University of Hertfordshire Avis 

I am in my final year of a PhD and I have found the University to be most excellent. Classes and professors are well done and knowledgeable. I have had no problems in my three years.

I am in my final year of BEd Primary Education with QTS at Herts and my experience has been fantastic. The education department really care about their students and I have formed an extremely strong bond with my tutors. I have struggled with mental health during my time here (due to COVID and other personal issues) and my tutors and been incredibly supportive and motivating, I would have dropped out without them. They answer my emails in good time, support my disability and constantly check up on me especially in the past when I struggled to make it to a few lectures. The quality of teaching is impeccable and I've learnt so much in the last 3 years which will be very valuable in my career.

However, the rest of the university is very poor. Student wellbeing do nothing to help you. When having issues with unclean and disrespectful flatmates they could not resolve the issue; instead telling me to move into a worse accommodation. I had to stick out the rest of the year living in filthy conditions because my flatmates were never reprimanded despite consistent reports. The university are incompetent when it comes to communication between departments, and if you have an issue no-one will deal with it, they will just send you round and round in circles to different people because no-one is capable of resolving it.

Overall, I have enjoyed my time here, but only because my course and the tutors are incredible. I can't say the same for other courses.

I was not even offered a little post-graduation support in terms of career support/guidance from the Aerospace Department and the University as a whole as I was not finding any work related to my degree and in general. This caused me a great deal of stress.

When I wrote to the Aerospace Department and the University Chancellor out of despair highlighting all this, I was given feeble advice which was utterly ineffective and unconvincing, and when I challenged this meagre advice I was threatened with legal action. This upset me even more and made me feel more hopeless.

A very dissatisfied Alumni.

As a staff member with over 20+ years experience in Accounts in London, i had the worst experience at University of Hertfordshire in my 10 months there.
I suffered from a nervous breakdown and depression and within 5 days of returning to work was given my P45.

They even deducted my holiday pay without my permission and not given any notice pay.
I have never come across such discriminatory practices by H.R and Finance.
I have set up a new group to fight against discrimination in universities.
Some of the staff i met were really friendly but the manner i was treated by H.R and my manager breached every regulation.

**Specific to UofHerts ONLINE**
I wanted to share a recent experience I had with U of Herts Online's application process for their MSc in Computer Science program. My hope is that this can serve as a warning for other prospective students.

I applied for the 1-year full-time MSc in Computer Science programme, only to find out *after* completing the lengthy application process that the program has been discontinued. The twist? I was offered a spot in their 2-year part-time program instead, which does not align with my academic and professional goals.

What frustrated me the most was the fact that the University didn't inform me about this major change until after I had already submitted my application, along with additional required documents. To make matters worse, some of these documents required certified translations, costing me both time and money.

To add insult to injury, the University of Herts Online website still advertises the 1-year full-time program, potentially misleading other students like myself. This seems like a significant oversight on their part.

I sent them an email in response to the offer letter email, laying out my concerns and suggesting they update their website to prevent this from happening to other prospective students. Their response? A simple "thanks for the feedback," with no further action, apologies or explanation. This left me feeling unheard and frustrated.

The lack of an adequate response from the University has done little to instill confidence in their administration. If you're considering applying to UHerts Online, be cautious and make sure to double-check whether the program you're interested in is actually available. And even if you do encounter issues, don't expect a satisfactory resolution based on my experience. I would hate for anyone else to go through what I did.

A Chaotic and Unprofessional Admission Department

My interaction with the admission department at University of Hertfordshire has been nothing short of a nightmare. From the very beginning of my application process, I was met with a level of incompetence and unprofessionalism that is truly shocking.
Note when they get Deposit they stop replying you
now its more than 4 month am looking for refund tried to call them un professional people sitting in the office Worst university in United kingdom
The first red flag was the complete lack of organization. My application documents seemed to disappear into a black hole, as I received no acknowledgment of their receipt for weeks. When I finally managed to get in touch with someone in the admission department, I was met with vague and contradictory information about the status of my application. It was as if the left hand had no idea what the right hand was doing.

Communication was another area where the admission department failed miserably. Emails went unanswered for days, and when I did receive a response, it was often riddled with spelling and grammatical errors. It's astonishing that an institution of higher learning would allow such poor communication skills to persist within its own administrative staff.

The lack of transparency was equally frustrating. I had to jump through hoops just to get a clear understanding of the admission requirements and deadlines. The website was outdated and unclear, and when I tried to call for clarification, I was met with unhelpful and dismissive attitudes from the staff.

But perhaps the most infuriating part of my experience with the admission department was their complete disregard for my time. I was shuffled from one person to another, each claiming that they were not responsible for my issue and passing the buck onto someone else. This merry-go-round of inefficiency wasted precious weeks of my application timeline.

In conclusion, the admission department at University of Hertfordshire is an absolute disaster. Their lack of organization, unprofessional communication, lack of transparency, and overall disregard for applicants' time make them a prime example of what an admission department should not be. I am deeply disappointed in my experience and can only hope that the university addresses these glaring issues to provide a more respectful and efficient application process for future students.

I want to make it clear that the lectures were amazing and the teaching staff did a good job. HOWEVER, everything else surrounding this uni was dog cr*p, the admin was awful, and the student support and wellbeing were completely pointless and unhelpful, even refusing to remove a member of my flat who sent me unsolicited dick pic despite me going to them and showing them the proof. I felt completely unsupported and the uni has such a labyrinth bureaucracy it is a huge uphill struggle to do anything. In other words, DO NOT GO HERE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES

This is the most appalling University. No care or guidance from staff with them.not even replying to emails for help. Just assignments with no new learning experience in year 2. Feel completely invisible.and asked ro follow YouTube clips for some lessons ...

The lecturers are great, but they're also really stretched.

Cost of living hit, asked the student finance team for help and advice, was advised to speak to the school to suspend my studies (3 months away from completing the course).
Asked if there was a payment plan we could agree, knowing there is one as per conversation with my NHS colleague (who is still a student), but was told there aren't any options and to pay in full.

It's no wonder the well-being service at the uni is not delivering, because the university facilitates poor mental health amongst its students.

Also, if you're in a wheelchair or have mobility issues and you need to use the library, be prepared for a long uphill journey. This university is not accessible friendly. Their idea or accessibility falls very short of what is needed.

Over the six months, our lecture room has been colder than it is outside. The whole cohort has approached the estates team to fix it, and in response they tell us "it's fixed".. It ain't.

So in my experience, the lecturers have been really good and bring a wealth of expertise and knowledge. But, the university treats its students like dirt.

I won't recommend this university to anyone.
Avoid!

Aggressive advertising taken to the extreme. Sort your adds out, too aggressive.

To avoid mental distress keep away from this uni. The actual wellbeing department discriminates against students with disabilities. The lecturers are great but are controlled by the uni, protect your loved ones and keep away

Some members of teaching staff were incredible, really dedicated to their job and supporting students and they were really appreciated. Unfortunately, these members of staff are too few.

The course (Automotive Engineering) was initially quite good and was very interesting, we had lots of practise and the teachers were really engaged in the process of teaching. However when the world pandemic became a fact, the university showed complete inability to adapt to online teaching. Quality of teaching dropped to unimaginable levels.

The libraries (LRCs as they are called) are quite good, lots of space to study with a diversity of studying rooms and spaces, depending on your needs.

There are unfortunately a lot of cons:

1. The city itself - Hatfield, is quite dead, not a great place for students if you are looking for nightlife.

2. Speaking of nightlife - there is not such thing. There is only the university's club - the Forum, which in my personal opinion is quite bad. Alcohol does not feel legit there and the whole environment doesn't feel okay.

3. The administration team, excuse my language, is really bad - these guys were unable to provide me with simple documents to confirm I have successfully graduated with a Bachelor's degree, which they already have all the information they need for. As a result of that, I have missed the deadlines for applying for a master's degree elsewhere and will have to delay my further education by 6 months or 1 year.

4. On top of the administration's team complete inability to deal with any sort of documentation and only guiding you to various departments which never turn out to be the ones that can help, staff is generally quite rude and careless. People I spoke with showed zero empathy and tried to cut me off despite my politeness after a month of delay in providing the documents in question.

5. The university is proud to be in the news every year for all sorts of stuff - has been in the news for cyber attacks, data leaks, mass firework crossfire and so on...

For prospective students:

1. Don't go there - staff is not able to support students (don't get me wrong, there are some incredible people but they are an exception like the people from the student wellbeing team).

2. Do not sacrifice 3-5 years of good and joyful life for the sake of a course with good reputation. Employers do not look at the university's reputation that much, so just find a place where you will have a better time.

For the University:

1. Improve your cyber security.
2. Reassess your Student Centre (Ask Herts) staff and analyse their performance. Some of them were incredible, but the majority of the people there were very rude and helpless.

The worst Experience of studying here, i
Still regret accepting admission here out if all other universities. I arrived in the middle of Pandemic when no one was coming here or wanting to come here in September 2020. People back home were begging me to stop there but I still came against all odds.

I got no support by the so called “wellbeing department”, Student support is just of no use. Support system is only working on Email. They wouldn’t even reply your mainly although they would keep on sending you the worthless Mails, when you’ll call them they would not answer.

The worst problem is here you are not able to check how much fee you have paid As there is no option of checking your own fee amount paid which for me
Is crime, as I expect that this very institution should have an option in portal that shows how much Fee I have Paid how much left and what was total fee that had to br paid. There is no such option because they want us to keep paying for their useless education and lectures, and when you ask them how much I have paid in total instalments, they will mail you.

So fat its been 7 months here I’m in London I didn’t get any of the support by them about anything even no fee reduction or even date extension for me keeping in mind that the covid was all here and we were getting education though online only. Above all above all, when I got the admission no one from the institution told me the terms and conditions of my so called degree that I have to pass the some credit hours in order to get tho placement else I can’t. C’mon they are telling me in the middle of March and when I asked about appealing this thing THE MODULE INSTRUCTOR DIDNT REPLY.

I have better way of telling them
How they have taught us online since my course had more practical elements so we needed face to face teaching which was not possible then so at least they could give some relaxation in marking the project and assignment AS WE ALL KNOW PRACTICAL THINGS CANT BE TAUGHT ONLINE BUT THEY JUST DID THIS MIRACLE.

I WOULD MAKE SURE NO ONE FROM
MY FAMILY, FRIENDS OR ANONE DOES NOT EVER COME TO THIS UNIVERSITY EVER AGAIN.

Did my degree in Business and Law we had one of the best LRC loved the library It was one of my best years in life my UNI days will love to see my daughters go to study here
Thanks

Yogesh

I took an online MA with Herts. I went into the course knowing that their on-site courses in art & design (my field) were generic and didn't have a great record, and that would be reflected in their online courses. But I was genuinely surprised when I saw the standard of teaching. There were semesters where I never even heard from my tutors and the course had a major turnaround in all its staff to the point that there was little continuity and support. The course content itself was generic and often without meaningful direction, seemingly written for a number of subjects rather than being dedicated to the disciplines being taught.

I was lucky that I had one tutor who was dedicated and genuinely cared about her students. Though she made it clear that this was in spite of what Herts pay their tutors (very little) and therein is the problem: seeking to maximise on profit by over-charging for generic courses then discouraging their tutors by underpaying them. The result: the students suffer significantly. Glad I added £10,000 to my student debt for their benefit.

Heartless thieves, with extortionate terms and conditions.

Good University. From Omran Tayebzad

Brilliant facilities, I studied in the LMS department tutors cared and were willing to go the extra mile. Really positive experience