RDI Reviews 

I'm reflecting on my journey with RDI 4 years ago. The format of the UOW MBA, particularly the requirement to pursue research has left a positive effect upon me.
As a CEO now, my nightly research excursions are a direct result of those demands associated with that particular course. My company recently competed and was a finalist for the President's award for excellence. I reflected on my RDI experience with a warm smile. It is my view though that alumni should have continued access to the Library and possibly some aspects of iLearn. Be well.

RDI (now known as Arden University) offers a good range of courses and partners with several UK Universities. The learning is online via iLearn (Moodle) and there is a forum available for students to discuss their learning. In my experience studying a Level 5 HND in Business Management, there are many broken links in the learning materials which makes learning frustrating when using an iPad as the links don't work and need manually copying, pasting and then guessing how to correct them. In addition, virtually nobody uses the forums so it is quite a lonely experience which is not ideal given several years invested in learning. Some tutors are excellent whilst others seem somewhat disinterested in helping you, you can feel left to your own devices at times although the tutors that are helpful bend over backwards to support you. The credentials will no doubt be useful for career development and I suppose you get what you pay for, but if I were to further my studying to a Level 6 degree or even an MBA I wouldn't go through Arden University and would rather use the Open University. The learning materials with RDI / Arden are very text based with no videos apart from the odd external link. I think an easy way to improve the experience would be to cover all bases in terms of audio / visual / kinaesthetic learners.

I have very mixed views about RDI, I was scared at first to do this whole online study thing but I spoke with a rep from RDI USA and she made me feel so comfortable I asked myself, what were you worrying about. Then RDI was sold or whatever and the USA arm no longer existed and they did not think to inform those of us who signed up under the US and I had to learn that my comforter :) was no longer available.

I continued, enjoying the experience even made some friends, then the prices went up, no information, no heads up until I tried to pay for my module and it would not accept my payment, had to send numerous emails with lots of back and forth to get that sorted out.

Then I did a paper obtained a distinction but was told that I had to do over a question because the tutor felt I did not understand that particular topic, could you imagine my surprise that I had to pay the resit fee and my grade was brought down to a pass because of a resit. Now tell me is this fair? I passed! I didn't ask for the resit and would have been quite satisfied with my grade.

Then another hike in prices occur together with the introduction of an administration fee with no information being relayed again so just imagine my surprise when am about to upload my final assignment and was denied entry because of the admin fee. Now I paid for the module and was uploading it within the allocated time and denied for a fee I had no idea even existed, shouldn't that fee be implemented with the next module, so RDI won they got my money for my module which I was unable to submit and am unable to complete my studies because of the continuous rise in tuition.

Another thing please stop advertising that you can complete at your own pace because that is completely not true, this was the reason I signed up in the first place because I thought I had flexibility with my studies. I am a single parent of two who can only do the modules based on how I can juggle my finances, my exchange rate is almost 3 to 1 so just do the math. So I was really excited to be given the opportunity to educate my self without having to take a loan or put added pressure to my already meager budget but that was not the case.

I was disappointed with my final experience and felt that my dreams were shattered to finally gain the financial independence I needed to create a better life for myself and family through education. It seems RDI education program has now become a cash cow with only opportunities for the financial fittest.

Must give kudos to the support staff, they are always ready to provide and explanation to any question or queries I had, great work Jackie Gibbons, if you still there

I am so glad I have found this forum to warn persons thinking of registering with RDI. Because my funds were reaching late, I OPTED to pay a term's tuition in advance. Well, I got sick due to my doctor's negligence which resulted in my having to be away from work for almost 2 months.....nonetheless I did decided not to further pursue and requested the refund of my advance payment and they outrightly refused to refund. If I had not made the advance payment IN GOOD FAITH I would not have lost my money..............these people are not to be trusted!!!!
The experience with RDI has been the worst I have ever encountered with any educutional institution. No more online for me if these institutions scam people by withholding money with no excuse....only silence. I would like to be refunded my US$350.00.

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I wish to provide an update as at September 13, 2016 following the above post relating my horrible experience with RDI.

First of all, I learned that RDI is now Arden University with a totally new set of staff with a lot of quality and professional improvement - thank God!!!

Since the posting, I received a couple of concerned e-mails and telephone calls and I provided the necessary information requested for an investigation to be made.

Due to the time differences, I must say that on each and every occasion phone calls from Caroline Stonell of Arden was punctual, efficient and she understood/respected that at times when she called, I was at work.......a reflection of what a business university which is molding and guiding persons into a professional global world should be.

Both Kate and Caroline have exemplified true professionalism and Arden, in good faith, will do the right to correct the wrong that RDI has done. The transaction has not been fully completed as yet, but I wish to say thanks to Arden and, in particular, to Caroline who took the time to listen, understood the situation and always provided feedback.....so totally different to what I experienced in January 2012.

To Kate, Caroline and Arden University - I wish you all the success. With the values of honesty, integrity and professionalism, your students, both current and in the future, are in excellent hands.

I thank Trustpilot for allowing persons to voice and give feedback on companies so that others can be guided by our experiences.

truly awful

the material is a mess, hard to follow and the majority of the links don't work. These are reported time and time again but they're just not bothered.

the tutors are all over the place and marking varies so much from one tutor to another. they're very distance and unhelpful. the post questions in the forum but hardly ever follow up and good luck if you can get a reply from them. I don't think they have any guidance on marking and they just mark as they see fit which its ridiculous.

If you want to appeal your grade or make a complaint - forget it, there's no easy way of doing it.

don't waste your money with this company. on top of £10,000 fees your also expect to pay £175 fee every year and a ridiculous amount to sit any exams. You'll be lucky to come out with a 2.2 with this company. If your looking into a degree then you clearly take your education seriously so go somewhere else

I started my first module with Rdi on Management Consultancy. I was very excited in the beginning, the study material was very easy to understand. Sometimes the links wouldn't work but i could get most of it.
I found the tutors to be quite distant, unless you would write on the forum page they would never approach you to ask how's it going. Only automatic emails with reminders.There is the option of sending the assessment to the tutor for feedback before the final submission, however i wasn't able to submit in time for the feedback.
I waited for the grading of my assessmen for more than 3 weeks. At some point i noticed that my submission was gone and my assessment deadline postponed to the next date as if i had failed the exam. However nobody informed me of anything. Meanwhile they were sending me automatic emails that my next module is approaching and i should pay.
I sent them an email asking why my submission is gone and my exam postponed? I told them i havn't received any news on failing the assessment. They replied to me that they are still grading the assignments and it doesn't mean that i failed. So i waited, paid meanwhile because my second module was starting. Mistakingly i paid for 2 modules, thinking that everything is fine.
After payment was done i was sent an email, 5 weeks after my submission deadline, that my grading was not satisfactory.
I am not discouraged that i failed, i was disappointed how i was treated...all this time, the tutor didn't approach me not even 1 time to tell me "hey, look it is fine, let me help you to pass the assignment next time" I was communicated the feedback not by the module tutor, not by the course tutor, but by someone who i don't even think she read my paper. I understand that my english is not strong since i am not an engligh native speaker, but i have a Ielts mark over 6, which is the preapproved minimum mark for english to be enrolled in the course. I was told my work lacks sophistication. It felt that i was doing a Master in Literature and novel writing rather than Business Administration studies. It didn't matter that i understood the assignment, i used relevant academic sources and that i didn't plagiate. I was told i made a spelling mistake in the title (they didn't tell me which mistake- my paper had been checked for spelling mistakes before submission)
When i sent them an email and i told them i am disappointed with their feedback, and why the tutor is not approaching me to help me since i have not met their standard i was told this is the feedback and i should check with the tutor!
I told her at this point i think that the tutor doesn't care about my performance since she/he didn't approach me until now to let me know how to improve myself. I replied i want a refund since this is how they coach and help people succeed...i don't trust them. I was told they will try to refund however they don't promiss, make me send a form back to them and immediately i was kicked out of the course.
I hope i will get my money back, this whole experience is appalling...you expect professionalism from a UK university.
How are you teaching others management when you don't know how to give feedback properly and coach your students?! Neither the module tutor nor the course tutor sent me any message, because nobody cares! And since i was not happy about it...they just said ok bye! Speechless!
That's what RDI is all about!

Currently studying Graphic Design (7 months) and just completed my full first module. Words cannot express how much I'm loving this course - but I'll try:
-Brilliant course structure
-Brilliant topics
-Brilliant resources (although there are some links that don't work in the course work section and the assignment materials tends to differ from the info on the group discussion)
-Brilliant tutors
-Brilliant student support. Very helpful, friendly and quick in response.
-Brilliant all round.
If RDI could supply perfect broadband....I would be in heaven! :)

I have really enjoyed my learning of the first module on Health and Social Care. Excellent tutor, support staff and fellow students. It was a bit too much in the first few weeks but in the end, I was alright and cant just wait to start the second module. A big thank you to all for your support. God bless!!

RDI is great. I enjoyed their good service.

So far it has been a great year for me while studying with RDI. I am about to release my final year project to work on for the last three months and cannot wait to graduate.I have studied a year so far and thanks to God that it has been an enjoyable and satisfying journey in a Computing course.
Great thing about this is that you can study at your own pace without worrying about any barriers. You get three months for each module or two. It is completely up to you that how many modules you are able to study at a time. Great resources and friendly tutors and other staff members.
It is an affordable company as well. I highly recommend this company to everyone worldwide as we can study at some known universities from anywhere in the world without travelling abroad. We can be with our family and do job while studying online. So what else do we want.
So hurry up and grab the opportunity before its too late.

Good luck,
Rizwan Mahmood

As a lady of great experience and in the 70 - 75 age band, I have received totally positive feed back and assistance both in the initial staged of application to shortly commencing my third module of a BA (Hons ) Business-Tourism course. My tutors have been excellent, understanding, patient and positive and 'always available'.
As a person who had a gap of over 33 years in studying, I have embraced the latest styles with the help of student support and tutor support.
I have found the on-line library a little less accessible than I would have imagined but bearing with the situation.
As an older student and probably the oldest, I can recommend RDI - Ruskin University to anyone and especially someone who is immobile and HAS to study online!

I am currently studying with RDI and thinking of moving to another provider, however, I may just be persuaded to stay on after reading the positive feedback. My main issue with RDI is the learning materials which, majority of the time cannot be printed off, of it you do, the fonts are too small and straining to the eyes. Surely RDI cannot convince me that this quality of study material is justified by the amount of fee I am paying for the course. Why cant they provide proper text books like some other institutions such as Open University - for example, rather than asking students to refer to many pieces of materials? The tutor I had for my just concluded module took way too long to provide feedback, in my opinion, her support was insufficient. I have since rated her but would be interesting to know what other students feel about the level of support she offers to students.

Tamsy

Studying with RDI has left me one step closer to fulfilling my desire of gaining higher education. The knowledge gained has broadened the horizons of possibilities and has shown me a new outlook into the future as we engineer solutions to life's ever changing problems on this quest to make a difference, positively influencing the body of knowledge and the society we live in.

That's my first module completed and passed without any problems, good course material, good support and good web site...... So far so good!

Studying with RDI has been such a rewarding, positive and life-changing event.

If you have drive and passion along with a willingness to progress with education. This could be the perfect opportunity for you.

It certainly was for me!

I am really stunned by the comments on here, they seem quite positive in response to RDI...I am shocked! I wonder if it is because many of the commentators are not UK based.

RDI do respond quickly to e mails, that's true, not always with an answer to your question and on the odd occasion with unnecessary abruptness but I wonder if that is just one person. I did leave eight messages for the person in charge of dissertations to come back to me - they never did, its all just quite hard work with them.

I have found the learning materials a mess! genuinely, and I am really unhappy that RDI haven't taken on board that as a student spending hours and hours trying to make sense of incorrect learning materials only to query it and then be told the learning materials were wrong! then having to delay whilst they get it right..with no apology and no lenience given.

The quality of materials varies greatly between modules and tutors and there appears not to be any form of quality control in place, it's bizarre.

The marking schemes are also an absolute mystery, you have to guess what they want in the assignments given, they are so generic.

You WILL be hung out to dry with RDI, you can ask for help but DO NOT think this is like any other distance course you will ever do, you will not get it, even a sense of direction or an answer from the tutors that is anything other than a generic cut and paste response.

There are also no support networks in place, no alumni, no existing links to commence and industry, nothing as standard that post completion will aid your career.

Ultimately, if you have pride in what you do, go elsewhere, if you want to get a good standard degree (or in my case MBA) go elsewhere, if you want a degree and all associated industry specific links and networking infrastructure on place, go elsewhere, if you want a basic scrape through pass and nothing more, this 'may' work for you.

Genuinely and honestly, if I had my time again, I would NEVER choose this organisation!

I thought that can't continue my studies in my life and I thought that I spoil my life, because of RDI my career moved on right path, I am really happy that I'm also successful person in this world.
Specially thanks to our Tutors, RDI Staff members.

Thank you so much again for your help.

Kind regards
Kuganesh

IThe whole program was soo smooth and well structured, I cannot think of any cons.
Distance leaning with Rdi gave me the opportunity to interact and exchange study and business ideas with other students from around the world.
I'm extremely happy I opted to pursue my MBA with Rdi.

Rupinder Singh
MBA (Human Resource Management)
Kuwait.

Rebecca Nightingale was extremely helpful and responded to all of my emails in a timely manner. She made my enrollment process easy.

Cheers

I have completed my MBA through RDI and a well known UK University. RDI provided invaluable assistance over the years to help me complete my post-graduate degree successfully. The tutors were knowledgeable in the various subjects they taught and the RDI support team were also responsive with queries.