Athabasca University

This university is business. They just take money and do not care for student. I have come across with very few professor who deserve to be call professor otherwise in total they do not care for student success. I sincerely do not recommend anyone to chose this online university. I myself want to change university. They are making my confidence down day by day. I am a single mom of four childrens and struggling. I’m paying my course fees for $1000 each course taking a BA. Do you think tutors care. Just lift their pen and critique your work. But they do not see Behind your hard work. They set the final exams so difficult for you to fail and they will make money on your head.Professor should be supportive . I want every one to know how this university is. There should be journalist to sit with them and media needs to know how are the professors. They play with the markings and they do what ever they want. If they want to fail you they will fail your assignment. When you make an appeal or raise voice they will find little little mistake just to put you down. I really regret of choosing this university. September I will be in my Third year and my confidence is down. They just tell you study all and you study all without have any clue what is coming. I study late week to prepare final exams and when you see the paper is set way more higher for of to fail of course for you to pay again. This is very discouraging and I don’t know how can I change university and complete my degree.Please my request to all of you do not choose this university. If you take help from internet they will say you copied. I ask you guys when student copy when they are left alone and not getting a good supportive professor. Reshma is my name.

As a current student I have noticed some recent changes that are worrisome. Tuition is increasing almost every semester. On top of that they have closed testing centres and have pushed that responsibility to the students. I paid over $700 per course and now Athabasca thinks it's appropriate to make students pay upwards of $100 to hire someone to watch them take thier exam. Courses with a midterm are now costing me over $900. Not only is the cost 20 30% higher than other schools, the process in booking these exams had become more stressful than the exam itself. What am I paying for?

I am currently enrolled in one class at Athabasca as a prerequisite for programs outside of the university. The class itself is fine. I am doing other online classes through the @UNB University of New Brunswick College of Extended Learning (Highly recommend as an alternative to Athabasca, had very positive experience with them) which I greatly prefer but the set up is similar and for an online class, it's adequate. Reading through these reviews I see a lot of complaints with Athabasca about unanswered calls and e-mails. I am experiencing similar frustrations. I have been contacting the university for over a month requesting a letter that I need in order to apply to a different institution. I wrote to Athabasca in January stating very clearly that I needed a letter which included the following information: 1. my enrollment in the course, 2. The start and end dates of the course 3. confirmation that no grades were assigned to me during the period in question Seems pretty straight forward right? From what I gather, the letter I am asking for is not standard and seems challenging for some reason to produce. After over a month of countless calls and e-mails, explaining the situation over and over again, being transferred to different people in different departments, also having my call dropped I have passed the deadline for sending the requested letter and I have yet to receive it. Furthermore, no one at any point has told me that this letter would be impossible to produce. Were that the case, I would have looked for a plan B. I gave them ample time, I think they could afford me the same courtesy. Instead, each time I call, no one even seems to know anything about my issue and I start my whole speech again. Really terrible customer service. PS. How predictable that the one time I receive a quick reply from Athabasca (see their comment below) is after having publicly posted a negative review. Otherwise, they are as slow as molasses if they even reply at all.

I struggled in my first year with Athabasca due to mental health. This semester, I wanted to come out strong, beat the depression, and get my classes done so I reenrolled. I reached out and discussed the plan of action in retaking one of my courses with my tutor so I could be set up for success. At some point, my tutor changed? I was aware of this, but didn’t think much when I requested my midterm. New tutor sent me the midterm, I spent one week writing 3000 words. I was so proud of my work. I handed in my midterm. My tutor messaged me a week later that she had sent me the wrong test, didn’t realize I’d taken the course before, and she’d send me the correct version to write a new one ASAP. She blamed it on the first tutor not making notes. So it’s my issue? My rewrite? At first I tried to be understanding until I realized how much this set me off my projected schedule, what it meant for my mental health, and just flat out being told the work I have done is great but won’t be accepted. Enrol in Athabasca if you want the dice of your semester’s grades and overall sanity dependent on the competence of your potentially pop up out of nowhere and mess you up tutor. I will not be spending another dime here.

I’m speaking to the LPN to RN bridge program - do not waste your hard earned money here, unless it's your absolute only option. I get it, our options are limited for bridging programs in Canada, and this university knows it, so they gouge at every chance they get. The courses are all self-taught, no recorded or live lectures, or anything along those lines… you are given an etext and expected to memorize every small detail. No study guides are given for a little direction with exams. It’s 2022, please start catering to other learning styles. They use a service called Proctor U to write exams due to the current world situation (added fee for this), and there are always issues on their end. Your exam time will not stop as they fix the issues - has happened to me numerous times, and the service nor the school, will do anything about this unless you want to pay another fee to rewrite. Very unfortunate. You’re paying so much (prices recently went up 1.5 years ago and I just received another email stating they're going up again) for zero support from your tutors. I’ve asked for guidance numerous times from different tutors, and have received such a lack of support, that I stopped trying. Nursing is all about support; how does this program expect to mould great nurses who support their patients, when they can’t even support their students? My previous nursing program was so supportive and interactive, exactly how nursing should be. This program is archaic, and does not cater to different learning styles at all. Would not recommend.

If you are an independent and motivated character, AU is a great place for you. Learning is enjoyable and flexible. Courses are well prepared, assignments and requirements are well documented, requiring no assistance. I am a business owner, the father of five, and thanks to AU, I can still finish my degree. Due to its remote nature, AU is for mature students. There is no lack of pieces of information, advice, or instructions, everything is out there, but if you're the kind of person who needs to be pampered, you'll likely end up posting negative reviews.

It's a matter of time before there is an investigative report by a journalist regarding how AU traps students into enrolling, does not provide support and makes it a bureaucratic nightmare to drop courses within deadlines. In any respectable university, there is a committee representing faculty, administration and students to deal with student matters. At AU, there is one remote person who makes decisions and who doesn't care because they never get to meet the student face to face. If you are trying to finish your degree faster in your home university by taking a course online, avoid AU like plague. It's a matter of time before someone figures out the number of students who unable to complete an AU course and before other universities in Canada refuse to recognize AU credits or give permissions to enroll in an AU course due to their abysmal history of trapping students into courses.

Never respond to your emails and calls as they don't care about any of their students just making money from them nothing else. Even don't care about what the students are going through so disappointed with their online courses. like seriously no instructor, not even much study resources to get you to pass the exams you just had to do everything by yourself. my chemistry 217 was good as she marked the assignments within 2-3 days but the BIOL230 teacher took almost 15 days now to grade my 1 assignment yet still not marked. moreover, my course is going to end up 2 months from now. I emailed and open a case regarding the supplement quiz about 2 months ago still no response from your side. I don't want to write a negative review but this was the last option I got.