Swinburne Reviews 

Beyond disappointed, I am halfway through Certificate IV in Accounting and Bookkeeping and will be transferring to another institution, can't believe I stuck it out this long. Multiple mistakes in learning resources, online videos and even on assignments. Hours spent trying to work out where I was going wrong, only to discover, on chatting to online tutor, it was a mistake in the assignment. Tutors conducting online tutorials/webinars assisting you with the assignment had same issues or would spend 15 minutes teaching you something only to discover they had got it wrong and have to undo it all. Surely it is a case of simply editing these videos so students are not taken on learning journeys that are completely incorrect. Or the alterative, multiple assessment guideline documents, multiple. You literally have 2 or 3 different documents you need to look at to complete your assignment, all with different information or levels due to updated information. Surely these should be consolidated into one updated document. At one point I was working off 5 different PDFs to do one assignment. And now, trying to get my statement of attainment is a nightmare, between Swinburne Online and Swinburne University they cannot get it right!

Swinburne University has a culture of bullying, abuse, discrimination, harassment, and cover-ups by lecturers and professors against students and tutors. It is unfortunate that the Department of Electrical, Robotics, and Biomedical Engineering is now chaired by Jason But, who is a top bully himself. That is not to say that any of the previous chairs and Jason's friends like Prof Grenville Armitage were any better. Grenville was one of the most abusive and rotten in character. He has moved on to Netflix but I reckon he is still an adjunct Professor at Swinburne. These academics also score publications through dishonesty. So don't be fooled by their impressive CV.

You cannot even speak up about the bullying, harassment, and abuse by lecturers and professors at Swinburne because other professors in the department, such as Professor Philip Branch, who are well aware of what is going on, would remain silent. The entire engineering department and the university itself is thoroughly rotten and is known for destroying the lives and careers of students and also tutors.

Good tutors and lab instructors who work for these professors and lecturers at Swinburne also suffer the same kind of abuse.

Some of their abusive colleagues in the engineering department, such as Professor Hai Vu, have since moved to Monash University, where they continue to ruin the lives of students.

The bullying and abuse at Swinburne University goes all the way to the top. If you think you can speak with the academic advisor or someone else about it, think again. They will just close ranks & ruin your life. They are not there to help you. They are there to protect the reputation of the university and their toxic lecturers and professors.

Avoid Swinburne University at all costs, even if you are offered a full scholarship. This applies to any course at Swinburne whether you are a student looking for a course or a tutor or instructor looking for a job. It is just not worth it. Just avoid Swinburne University at all costs. Tell your friends and relatives also. You do not deserve to be subjected to such toxicity.

Also, avoid Monash University for engineering if you want to avoid bullying and abuse from Hai Vu. I can't comment about other departments at Monash.

I would give zero stars for Swinburne University if I could.

Terrible student support, any time I had problems with them I would call or email and get nothing or nothing helpful. I feel like they just want my money and nothing else. After dropping out I'm still stuck paying them. Just don't bother with them.

Worst experience. I think they know who they want on the program. They completely ignore emails and dont have courtsey to respond. Perhaps they want to attract students to join courses so they can mint more money. The program is just a show off. I emailed multiple times and provided all information but ZERO support.

Oh god...don't get me started I am so damn annoyed and pissed off at this uni, they first try to get you to join the uni so bad calls after calls all happy and jolly and tell u they will give u the utmost support. as soon as u have been enrolled that's it, they just completely deny your existence it seems. NICOLAS MARSHALL was the course advisor or someshit who was talking to me and getting me enrolled they told me to fill out a matched exemption form and once i filled it out i was literally told i got accepted for the units like i got credit for them. then when i check they have enrolled me in the same exact units i've already done. I emailed like 10 times asking why. and they never replied until i called them like a few times abd they finally picked up and they said we dont have anything in our system like that and they said fill out the exemption form again and i did i sent it and still no fkn response they've wasted my whole fkn time and I couldn't eveb enroll into my previous uni (UNE) for trimester 2 because the date to enroll for tri 2 had passed 3 weeks ago so instead of telling me anything they just wasted my time and now i will be missing out a whole trimester of study for law. I don't even care if thhey accpet the matched exemption or whatver. i just withdrew from the uni because I do not wanan study in this assss uni take my advice and RUN RUN RUN FAR AWAYYYY from this hellhole also to mention the online study and the layout and everything is so fkn confusuing like pls fix that. I will be back to study in trimester 3 this year back with UNE they are such a good uni and I regret ever trying to get into swinburne

Swinburne is Consistently inconsistent.

I have experienced a lack of consistency in instruction along with limited guidance and support, which has made it difficult to clearly understand assessment requirements and learning expectations. Instructions provided and assessment explanations have at times been unclear or inconsistent, leading to confusion and uncertainty about how to successfully complete tasks. Additionally, when clarification or support has been requested, the assistance provided has not always been sufficient or timely to address the issues raised.

I do not recommend studying with Swinburne especially online.

Awful, I didn't even make it to the enrollment process, Ranji Sull the admissions manager has harassed me with phone calls at 9am every day this week.

I explained I am not currently available in the mornings and that I would call back next week during the afternoon and to stop calling me as it was harassment.

He proceeded to request my application be cancelled after I emailed him again to stop calling me.

They are only interested in milling money from people and don't have any passion or empathy as educators.

The online degrees are evergreen courses meaning they were put together some time ago and do not have all up to date content. The online learning advisors (OLA) have very little relevance to the course and do not actually teach. The live collaboration sessions they market to you are just crappy webinar type things where the OLA reads out the information you've already been given, there is nothing collaborative about it. The online exams are done through a platform called ProctorU which is faulty at best. This platform has negative reviews everywhere and makes exam day even more stressful, my first exam it took them 8 hours and 8 staff to get me logged in and i know many other students who have the same awful experience. I've not had any better experiences with my exams since then. They have three 'trimesters' instead of terms which do not coincide with school terms, so if you're a parent you will not be on holidays when your kids are oh and you have to study through the summer break. I would not recommend and I would not do it again. You're basically paying $30-$40k to read some textbook chapters and write some essays

I would give zero stars if I could. "Undergraduate Certificate of Higher Education Studies" when dropping out after half a year or studying? I can hardly believe this is to be taken serious. What if if i have several "certificates" of that? Will three of them make me something special? Surely! God help us! This is laughable to say the least!

Would never recommend this uni. I am in my last prac unit to my teaching degree. Found a school to do my prac and was approved 4 weeks ago. I then applied and took annual leave. The Friday before my prac is due to start they send me an email at 3.00 pm saying it is not approved. Called uni 2 hours later said my supervising teacher does not have the correct degree. Why was this approved in the first place. I now have 2 weeks to find a new prac at the end of the school year or they will cancel my enrolment to this unit and will have to wait an entire year to do this unit and graduate the next year. All they said oh you can lodge a formal complaint. I will be doing more than that.

Personal review / warning (direct, emotional) Stay away — I’m doing a Cert II in Animal Care and I’ve had to do it all on my own. They don’t support you at all. It’s much better to do the course in person. When I asked for help with placement, they refused. I asked again, and then they wanted dates, phone call times, emails of who I contacted, and even a copy of my résumé — even though I had already explained that no one is taking people. On top of that, you have to record about 50 videos for this course.
It cost me $3,000 just to basically write things out and find my own placement. They never tell you upfront how hard it is to get into the field or secure a placement. The repeated rejections and constant “no” from people made me feel useless and unwanted; the last one actually made me cry after months of trying. I could have gone to Box Hill, where they organise placements for you. Swinburne just lies and wants your money. Do not go with them.

Expensive! Promise support, no support given!
If you don't answer 100% on assessments you will fail despite being very competent.

Extremely Disappointed - A Complete Waste of Time and Money

I enrolled in an online Community Service course at Swinburne University, expecting a decent learning experience and some level of support, especially since I was paying a significant amount of money. What I received was a complete disappointment.

First off, student resources were practically nonexistent. I tried reaching out for assistance multiple times, whether it was for study-related queries or any support, but there was barely anyone available to help. If you’re hoping for some sort of meaningful interaction with staff or access to learning resources, don’t count on it.

After just one month into the course, I realized this was a complete waste of time and decided to cancel. When I requested a refund or at least a partial refund, given the minimal support and lack of actual teaching, I was charged 50% of the tuition despite having done almost no work due to the lack of guidance. Their response? "No mercy" — they still charged me and offered no flexibility, even citing "economic reasons" as justification.

At this point, I started to feel like I had been completely misled. I could have taken this course at TAFE for a much lower cost and much better support, but I chose Swinburne because they promised personalized support and resources. I now realize this was a huge mistake. They’re just another for-profit institution with no genuine care for students.

If you're thinking about enrolling at Swinburne, my advice is to look elsewhere. Find a school that actually cares about its students and provides real support — unlike Swinburne, which only cares about collecting tuition fees and leaving you high and dry when you need help.

Save your time, energy, and money — choose a better school.

Trying to study online with swineburne has been the most painful, frustrating and regretful experience studying to date, and that's only trying to complete a cert II I cant imagine how bad it would be going any higher. Waste of money, look elsewhere.

This is not a good educational facility. There are very shifty comebacks to complaints, a little bit like covid vaccine, no one is responsible for anything and it's never their fault. It's a waste of money.

Holy hell, don't go here. Worst experience in life. They set you up for failure. A unit convenor for a core unit, refuses to change how they operate and uses the excuse "oh this is offered externally."

If so many students fail this course, why the hell aren't they change it to prevent students from failing!?

Not to mention how a tutor can accuse you of false plagiarism. No proper process or procedures, just straight up accusation. Worst uni ever.

I use to be a big fan of Swinburne Online. After the experience in my last unit, I’m left with a very sour taste in my mouth. I have been studying a Bachelor of Business online, as they tend to recommend 10-15 hours study per week per unit. I have found myself studying 20+ in my last unit and still failed it at the end. The eLa’s seem to be marking harder than previous years, I would say I have a basic understanding of what I studied. Units are becoming too heavily exam focused which is not good for students who may do better with written assignments and group work. In my last unit which weighted 50% of the overall mark. The mean was 52, that’s pretty concerning when the majority of students are just scraping a pass.

Online unit material appears to be just a few YouTube videos and a couple of lecture slide material thrown in. If you are doing a unit which requires calculations. The textbook will most likely not have an answer section to know if you are on the right track.

I have now failed a second unit which means I’ll be issued with a show cause notice. For reference the mean for this unit’s end of semester exam was 34.4. Yet eLa’s spent this past semester marking high that a majority of people were getting distinctions to high distinctions.

Upon asking about an exit award for study already completed. I was told in the email I received it would take 15 days for them to respond.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!! Read their reviews on trustpilot!!! They can’t delete those!!!! They will sign you up and then not provide a cent of support. I asked to complete a higher level course due to my previous education, they pushed me to a lower course. I found it severely below my current level, they offered me to pay a severely increased price to get RPL. They make it so hard for you to get RPL that you don’t even try!! I dipped out. You will pay 5x what you pay with other providers to get a “payment plan” to complete your course with them. I have since signed up for a higher level course with another provider and have found the support 1000% better. I have reported them to consumer protection for predatory practices. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!! Read their reviews on trustpilot!!! They can’t delete those!!!!

Absolutely appalling!! The worst experience I have ever had an any academic institution in my life.

The quality of teachers ranges drastically, assignment instructions lack detail and the grading criteria is vague and subjective.

My RPL (I was originally from Monash) was not processed correctly so I was placed into units that I didn’t have the required pre-knowledge for and then penalised for it.

In one assignment marks were deducted from my reference section for no reason and the only comment provided by my teacher was “good work”, when I questioned this it was never resolved.

In one exam there were errors which I had to make the Uni aware of - I have no idea if they ever fixed it.

In another exam, I was kicked out for 40minutes for no reason, ProctorU took 20minutes to respond and then replied in broken english and did not understand what was happening. It took 40 minutes for them to let me back in which drastically impacted my grade. I was told if I wanted to fix it i’d have to retake the entire thing in person 6 weeks later.

No one will ever speak to you on the phone if you need something resolved. You cannot speak to the exam or results teams at any point.

I’ve then tried to leave and go to a different Uni because this place is so and they’ve even managed to f—k that up too, as their results team failed to post the grade from my last unit so my academic record is not accurate. I’ve been trying to get it fixed for 2 weeks and no one gets back to me, so now i’ve missed the RPL cut off elsewhere.

I was/am studying a graduate diploma of psychology

Swinburne has changed. I have started with distinction to high distinction grades when all of a sudden Christopher Heidemanns 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.