Anyone who you talk to will give conflicting answers and send to on a goose chase for your answer.
The uni has horrible wifi even though it is on Eduroam 
The accomodations such as Mary White college are also terrible and the staff there don't really care for your wellbeing. 
This is the same with university staff. They are very incompetent at their job and don't care for other's wellbeing. I don't feel looked after at this university. 
My course is very disorganised, for example it was very difficult getting placements  in first year as our placement coordinator (Suzanne Riley) had no sympathy and made no accomodation for new students who didn't have a car. Some had to go to Tamworth to do their placements because of her incompetence, when all placements should've been done in Armidale. 
Armidale itself isn't a great place either, a lot of racism and the area isn't really safe.