Alberta University of the Arts - AUArts (reviews)

I am in the Visual Communication Design program in the Graphic Design/Advertising stream. If you research your instructors well, and also learn from your experience, you can get really great lessons from them. And sometimes you have to learn who is going to be straightforward and who will make you work harder (for example, I was doing badly in a class but I started asking for help outside of class time, and I ended up improving). Most of the instructors in my program are in the design or advertising industry, so it’s easy to learn about your job opportunities and how the world currently works for designers.

I just finished my first year at AUArts, and the best part about it was the access to a variety of classes in different media. It was nice to explore and engage in different art practices and processes that I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise on my own.

Compared to most universities I’m familiar with, AUARts is tiny. We only have roughly a thousand or so students in total and one single building rather than a big campus. It feels like a high school in a way. Though I wouldn’t say that’s a bad thing. Being such a small school means smaller class sizes, which means you actually have opportunity to work on on one with instructors who actually take the time to learn your name and get to know you. All my instructors I’ve had during my time at AUArts have been amazing as well.

We are also right beside SAIT and get to use a lot of the facilities on their campus like their gym, pool and restaurants which makes up for the lack of things to do in our own building!

Registration has proven to be a total pain, though which would have to be my biggest gripe with the school. But there are advisors available who have been able to make sure I’ve had everything in order each year I’ve attended.