University of Sunderland Reviews 

I recently completed the online MSC course and although I feel like I learned a lot, most of it was self-taught through other online resources in order to complete the assignments. The quality of the modules were inconsistent, with usually 5-10 minute lectures per week. You are supposed to contribute to discussion boards every week, but the tutors do not engage in them so the usefulness of them is limited. Feedback on assignments was usually 5 bullet points at most, so not much to learn from. You have to be ready to mostly teach yourself the content.
The communication was also usually extremely poor, sometimes having to follow up several times for a response (if ever). I was marked down significantly once on an assignment for being over the word limit (I don't think I was), and despite reaching out to the module leader and the student success team a total of eight times and being promised they would resolve it, it never was and I eventually gave up. I think communication for an online course is one of the most important aspects, so was extremely disappointed by my experience.

Just would like to say a massive THANK YOU to Alistair In the 3D printing department.. I needed 2 small plastic custom push in clips making to complete a project. He was very nice,polite and helpful, He made exactly what I needed with top quality craftsmanship.. THANK YOU 🫡

I just stumbled on the really negative reviews by chance and thought I'd share my own experience for balance. I enrolled on the online Computer Science with Data Science Msc in March this year and have been genuinely impressed so far. I opted for the part time two year course as I also have a stressful full time job. This makes it hard to meet the demands of the course, however I have found the teaching to be excellent. While the lectures are brief, they are supplemented with well-chosen reading materials. For the modules completed so far, I have found the module content to be well structured, and suitably challenging which is what I expect at the MSc level.. The marking scheme included with the assignment briefs are also very clear. My only minor gripe would be for more specific and detailed feedback on assignments as on a few occasions I have not fully understood the explanations as to where I've lost marks. I still have over a year to go before I finish my MSc and I'm really looking forward to the modules ahead.

I enrolled in the MSc Computer Science with Data Science program in January 2023, expecting a quality education under the University of Sunderland's name. However, the reality has been far from satisfactory.

The course, unfortunately, is not directly conducted by the University of Sunderland but is outsourced to an external company using the university's name.

The delivery of each module primarily consists of low-quality videos of professors in dimly lit living rooms reading off PowerPoint slides. Access to essential readings through the online library has been inconsistent, hindering our ability to access critical resources for learning.

The assessment structure is equally flawed. For example, our first assignment involved us submitting an A4 poster, but the assessment criteria seemed impossible to meet in this format. It was almost like we needed a 1000 word essay at minimum to meet the criteria.

We were instructed in the assignment brief to submit the poster as a PDF but then after waiting weeks over the deadline to recieve our marks we were told we had submitted it wrong and needed to make it a word doc.... It was very difficult in my situation and when I coverted it to a word doc it completely changed the format. Like who makes a poster as a word doc?

Another example was despite the criteria specifying a need for a minimum of 10 academic sources, the lecturer instructed us to use a maximum of 4 due to the poster format. This discrepancy made it nearly impossible to meet the criteria within the constraints of a poster. This obviously explained why we could see the average mark across the whole class for this assignment was a fail at 30%.

What's more frustrating is the response from instructors and university staff when these concerns were raised. Rather than addressing the issues, we were met with dismissive comments, suggesting that our class simply wasn't accustomed to Master's degree standards.

My attempts to seek resolution by reaching out to the module leader and the student success team were in vain. Despite voicing my concerns, the university's communication has been solely focused on soliciting payments for upcoming modules, with no acknowledgment or resolution of the ongoing problems.

Honestly this whole course is a complete scam, and its disgusting that the University of Sunderland allows it. You can see by their replies to these reviews that they don't care at all. I could say so much more about the course but honestly I can't be bothered anymore. It was my biggest waste of money in my life.

My son is due to start 2nd year and it’s now the 23/10/2023 and no date given for the course I have been trying to get hold of the university and been on hold for up to 2 hrs with no response this is absolutely horrendous I have read some of their feedback answers and totally disagree as I have another child in another university who has never been through this so their excuse of this being an national issue is absolutely rubbish pull the other one seems they only care about their funds but what about our child’s future I will be taking this further but for those parents who think this is a good uni find somewhere else this is not worth it

I do not think is normal to pay 9250 a year to study online and have classes canceled. If UCU wants to strike then we should have discounts.

I studied PGCE DL and it was a great experience despite having loads of paperwork. The professors and PATs were really knowledgeable, understanding, and nice. I learned a lot from them and will definitely miss them.

However, their logistics are not that reliable. For example, when you email them about when you will be able to receive the graduation certificate or something related to the mentor fee, they give a vague reply or do not even reply to your email, even though many students have been asking the same question. It is sometimes hard to get a reply from them, especially if you are a distance-learning student. It would be better if they planned out everything and let students know the exact date or at least an approximate timeline for receiving important documents, such as the practicum letter and the certificate. It would also be better if the certificate could be released or delivered earlier since a lot of students are applying for teaching jobs around June/July/August. The mentor or the university should also have more contact with the PPT tutor for your teaching practicum because some of them arrive after your teaching practicum block or even before your 2nd teaching practicum block starts. This can cause a problem because you should be observed by them within your practicum block and not outside of that window.

The PGCE DL is highly recommended if your country/school recognises a PGCE degree, especially if you want to be a teacher in Asian countries. It will be very helpful to you once you have the PGCE certificate.

There is no perfect university but the professors and the tutors are excellent! This university also accepts students with diverse undergraduate backgrounds. I am thankful for the PGCE programme.

Started reasonably well but over time the standard went into a freefall. The primary lecturer (of two) was let go by the university and not replaced. The secondary lecturer googled most of the course materials because he wasn't familiar with the topics he had been left to teach. Then -he- left at a critical moment, with three months left on the course. We were given no support, mandated review meetings didn't happen, and we were left to complete the majority of our final projects without even having the final version of the assignment.

An 18 month MSc ended up being stretched out to 27 months. Along the way, the students ended up knowing more about how the course was supposed to be ran than the faculty. When confronted about the issues, the faculty repeatedly denied wrongdoing despite being caught in several lies, and ultimately the only reason the students got time to finish the course (they tried to imply that a break in teaching they caused was somehow our responsibility) was because we lodged a complaint and threatened to go to the ombudsman.

Their solution was to appoint a lecturer whose own colleagues admitted was completely incompetent. He didn't understand the course, repeatedly misled us, marked work inconsistently and generally made the situation significantly worse than it already was. They are very, very lucky that they haven't been sued. Yet.

In the end, the course wasn't taught to the standard set out in the specification, and even the content was wide of the mark of what was supposed to be taught. Everything remotely useful that I learned during my time there was self-researched. The content was either outdated, inaccurate, or irrelevant.

The course was £20,000. If you're thinking about coming to Sunderland, I guarantee you can do better. Spend £20,000 on online courses. Set £20,000 on fire and sell tickets to watch it burn. You'll be better served either way, I promise.

Don't Do BSC nursing top up because you can't get pass ever. They repeat us constantly and very strstressful . I was very depression mood in this. Disgusting

Avoid University of Sunderland, this is dirty business , after getting your University Fee payment for studies they automatically withdraw students from studies and you cannot get qualified with your degree.

I have been studied an online Msc Computer Science & Data Science from University of Sunderland. I tried to send them many emails, regarding my 2nd attempt assignments as I had COVID-19 before. But they ignored and never answer my Appeal, complaint forms. No teaching at all, there are 3-4 short videos 2 mins for each course. The rest you have to read books and learn by yourself! Your grades will be scored differently by inexperience tutors with short comments on your assignments. If they don’t like you, you would get a low mark of 42/100 or fail the course! Unbelievable! Stay away from this University! When you need their help, no answer. All they want is just want you to pay for next modules.

I attend St Peter’s Campus at Sunderland and it’s absolutely fantastic here. I’m studying a master’s degree (MSc Human Resource Management) and it’s so enjoyable. The course itself cost little over £6k for full time and that’s half the price of most other universities which I’d looked at. I’m a disabled learner and with being a postgrad student I’d been to other universities prior to this but I can honestly say I’ve never known a uni to put in so much support as what they do here. The disability team is amazing, as is the mental health and the well-being support. All of the lecturers are supportive and the uni is working towards a goal to support those in recovery with mental health, so they are all really educated on the subject and understand how to support students a lot more than I have ever experienced in an educational setting before.
With this aside, there is so much more to shout about here, there’s range of activities and things including even simple stuff like walks you can go on and friendship groups you can join, it all makes a difference. And I love this new hybrid way of working where part of your time is in uni and part is online, it means you can achieve a great work life balance, or study life balance, plus there are additional guest speakers every week to listen to for inspiration and then there’s the Futures Team who are an amazing resource, they help with CVs, job vacancies, and there’s a scheme where you can get insights into the world of work and be put in-touch with a mentor sort of thing who you can ask questions and get guidance from. There’s just so much good stuff here, it’s great for enrichment opportunities and a longer term focus on social mobility and helping you make a change in your life, I’d definitely recommend studying at this campus to everyone.

The university of Sunderland in london staff are nasty and disgraceful duty people they take the students money and get paid but yet they dont want to do there job. This university is worse than St Patricks college this is actually the worst university every existing they need to be shut down and all tge tutors and the reception staff want to do is fight with the students and fight with one and other stinking nasty duty staff the principle needs to buck up his ideas and delete those staff members in there and get new staff members those staff members in there are foul mouths discussting dirty behaviors

I am so angry with this course. I honestly feel like I have been scammed. The online module is awful and teaches you nothing. I have managed to get half way through this course but I'm so full of regret. They don't teach anything. The module units consists of 2 videos (2-8 minutes long) and then suggested chapters of books that you should read. Imagine trying to learn about big data from a 5 minute video. I tried to contact my tutors but no one replies. when its time to collect the money for the next module they will send you several emails a day and call you on the phone but once you need any actual help on the course you can't reach anyone. I feel like the course was just designed to get hold of the student loan cash. There are much better courses on Linkedin or coursea or do a certification. I will not recommend this course AT ALL. Stay away please, don't make the mistake I did. I am in the process of putting in a compliant to the OIA. I can't allow this scam to continue.

UoS is a very beautiful place to study. Clean, tidy, with lots of choices in books, and a 24h library. I graduated from their Media Department about 7 years ago and decided to share my experiences, considering all the negative comments.

Pros: I was in st Peters campus. I never noticed anything unusual or poorly organized. The staff were extremely helpful, always there to answer to all of our questions. The lectures were fun and intriguing, and the teachers were top notch (well most of them). We met some very experienced people from the industry, especially from BBC, Sky and ITV.
The equipment we used was always the latest, especially video cameras and computers, and the fact that we could use it for free, made it even better.
So as you can understand my overall experience with St Peters was very positive.

Cons: The City Center campus. There I said it. The whole thing is just problematic. They messed up my Erasmus application and I lost the deadline. I signed up for this months ago, yet every time I was calling or emailing about further information, they always replied with the same message "Please send us your S.N. and we will check it out.". 2 weeks later, I decided to go there once again to ask them face to face. The reply was the same. The third time I decided to visit, they asked me for my email and I became furious. It was a nightmare. I felt like I was stupid. Then they decided not to inform me at all, but they clearly helped other students I had in my class. I don't think it was discriminatory, just some idiot that happened to work there during that time.
Perhaps the only problematic thing about Media studies (except that you stay unemployed for a long time but hey, you chose it) was the involvement in Spark. For those who don't know spark is a radio/Tv channel that belongs to the Uni. I had a very difficult time trying to get involved in it, I was ready to spend some of my free time to learn new things and work real-time, but unfortunately the whole organisation was based on students, and those who gained a bit of authority were talking to you like you are some kind of pleb, even if you were a fresher. Again, I didn't feel any discrimination, just a holes happened to be working there. I just hope the teachers were more involved in this as they are very supportive, regardless your background.

Online MSC in Computer Science:

I am halfway through this master and even though I feel a bit worried about the possible consequences of writing this review, I would like to share my experience to warn others, as I am feeling really disappointed with the course at the moment and I feel I would have chosen another university if I had known about the quality of this one. However, I will update this review in the future, once I finish the MSC to give a more complete review.

The Databases module had a marker giving nonsense feedback often based on his assumptions and unrelated to the rubric publicly shared, and often not really based on the submitted work (which he seemed to only have read superficially, as he for example accused me of not including something I had actually included in my assignment). When the module creator was confronted, she said that "all grades have gone through internal and external moderation", and did not really care to look into the matter any further.

Regarding another module, machine learning, the module materials were simply lists of pages from a range of very similar textbooks that were often repetitive and heavy on maths, large chunks of unexplained code, videos with a lecturer going through code without explaining anything in detail, and other resources sometimes recycled from other courses. When I sent emails complaining and asking for help, as I was feeling lost and overwhelmed, no one replied. Only in week 6 I got one message from an online instructor, and that message was about a specific matter, not about any of my previous concerns. 8 months after my complaint, I am still waiting for an outcome. In terms of machine learning, I learned way more from random YouTube videos than from the materials provided by the university.

If I could start the MSC again I would go to another university, maybe paying 2000 or 3000 pounds more. The fees at this university are not very high, but the price is very expensive in comparison with what you get. For example, the quality of the support you get when there are problems is 0, so better safe than sorry. I admit that a few modules are well-built, challenging, and enjoyable, but most of them are not.

I will be updating this review whenever I finish the MSC to provide my final conclusions.

I had a bad experience with Sunderland university. I studied an online LLM in Law, and I withdrew because the teaching method is so bad and the teachers are very disorganised. Also, watching the lectures is so painful because they basically read the power points. Honestly, I don't recommend that course.

I have sent many emails to the University, specifically to the Faculty Team, regarding a very important topic, there has been no response, not even an acknowledgment of how I can be supported or receipt of it.

The Student Helpline team has forwarded the emails to the Faculty Team and still no response.

How can a University be like this? How can they just ignore your emails, especially when the University was the body who granted the Bachelor Degree so it means that the alumni will may need support from the University in the foreseen future.

The communication from the University is very poor once you graduate from it.

I’m utterly disappointed, and in need of support.

Is there an association I can contact who can support me? I am working abroad and need some clarification from the University to recognise my Bachelor Degree.

Again, I’m feeling helpless with an university I graduated from. I heard from some students that they also struggled after graduation and including from their online MBAS students who mentioned that they were lacking support in terms of efficiency and communication.

So if you are a student, think twice before applying to study with a university that may not support you afterwards.

No star. INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS STAFF AND LECTURER RACISM

AVOID the online courses!!! I pay at least as much as an in person student for a half arsed, poorly resourced, poorly thought out course. Lots of the prescribed reading is not available online, clearly just copy and pasted from other courses, meant for students who can physically access the library. Lectures which are clearly half the time, also from other courses, where lecturers reference material not covered or previous lesson with other classes.

When I've tried to request help, make appeals, enquire about the reading, which is prescribed, but unavailable online, responses are too late and the course has moved on or you simply don't get a response. I've been on the course for a year now. This is my 4th time studying with a UK university, and the worst by far.