University of South Wales Avis 11

Low quality courses

I honestly cannot recommend the Public Health course at the University of South Wales. My experience was nothing short of a nightmare. The workload is overwhelming, and the course is poorly structured — it feels like they throw students into assignments and expect you to figure everything out on your own.
Support from staff is almost non-existent. Emails go unanswered, and when you do get a response, it’s often dismissive or unhelpful. The teaching materials are unclear, and sometimes it feels like no one really knows what the students are supposed to be learning.
If you’re considering studying Public Health at USW, think twice. The whole experience is stressful, exhausting, and completely disorganized. There are far better courses elsewhere with actual support and structured learning. Save yourself the headache — stay away from this program.

I give them zero star if there is any options for that.

I went there with the dream to learn. They crushed me and ruined my future. Career completely ruined. My story is massive. Trauma, lots of trauma and psychological bullying me and fellow students were receiving. No one talks openly as all wanted to save themselves. Outcome? Over 40000 in debt, student loan and credit cards. If they don’t like your face, accent, ethnic background, sexual preferences, in my case I was straight, any diagnosis you might have (heated many stories) you are next in line facing you elimination. Career and financial elimination. Elimination regardless if you are a distinction or baseline level student. It is all about their political and social construct. It is not about academia. For the sake of yourselves and your families stay away. I wish the best of luck to whomever enrolls with them. Also be mindful that they are the same with some staff members. Piles of false allegations made, where facts are irrelevant to them. God help us the ruined by USW

Can’t fault wellbeing, organisation and content is not great and far too much reliability on online learning.

Cancelled my course when I had deferred my offer and turned down places at other unis. Only found out when I emailed to ask how to make the first payment. Communication was unclear and at points rude, and they did not even have the decency to call.

In short because it would take days to pass the narrative: not supportive to many students, very unreliable, some employees are racists, sexists, and some are bullies. Be aware, male or female, young or mid adult, they might belittle you to the point of absolute disrespect. It is all bout money in this university. Zero ethics, accountability and worst of all, terrible role modelling.

Very slow with the cas. They know u need to apply for visa very very very slow.

I was a student there and all I can say is, if you are thinking of signing up for a course there, DONT! The system is broken. And they do not reward hard work. The non academic side is quite laudable, but the academic aspect not so much. Like I said they do not reward hard work. This is a shared experience amongst me and the vast majority of my colleagues. Don’t believe me and enrol at your own peril. Ciao

I’m a January starter and every January I’ve had issues with enrolment, and every time I have to shout and scream to get help.

It’s really let down my uni experience. My lecturers are great, but I feel like the uni itself doesn’t care, particularly when it comes to January starters.

My name is Engie. I took the Master of Arts in Education and granted a scholarship with a partnership from UNICAF. I would say that my journey with my degree was pretty awesome. Though the rules were pretty strict like the submission deadline, it would discipline you as a student. The teachers were very professional and approachable.

My review regards its online/distance learning MBA program in cooperation with UNICAF. It's written in good faith.
In brief, if you have a bachelor in economics, finance, management or something relevant, you do not need this course. This bad review may not directly reflect the University but their cooperation with their outsourcing office for their online MBA program. I wanted to note herein that I am not sure for this but all evidence so far shows that the University is more sensitive, organized and wanted to provide better service than what I receive from the program. So, somewhere there is a problem. Of course, the University is responsible because it selects its cooperations.
My registration was a big mistake with a cost of around £9,000. Waste of time and money. And it is the most reputable university in the world or the UK (even they believe that they are in the top 10 in the UK or something like th).
After one year, I have learned nothing because I study and read my notes from my bachelor in Greece (industrial management and engineering). I decided to read my bachelor notes or books from other universities to avoid confusing and not to forget what I have learned so far.
To be fair, only the first course was worthy: research methods. Yes, I learned new things.
The University (67th in the UK and 600-800 in the world, according to 2018 ranking by timeshighereducation.com) offers generous scholarship programs which may exceed 50% through UNICAF.org. UNICAF is the leading online platform offering affordable, quality higher education to underserved markets, in collaboration with reputable universities in the UK, US, Europe, and Africa.
I was impressed by this program because it gave me the opportunity to attend my MBA online following UK standards and receive a scholarship of 50%. Indeed, they accepted me.
However, the experience so far (I have almost concluded the first year -- it is a two year program) is disappointing. Actually, it is an outsourcing -Cypriot office- program. You feel that you deal with UNICAF not the University of South Wales. You do not feel that you are a student of this University. All correspondings and support came from UNICAF.
With regard to the substance:

A) Education materials, courses, and modules
Poor educational materials (the courses of the first year were included in the first semesters of my bachelor), very badly written materials The major problem is that there is not a structure that helps the student to gain the ownership of the knowledge. There is not a start, a middle and an end. The examples are rare. Their materials can make the easiest issue to look difficult. And they may describe a difficult issue with a few words. The best way to study is to note the title of the module and the key themes and lend books from another university especially from the US.
I do not include typos, bad quality of image-scanned PDFs, etc, or using terms that they do not have explained first.
In other words, if you have a bachelor in economics or management, there is no need to attend this MBA. There is a risk of confusion or to forget what you have already learned. Personally, I increased my performance when I stopped to read their materials and studied of others universities or my notes from my bachelor
Another joke is their emphasis on the correct citation format (Harvard style). If you see their educational materials, rarely the tutors use the correct citation. Sometimes they do not mention references. An indicative example is the following. We had a task and we should critically analyze the view of an author/literature. The tutor had noted the name and the year of the author, not the book and all necessary bibliographic details in order for us to find this book, to read it and write our essay.
In two words, very sloppy work.

B) Tutors
Tutors seem that this is not their main job; it's rather part-time contractors. Some are polite and helpful, others pay more attention to discipline and the details (e.g., correct citation format) and miss the substance. Sometimes I search for their professional and academic background. Unfortunately, sometimes I find nothing worthy.

C) Marking
If you write simple things, and the tutor is familiar with them, you take a high grade. Also, note that, according to their policy, you do not have the right to ask for re-marking. Their system says that the tutors' marks are temporary until they will be reviewed and finalized after their internal procedure and special committees. One year now, I see the same message under my marks. I do not know if they are the temporary ones or if they have been finalized.
Once, I asked remark, although the grade was not bad (61) because I believed that my paper was original and based on primary research and produced new knowledge. OK, it was not for a Nobel or for a grade 100. I sent this paper to a couple of professors in other universities (top 10 in the UK) and they told me that this paper could not take a grade under 75%. All they said that the tutor was not familiar with the subject. So, other classmates, who based their paper on a literature review they took 58.
Again, the grades are not the problem. It's the last thing.

D) Feedback
Their feedback does not follow their mark. I received an excellent feedback (no errors, good structure, etc, etc, etc everything ok; the weakness was that the teacher wanted advanced English) followed by a mark 60%. What if it was not excellent?
With regard to my English: I am not a native English speaker. I am working in the UK in the publishing sector and I go well. Every day I become better. But really, has this tutor read his notes written in English? Personally, I would expect better English from my teacher in order for me to improve my English.

E) Support and bureaucracy
All is OK if you do not request something, or if you contact directly with the correct contact. Otherwise, it may take months until you solve an easy problem, e.g.: how can I take login details for the library? Some customer/student support representatives are very helpful and polite. Others they treat you like you are a problem in their life.
Generally, the staff in the library (of the University) is very polite and they are willing to help you online even in the midnight. The student support if it comes from a Cypriot line and you are lucky, you may receive a polite behavior. I had three bad experiences. The first: I made a question why they ask for me to pay my monthly tuitions once my balance was positive and covered the price of the module. Indeed, I was not right. But they could not explain the reason until they become aggressive. Second. I wanted to update my mobile number in order for the University to reach me. I sent an email according to the instructions below the box with my details. I received an email that they will help me to update my number but next time I must contact the correct person! I explained that I just followed your written instructions on your website. Third. I was trying to login libraries with my login details. The instruction said that we have received the login details when we registered. I had received them but nothing. After exchanging many emails, I understood that there was another pair of login details that they had not given. Of course, again, it was my fault because I had contracted with the wrong email... As many of my classmates had the same problem, I decided to share the solution of the problem; how I reached the solution and where to send the email. Then I received an email saying that I do not have the right to share personal communication and the contact person. In other words, do not help other people. Their view says that is students' fault because they do not read all instructions. It is not the reality. In our courses, we are around 20 students. It's impossible 20 people to be stupid or have not read the instructions.
The worst thing was the fact that their behavior forced me to show my bad side as well. And I regret it. I like to be polite, kind, calm and solve all problems with the discussion. It was a bad experience because I needed that I had to defend. I felt very bad.

F) Change university.
It is not so easy with excellent feedbacks and grades around 60. Also, if you ask for a termination, they warned that they will never accept me again. I have already concluded the first year. So I decided not to take further risk. I hope after this MBA to find a better University to learn something new and especially the new university to encourage primary research and not focus on the font size, the line spacing, and the correct citation style.

G) Something good
I complain to the highest management of the University and the Chancellor. The response was swift, positive, and impressive. They show their interest in my view and my complaints and asked me for submitting my complaints through the official channels.
I saw that it required much time for a really documented report. I decided to deal with more productive things, and if they want to take me to courts, I will use all my evidence. So, I decided to send the official feedback forms. There are forms at the end of each modul. Their responses (I think they came from the UNICAF, not the University): what do you accept? Standard answers. Thank you for the feedback, we take seriously your feedback, we need it to improve our services, etc... BUT (there was a but) you might know blah blah blah, in other words, they were right and I was wrong. Now, I understand that if someone wants really to be improved takes seriously a feedback even if it is not fair or wrong. Examines everything and tries to find something fruitful even under a wrong feedback. But if you believe that you are excellent, you never become better.

Conclusion
I am aware of the possibility that this review may cost my MBA and future grades in the best case.
My advice: ask the view of students, do not base your decision only on my view.