Athabasca University

Most Recent Comments

• February 2024 by Hanin Hamad
  Just go off the phone with one of the staff members. My situation is complicated and I was trying to clarify some steps in the application process. They answered my question but that person was exceptionally rude with a condescending tone.
• February 2024 by John Moreno
  Fantastic option for those already in the workforce and/or those who have obtained prior university credits. They also recognize military training for credit via a partner program through U of M. Staff and instructors have been very helpful!
• February 2024 by Alanna Folkerts
  Athabasca's online program is truthfully the best program I could have chosen. I am a teacher working part time, and am trying to obtain my degree in psychology. Is it a lot of work? Yes. Do you have a prof hounding you to hand assignments in on time? No. If you are a disciplined student, with the motivation to complete your assignments and courses, do your readings, and communicate with your tutors, you will be fine. If you are unsure about a course and would like to make a switch, they also give you very clear instructions on your timeline to do so without incurring fees. What's more, if you're struggling to complete the course on time, you can ask for a number of extensions. (I believe it's up to 5 months) to finish the course. Exams are amazing because you literally get to choose the time and date that works best for you, and do it from your own home. The proctor fees for this are minimal (maybe $30-$35 max).Do I miss getting to sit in a lecture hall and listen to a teacher? Of course. However, that just isn't what online learning is! I wouldn't recommend Athabasca to a student just coming out of high school, because you will miss that experience, but anyone who has been to post secondary already, and developed healthy study habits should have no problem at AU!Athabasca's online program is definitely a niche program for select students. They are very clear on what their program is, and what they can offer you. It's not for everyone, but what they offer is invaluable to individuals like myself and many other mature students looking to further their education while working, paying a mortgage, raising a family etc.Thanks Athabasca, for making further education possible for myself and many others!
• February 2024 by Konner Streatch
  Initially, I was displeased with the setup of the school. However, after several months of studying at Athabasca, I have come to appreciate several aspects of the institution.Pros:- Studying online eliminates the need for parking fees and commuting expenses.- You have the flexibility to progress through courses at your own pace and in any order you prefer.- The school does not impose stress by mandating group work or presentations.- Learning from home means no crowded classrooms.Cons:- Many textbooks appear outdated, some being at least 7 years old.- Most courses are structured to be completed in 6 months, but if you rely on a student loan, you're given only 4 months, leading to a heavy workload.- The teaching approach relies heavily on self-instruction, with minimal teacher involvement beyond email correspondence.- Interactions with the finance department can sometimes be perceived as rude and condescending.- Certain exams are unnecessarily challenging due to inadequate time allocation for each question.
• January 2024 by Wade Hebbard
  Lots of terrible tutors that are unresponsive, tank your marks by grading outside the required material, or just power tripping. Athabascau charges 200$ to switch classes as soon as you find out who your tutor is and it's like they keep these people around so they can nickel and dime you this way. Look up Paul Notley, Brenda Kuzio, and Donna Koziak on any popular rate my prof website to see what you'll be dealing with before giving this institution your money.Athabascau is more money then a typical degree and you're doing it to teach yourself. You only have to read more Google reviews to see how little support this school and their tutors give you.
• January 2024 by Illy Lu
  Athabasca University recently sent letters to students enrolled in the post-LPN-RN bridging program announcing that they are not presently accepting new applicants into the program and will discontinue providing the nursing curriculum to out-of-province students. This decision has significantly impacted thousands of students who are currently in the program but reside outside of Alberta. Many students have invested up to seven years of their lives into this program and are now left feeling disappointed and frustrated. Although the university acknowledged the difficulty of this news, the decision was made without warning and done in secrecy. It is disappointing that the university blindsided currently enrolled students instead of allowing them to make an informed decision about their future. This move by the university is unfair to students who have put their faith, finances, efforts, time, etc., into a university that has acted unscrupulously and shady. I hope this serves as a warning to prospective students considering Athabasca University. In addition, I can't help but think that the 5-star ratings on this university are coming from their staff, their family, or paid personnel.
• January 2024 by kell_oh_well _
  Athabasca is the type of "university" that has taken the importance of lectures and class work out of learning. The tutors are randomly assigned when the class is added to your schedule and if you find that you may not succeed well with your assigned tutor, they want to charge you $190 to choose a different class which is garbage. It is purely a money grab that I believe the university banks on when randomly assigning tutors, especially when they have tutors that have abysmal ratings across the board. You tell me if that reflects the university's desire to see their students succeed. Every class is based on each student's ability to guide themself with very little direction and one-on-one with the tutors. That does not feel like a genuine "university" experience to me. I understand taking classes online require a lot of self-motivation but there has got to be room to ask questions during class and work with administration ahead of time to ensure one's schedule suits their needs as a student- including having great and caring professors, not randomly assigned ones with awful reviews. This feels like paying for independently and through student loans, for teaching one's self through YouTube and appropriate books.
• January 2024 by K
  I’m about to start my second semester and I’ve never been so frustrated with an academic institution before.I registered for a course and was assigned a tutor. AU does not let you pick your tutor like most institutions do. The tutor for the course has the most abysmal reviews I’ve EVER seen for an instructor and every single person in my program I spoke to online told me to “run.” The problem is that he is the only instructor for this course and Athabasca charges you $190 to drop a course not only in the first 30 days, but as soon as you’re registered and even if it hasn’t started. Plus the cost of the course materials I haven’t opened. I cannot imagine how much money AU scams students out of by assigning them this tutor and the students having to pay to drop this course. Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense for him to even still work there. 54/66 of his reviews have a 1 star rating.I called registration, the faculty for the department, and spoke with the course coordinator and I have no choice but to choose between my dog’s medical bills and dropping this course. On top of that, I am funded through my band and cannot get my living allowance unless I take 12 credits a semester. This class is 6 credits, so if I drop it, I will not get paid for January and be unable to start my next 2 courses until February, giving me three months rather than four months before the summer semester starts.I will be looking into other universities for the semester after this. This is a money grab. I also asked to switch tutors for another class and the course coordinator told me my reason wasn’t good enough. I don’t even think I should need a reason, I’m paying you.Don’t bother replying if you’re going to copy and paste something about how sorry you are. Unless you plan to actually fix this it’s all lip service for the people looking up reviews. If I can’t get anyone else to respond to my email, will you? In less than 30 days? I need a phone number. I shouldn’t have to leave a review to get help. Seriously, this school will nickel and dime you as much as possible and you will pay more than a brick and mortar school to teach yourself.I’m going to share this experience on every possible platform that I can unless there is a reasonable remedy. So unethical. AU has ruined my holidays and thrown me into financial dire straits.
• January 2024 by Zestamore Garcia
  If you are looking for tutoring services don’t go. Then tutors don’t do zoom only phone calls and emails which I don’t find helpful especially since I applied for disability services now I’m 3 weeks behind and have to find my own tutor who will help me learn in the way I need to learn. I’m developmentally delayed scitzophrenic autistic and have multiple other disorders but the professor has to say “phone calls are good enough” in fancy words. Would highly not recommend if you are looking for a pay as you go service that will tutor you because all the work has to come out of your pocket and that’s not just the school fees
• January 2024 by Ember R
  Dumb tuition hikes for less than acceptable education! Textbooks are outdated, tutors aren’t of much help! Fix your hiring practices instead of passing the costs to students. We have to pay the proctor fees ourselves even though we pay $1000 per course, what is the price breakdown?!! I pay to teach MYSELF, that should go back to me
• January 2024 by Cody Young
  This is the first review that I have written in my adult life, but I feel compelled to warn prospective students about what they may be getting themselves into by attending this university. First off, the courses are poorly designed. When I ended up at AU I had a GPA of 3.7 and at different points of my academic career I have taken up to six courses at a time and managed to hold a high GPA while taking on significant workloads. I took four courses at AU and struggled to keep on top of the amount of work that was being asked of me. When I pointed this out to an educational “advisor” they responded that AU expects between 10-15 hours per course per week. So, that is 40-60 hours for 4 courses, I don’t even know people in master’s programs who are working that much. I don’t shy away from work, I am disciplined, and I know how to study, but the way these courses are designed sets students up for failure.But it really is administration and “support” services that are completely useless. At the beginning of December, I caught COVID for the first time in my life. And during that period when I should have been resting, I was still getting up every morning to work at school. I was attempting to adhere to the educational advisor's recommended pace at AU, aiming to work a minimum of eight hours per day to stay on top of my schoolwork. Consequently, in the aftermath of COVID, I experienced symptoms consistent with long COVID – breathlessness, insomnia, and brain fog. At the end of December and into January I was in and out of the ER and was struggling with just keeping my mental and physical health intact. These symptoms debilitated me and naturally I fell behind in my schoolwork to the point of having to ask for a medical withdrawal from my funding agency. And when I asked AU about medical leave or accommodations because I got sick, they told me that they don’t have accommodations for medical leave and that I would have to withdraw from my courses. Think about that for a second. We just went through a global pandemic and this institution doesn’t have any type of medical policies in place for when a student gets sick. And it could be anything if you simply get unlucky - cancer, car accident, death of a loved one.And just to juxtapose AU's lack of policy and accommodations with an actual sane policy, my father who I took care of for two years died sudden at home. I was in my last week of my semester at Thompson Rivers University online and was about to write finals. TRU being an actual university that accommodates and attempts to look after its students extended the three courses I was working on by an additional 19 weeks and told me to get better. AU “advisors and support” services just sent me copied and pasted policies that I could find on their website. That was it. No extensions, no get wells, just I guess you're SOL when it comes to your tuition - sorry.So basically, I paid AU four thousand dollars to give myself a panic disorder. Not the type of educationally experience I was looking for. You’re not a student here you’re just a way to generate revenue. So, just be aware that when you decide to attend this “university” don’t get sick or have something happen to you because you’re going to be on your own.Probably the worse experience I've had in my four years of post secondary education and that is saying a lot.
• January 2024 by NikDee Miller
  I would not recommend this university! It's all about the money. They do not care about how serious you are about getting a degree. You have to pay for someone to watch you while you take your exam, and if you ever need to extend your course, you have to pay for that, too! Like, my gosh, tuition isn't enough, and the cost is going up way too often for me to afford this school. If you are getting government funding, you will never be able to continue classes every term because the professors take way too long to send you your marks, and you end up missing deadlines with funding and start times! What a frustrating place this is!
• January 2024 by Rod Mitchell
  I had a great time at Athabasca University. All my professors really knew their stuff which made a big difference. The best part though was the flexibility - it let me switch up my career while I was still working full-time, and I'm super thankful for that.
• December 2023 by paul eyiah
  My name is Paul Nana Kwame Eyiah from Ghana ??.I would love to feather my education and gain more experience if am given the opportunity or scholarship from the school authority. I will improve on my skills to do more in life.
• December 2023 by Jason Harkes
  This university is only well suited for people who are self motivated and can work regardless of follow ups or outside forces motivating them. The material is quality information and the tutors are knowledgeable but there isn't a lot of outside help. There are a lot of good courses and the course work is manageable if you can pace yourself. Overall, if you can do self guided study successfully, you will enjoy this University, if you face challenges with self guided study, avoid online options.