Charles Sturt University

Completed a distance education degree with CSU while working. Admin staff were helpful when I picked up the phone. The material in the units ranged from read these books and a reading list to a more tailored selection of materials with videos, articles and books. It was adequate to good and about what I expected for doing a distance qualification.… Read more

Some of the online seminars were streams of consciousness that were hard to follow. I feel I got my moneys worth, and some benefit from some of the units.

No student support, as an online student they expected me to travel 2hr everyday for WPL as a mum who is breastfeeding this isn't do able and even if I wasnt breast feeding why do I have to be so far away from home, have to pay for accomodation, food ect when there are sooo many hospitals in my area. For Clinical, there is never enough spots open… Read more

in the places needed, alot of people miss out making people who live in the area or who have accommodation in the area miss out on the places that will most suit. They say they have things like special consideration (which I had to fight for mine to get approved); they say they have part-time study (which I have been doing since 3 days after I gave birth to my son) as I don't want to fall behind on nursing and wanted to get it done as soon as possible (but its not the workload im struggling with; it's the uni's lack of support for where placements and clinicals are held. Then they say they have a leave of absence (which just pushes you further behind). Very disappointed in the care and support from the staff.

I have completed 4 university degrees with CSU. This university supports regional Australians and is of a high standard with good graduate rates for people who get jobs! Studying at CSU has changed my life. The negative overseas students who scream low quality racist lecturers really need to seek education in their own country and stop trying to… Read more

manipulate the education system so they can get entry into Australia and a pathway a work visa and to residency. Australian education is that, "Australian education for Australians"

Having studied as some pretty substandard places, I was really impressed when I had to do a certificate with Charles Sturt University. It was very flexible, informative, had streamlined credit recognition, and it was clearly designed for the needs of distance learning. The passion from the staff, especially those at the Centre for Law and Justice,… Read more

was really refreshing to see. I thought so much of my time with them while doing my certificate that I ended up transferring from my own university to complete my bachelor's degree with them instead.

I know there are a lot of negative reviews of this university. I am a long distance doctoral student and overall it has been a very good experience. My supervisors have always been available when needed and they have been with me throughout the degree. Some friends at different universities have had multiple supervisors which has been really… Read more

disruptive to their learning. At the level of a doctoral/PhD a lot of the work needs to be done independently, thankfully my supervisors have given me direction and the appropriate amount of space to think and find my feet as they are not constantly on my back.

At the beginning of my studies it was very difficult to access information about the expectations of my research degree but I found in 2019 the university picked up their game in terms of providing information and supports to long distance doctoral students. The services provided seemed more organised and centralised.

The library services have always been awesome, they send books and answer questions promptly. I would recommend people to study at CSU, especially if doing it long distance. As an undergraduate I needed to attend campus to feel connected to my learning and community, however as a mature aged student with a family and job, studying on-line at CSU has fit me perfectly. In addition I have met some quality CSU graduates working in various places from the UN, national and international media, community organisations and state and national governments. You'll be surprised where you find us!

Scored 80% on an exam, proof received. They recorded it as 50%, claiming they do that when results are high so all students get average results. Absolutly dusgusting... if you get 80 % you get 80%.... downgrading to 50 % makes the overall result record appear weak. Don't go to this pathetic amateur moron place.

Worst university staff I have ever engaged with - staff are rude, dismissive and often just outrightly ignore your enquiries. Incredibly unprofessional and unsupportive, do not recommend.

I have competed 3 courses through CSU and had aspirations to complete a fourth. Initially I enjoyed my time with CSU but as the courses progressed (or perhaps as I became more aware of what quality course delivery meant) I found CSU worsened. The teaching quality declined drastically and any ascension of this was met with either silence or… Read more

"perhaps you need to try harder".

I chose to withdraw before completion of my last course because I felt I was wasting my money. I have been a professional and executive in this field for over a decade winning awards and accolades but the responses from my "teachers" were outdated, self-aggrandising and factually incorrect.

I am disappointed but also very happy I chose not to go further with CSU.

Rating: 1 star (only because zero stars isn’t an option). Enrolling at Charles Sturt University has been one of the worst decisions of my life. If you’re considering CSU – don’t. I wouldn’t recommend this institution to my worst enemy. My experience at Charles Sturt University (CSU) has been nothing short of a nightmare. If you're looking for… Read more

quality education, competent staff, or even basic human decency from a university, look elsewhere. CSU is the definition of what happens when an institution stops caring about students entirely.

Let’s start with the teaching staff. Incompetent doesn’t even begin to cover it. Many of the so-called “lecturers” are barely present, deliver outdated content, and make zero effort to engage. Asking for clarification is like poking a bear, you’ll either get silence or a rude, condescending reply. And don’t even think about asking for flexibility or compassion, they treat students like an inconvenience, not humans.

The marking is a disgrace. Feedback is vague at best, hostile at worst. I’ve received comments that were straight up insulting, as if they were written out of spite. Constructive feedback? Forget it. If you challenge the markers, even politely, prepare to be stonewalled or patronised. There’s no academic integrity, just power tripping tutors with zero accountability.

And then there’s Brightspace, an absolute trainwreck of a platform. It’s clunky, unintuitive, and half the links don’t work. Each subject is set up differently with no consistency or clarity. Some materials are missing, others are outdated, and you’re expected to just “figure it out” on your own. It genuinely feels like no one has tested the platform before forcing students to use it.

Student support? What support? They should rename the support team “ghosting services.” Whether it’s enrolment issues, accessibility needs, mental health support, or technical help, you’ll be ignored, redirected endlessly, or met with robotic, useless responses. It’s clear the staff are either untrained, overworked, or just don’t care.

There’s no community, no engagement, and no pride in anything they do. It’s a disorganised, demoralising, and dehumanising experience. You’re not a student here, you’re just a number in their system, and they make that painfully clear at every turn.

I’ve studied at other universities, and I can confidently say CSU is rock bottom. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. If you value your education, your mental health, and your time, do yourself a favour and avoid CSU like the plague.

Beware of Charles university and there misleading information Specially regarding fees you will be in debt trapped after 10 yrs you will receive hecs debt without your consent, utterly misleading sales. Using jargon words asking to pay admin fees to trap you so they can say you started the course. Very awful service.

State accurate facts? . CSU are so heavily discriminatory towards students with disabilities. Like we are talking borderline human rights commission engagement. . Staff act entitled and also act highly inappropriate to students who ask the bare minimum of their job to help you. You need to know everything, do not dare think about asking a… Read more

question. You do not come to CSU to learn, you come to assume you know everything.

. Exams are conducted poorly, the whole process is just a flat out drama. Oh and if your exam is online they do not allow you to backtrack. So if you do not know an answer and its a heavily weighted mark bad luck.

. Physics lessons are conducted from another university which means you do not have access to engage with a lecturer in person. Therefore if you need clarification getting that in a timely manner is not an option.

. This place does not treat you like a human.

. Placement, I for one was blackmailed into doing extra course work then every other student before being allowed out on placement. Once out on placement otherwise known as the "real world." Night and day different experience, easily best part of the whole saga.

If you care about yourself and your mental health, please avoid CSU. This university, makes me sick even saying that, is not the place you desire to study trust me. You are incredible as a human, you deserve all the success and opportunities that come your way. CSU will not provide any of it, they will want to destroy you and raid every single cent of your savings. CSU will loose important documents and deny it, they will make sure your mental health suffers.

If you have one doubt, go to another university. You are smart, you are powerful, you can achieve anything. CSU does not care, they are not interested helping you achieve your dreams, they will bring you down.

Be sensible, think long and hard. Please think long and hard before you commit to CSU. If this helps even one person awesome.

Cheers

Save yourself time and go to a real university – They steal your money. They are unwilling to help. I have a disability and have received no assistance. The disability created issues for me and I had to withdraw after census date. They refused to assist and stated my disability plays no factor. The content is terrible and the tutors are barely available to assist. If you try to call you're… Read more

usually on hold for 30 mins to 1 hour. Your progress isn't updated in real time. I have completed a couple of units and this doesn't show in "my progress". Save yourself time and go to a real university. I've had to fork out $5000 dollars for units I've never even looked at. The degrees are actually more expensive than most leading universities. Don't deal with these con artists.

Poor quality – If you want an education, don't bother. If you want a piece of paper, go somewhere else. If you want an institution the respects you, CSU isn't for you. I'm so disappointed with the quality of their education. I have learnt nothing studying here

Avoid at all cost! – The worst of the worst! Submitted an honours dissertation, 8 months in and still waiting for a grade. Has cost me a PhD place with scholarship because they can't get anything organised. Lecturers use publishers American slides rather than make their own, lecture recordings are old and out of date and just get recycled each semester. Lecturers and tutors have no industry or application knowledge. Incompetent all round... avoid, avoid avoid

Taking my thousands elsewhere – I joined the University with the idea of completing my Masters by distance. Personal circumstances ( my mother was very ill) meant that I was formally withdrawn from my first course. This was fine. Everything with that went smoothly - but since then I went back to the University to ask if I could re-sit the paper. I got mucked around massively. In… Read more

the end I was given a random email address for the Director of my studies. I contacted the University a few weeks after emailing them and was told it was still under consideration. It has been months now and no one ever bothered to respond to me. They are just too disorganised for me. I'm not wasting my time with them anymore.

Allows cheaters to succeed – Don’t go with this uni - I contacted them as someone cheated through all of their assessments YET were allowed to continue their studies… you make me sick.

CSU for Finance – A lot of hate for this university and I feel it is unwarranted. I've completed three degrees here, I have found the teaching staff, for the exception of one, excellent. They communicate well, understand if you are working full time and have strong industry knowledge. The work load can be full on, but the lectures, notes and information they… Read more

provide are direct and time saving. The back office help has come a long way, just get email confirmation of your conversations.

Don't bother joining this dumb and hopeless university – This is the most manipulative and low standard universities I've ever known please DON'T BOTHER JOINING this university. The amount of mental stress this university has given me is more than what I've had my entire life. The lecturers doesn't know crap the management doesn't care this whole place is a joke! All they care about is money and they… Read more

don't even care whether it impacts the student's life or not they fail genuine hardworking students for no reason no rules followed no ethics no morals whatsoever. There are plenty of other good universities just don't worry about this one. This university needs to shut down for their incompetence.

TERRIBLE UNIVERSITY!!!!!!!!!!!!! – This is the worst University I have ever attended. Studying a Bachelor of Nursing just finished second year and have had next to no placement allocated and told ill have to complete 700hrs for my final year but will be stuck in a second year scope of practice lol WTH. Some third year students aren't even graduating this year because they didn't… Read more

get allocated placement in time but some of their peers have finished all together. So unfair. Currently in the process of trying to transfer to a different university for my last year of study so I can actually graduate on time. Staff are so rude they couldn't give a damn about you. Wish I could give a 0. Do not study here!!!!

Graduate but no certificate months later – Its been months yet still no certificate to celebrate with a fire. I mean I wasted thousands of dollars for a degree i cannot finish because instead of actually using critical thinking i was segregated due to vax status. Those who study psychology yet ignorant to the last 2 years didn't learn anything at all. Show details

Worst University in Australia – Terrible teaching staff who are no help with questions, often taking days if not weeks to respond. Failing assignments with no real explanation even though passed with flying colours in similar subjects (exact same course) at a previous university and work in the industry already. Told sources we’re not adequate enough when knowledge comes from… Read more

decades of my own families generational culture and current work in the field. Lecturers extremely passive aggressive and rude when asked to explain marks or when answering questions. Such outdated teaching material that the lecturers have been reading off PowerPoints for the last 10 years. Total waste of money and time. Do not go here if you want a real education with respectful and knowledgeable teachers.

Beware International students who study Allied Health – Course coordinator will intentionally fail you to get money. Pure racist course coordinator in a particular southern NSW campus.This person send you for placements which are tough to pass as they have prior knowledge about it. This person even personally contact the supervisors to fail the students. This person wont let you graduate. You as a… Read more

international student will loose thousands of dollars. Even the University top officials know this person does this kind of dirty work but what can they do. Failing international students in a subject brings in lot of money. Please avoid this university at any cost. Low quality education is another concern.

Terrible University! – Was given really poor advice from university staff resulted in my application not being considered fairly. Would not recommend applying to this university to anyone who is considering going to university. Far better universities around who give much better career advice and take care of its students interests, not just there own.

Very disorganized – I applied to study my bachelor online in Sep/21. I’ve got my offer as a domestic student and accepted it. I started to organize myself, had brought resources that would help me to study remotely and started to complete the university and course tasks. One day before the course start on Nov 15th, they called me saying that they made a mistake on my… Read more

enrollment and I would not be able to study accordingly to their offer as my current visa doesn't allow me. They could have told me before I spend money and time to start the course. It shows that they are very disorganized.

Need to raise teaching standard – Depending on the subject, some courses are good and others bad. The lecturers are not as qualified as you would expect compared to the top tier group of 8 universities. In year 1 of particularly STEM classes, you will find most lecturers hardly have a PhD or just studying for one. They are also not full time staff but sessional staff so, gap… Read more

fillers? A lot of the STEM lectures are just the lecturer reading from the textbook and so I found most of the lectures a complete waste of time. On the plus side, since the uni is a rural one, the classes are a lot smaller (often even less than 20) so if you have questions or issues, they usually respond to you directly and can help.

Overall Good University focusing on development of students personal and academic skills – -Assignments and exams are competitive. - Most lecturers are good but some are not to the mark. I’m quite satisfied by the study and teaching materials and course content also much attractive and best part is you have options to choose.  Show details

The worst university – CSU is a worst uni in Australia. I highly recommend not to select this uni for potential international students. The truth is not the thing what your agents say, you better go to an [Content Removed] boutique to do your studies, at least you could save your money. The administration is really bad especially in Melb campus. They will charge your… Read more

money unfairly. They are greedy on money, no quality or nothing. There is no any single Australian student in this uni because they exactly know what this boutique is. So, think many times before you choose this. You will get a Degree from a well reputed university for the same cost because you will have to fail some subjects even you are an expert on that. So you will have to keep paying uni fees. DO NOT CHOOSE THIS CHEAP UNI.(uni fee is not cheap)

Master of IT – I would rate 0 star if I can! If you are going to study master of IT in this university please reconsider. The course material is too out of date with a lot of craps you don’t need while missing a lot of important concepts you need. The lectures are mainly one sided if there any questions or contradiction arguments, it will likely to put off. … Read more

The assessments are contradiction mess.

There are no actually support from the course coordinator as I sent emails following by emails only to be ignored.

The worst class I got so far is programming as the lecturer spend most of the time reading the documentations of a programming language then post solutions to every problems and ask students to type them down. Is this crap data entry class ? Also the assignments are mainly copy and paste and he doesn’t want students to be creative with code at all (you get marked down if you do something fancier).

Racist university – Admission application for a student I helped was rejected base on the country he was from that was told by the reception. Apparently the country was under sanction for arm related service. This is a discrimination that CSU sanction to a student base on the country they are from? what did a student do to get a sanction? I requested answer from Dean… Read more

but no answer. I requested University ethical ombusment to review the process as I wanted to clarify the reason. Two persons had changed since I requested but nothing happen. the only reason I persisted because of the course outline they offer. I want the world to know poor ethical standard of CSU. I am more than happy to be contacted to prove my story is valid.

CSU stay away from them – I enrolled in a Bachelor of Social Science and Social Welfare degree. Did a couple of subjects then decided to see if I graduate with the Associate degree in liberal Arts. I spoke with the course coordinator and he approved this. I then applied to graduate with the lower award only to be told that I did not meet the criteria. I was totally… Read more

gobsmacked, I then complained with the university ombudsman who was hopeless. Apparently the course coordinator made a mistake or something, so I was stuffed.

Eventually I made a complaint on Facebook on the CSU page, they then investigated again and then awarded me the associate degree. Apparently I had satisfied the criteria with my subjects and previous study. Total incompetence and no idea what they are doing.

I see a lot terrible reviews on CSU and I understand why.

Excellent Standards & Great Staff – I've been a CSU online student for the past 2.5 years in an Arts degree course. I have found the vast majority of staff to be cheerful, open and patient. I enjoy the mix of learning methods available to keep me engaged in my subjects - my favourite delivery tool is videos and Zoom meetings because staff get to have a laugh and share tips and… Read more

guide students to being their very best - the staff are very down to earth and put fun in education.

Once you understand the 'Interact2' portal everything else flows like a gentle river.