University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Australia

Can anybody comment and give their views or personal experience with this university?

They were joint winners for Australia's University of the Year 2000-2001 by the Good Universites Guides of Australia and also the inaugural winner for ICDE Prize for on and off campus excellence.

Thanks in advance mates.


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Brendon H.L. Lim,
Kinabalu Four Wheel Drive Club (KFWDC),
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah,
Malaysia

 

Excellent university, especially in distance learning provision. I would take the GUG awards with a grain of salt though - I have yet to see any independant assessment of their 'awards' and, from my experience, the more you advertise in the book, the better the rap you get!!!

Anyhow, you cannot go wrong with a Royal Chartered Australian university.

Cheers,

George


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Virtual Universities of Australasia & the World ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
virtualuniversities.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[email protected]
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Agree with Brown,

And for your information, I am now a M.Ed. student there. Their administrators and professors are responsive to students' enquiries, and their materials are good.

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from...

Polarbear_HK

 

I have to agree too. I did my bachelor degree there and I am now doing my masters. The lecturers really know their stuff and are responsive to queries and the study materials are top notch.

I have only been to USQ so I have no real base of comparison but I certanly have no complaints.

 

Hi,

well, I have just been admitted to their MBA and wonder how the course work load is. Could a working professional manage 2 courses at the same time? From their course description it is about 165 hours per course incl. exams/asessments. With about 12 weeks per course that would be about 13.5 h/week per course. Is it really that much or even more?

Please advice,

Michaela

 

Some of the courses are really heavy, I have a busy schedule and I only take one course per session, it depends on the unit, if you are familiar with the topic it may take 5-8 hours a week if you are not it really takes about 13 hours a week per unit. If I were you I would take one to start and take it from there, it really depends on your background,

I hope this helps,

 

1. A Master subject/sememster which you call course (out here the course is the whole degree)whould take around 200 hours to get a credit. All UNE work is based on 200 hours.

2. I have worked closely with them on a possible merger with an Institute I was a director of and there material is globally standardised and exacting - good for people use to that type of instruction. If anyone is an independent learner that may feel restricted but it is meant to excite students in Korea, Canada, Germany and God knows where else.

3. I have studied with some of the faculty at UNE adn reports from that angle are good.

4. NEVER, never be guided in your choice by what a maazine or paper says - as George has said the coverage/votes you get ........

 

Hi,

thanks for your feedback. It is probably a good idea just to start with one unit and to see how I get along with it. And I'don't really want to race through the whole MBA

Thanks again,

Michaela

 

Well, I have to admit that I have my first degree from a German University ;-), still I hope that there will be some freedom with USQ.

Peter, sorry, but I am might missing some background here, is the above statement in relation to the papers I will have to write?

Cheers,

Michaela

 

Ok, Peter got it, I just read through the post on top ...

The problem I currently have is that I am not too sure if I should go with USQ or Surrey, but I think the work load is the same, the main difference is the price, Surrey is aboout 6000 GBP and USQ would be about 4000 GBP ..., both have the same type of accreditation, but USQ has some more experience with Virtual Master courses,... it is hard to decide, but I will ponder the possibilities for a couple of days.

CU

Michaela

 

Poms or Ozzies? We have better beer (at least it isn't served warm, better birds (Kylie, Nicole Kidman), better weather (we have summer and it is not 2 hours on the 3rd afternoon in the 3rd week of June), we haven't been invaded in succession by most powers in the history of the world for the last 3000 years.

Leave Surrey in Surrey.... ;-)



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Peter French
MEd MAcc(UNE)CMA
Melbourne, Australia
[email protected]

 

Peter,

the most important to me probably is, better wine and the weather and the possibilty to have an excuse to see Australia once,... Looks like, USQ has better chances here

CU,

Michaela

 

kruemeli,
I am (hopefully) 4/12 units in the MProfComp
course at USQ, no serious complaints so far.
Very responsive and helpfull lectures/staff.
If You are based in germany (like me), they
have a Study centre in Bretten, www.usq-bretten.de providing exam organisation.
Good luck

 

Friedrich,

what do you think about the course load so far, are you taking more than one unit at the same time?

Thanks,

Michaela

 

Just a follow up:
No MBA expert here, but did You consider
Herriot-Watt, Open University, Brunel (Henley Management College)? The latter has - like USQ - a DBA track.
BTW: Australia is great, but talking about
USQ - I don't like XXXX

 

friedrich,

well, I ahve considered Henley and OPen University as they both have centers here in Munich, but they are just a bit expensive with about 10000 GBP. Herriot Watt was a bit to less of interaction for my taste but a more feasible option. I also applied to Aberdeen (MSc PM) and Napier (MBA), but have no definite answer from them by now.
By the way how do you get along with the unit work load, do you take more than one unit at once?

Thanks,

Michaela

 

Michaela,
watch the seasons from the northern hemisphere, OZ S1 is winter/spring we (my wife and me) did 2 units this semester.
S2 is summer/fall, we did 2 units last S2,
but will do only 1 this S2 (in case we passed
exams). S3 is winter here, but summer in OZ, so only a very small choice of units will be available. This is by far the biggest disadvantage of OZ study - in my view.
But USQ knows about this and is working on it.
In general, the unit synopsis gives a good estimation on student workload, but only for studying. It does not reflect organizing, that is getting books, installing software.

 

Friedrich,

thanks for a bit more information about the semesters, so the one starting in July is S2 (?) and the one in November is S3. By the way did you get the set books from Australia (if yes how long did it take) or from other booksellers?

CU

Michaela

 

Michaela,
yes S2 is the one about to start. As for the
text books, we borrowed most of them in our local university library. Avoid USQBookshop whenever possible, as You will give more money to customs and UPS than the book is worth. However if You have to go through USQ Bookshop they are fast, allow 2 weeks.
For MBA this will most likely to be the case
with the "Communication Skills Handbook".
I think You will need that one for the assignments.
Just to make sure, You are aware of USQOnline ? Online is cheaper than External!

 

Friedrich,

yeah, I will study through USQonline, but there are still some books involved ;-).

Thanks for your help,

Michaela