Booking your course

The tuition price paid includes the following services: Your lessons, Your induction, use of College facilities including WiFi, Your initial placement and subsequent progress testing and an attendance e-certificate on completion of the course. We may not grant You a certificate if there are any fees outstanding or You have not met the required attendance percentage (for most courses this is 80%). We will also not give the certificate if You have breached the Student Code of Conduct.

You may book another service with Us. The list of those services and their prices (including but not limited to: airport transfers; social activities; travel and medical insurance; accommodation and accommodation supplements; exam & exam booking fees; change fees: of accommodation; subscription fees and materials fees) can be found on the current price list. Any of those additional services are not included in any tuition fees. We reserve the right to both amend prices for these services and to withdraw old and add new services with no notice. These additional services are not refundable once booked and paid for.

For students who have come from overseas to attend face-to-face programmes, Travel and Medical insurance is mandatory for the duration of your stay regardless of Your program length or program/visa type. UK College of English have an insurance programme available if you require it - please contact info@ukenglish.org.ukfor more information.

We may require You to show evidence that You have appropriate insurance in place prior to commencing Your course.

If You need to apply for a Short-Term Study Visa because You are studying for 6 months or longer, then as part of the process you will also be required to purchase the UK Government’s Healthcare Surcharge. This will entitle You to use the National Health Service, but You should also ensure You have appropriate Travel and Medical insurance. More details on the Healthcare Surcharge is available here.

Full payment for the course and accommodation, if applicable, must be made prior to starting the course, including payment for any official documentation. Such payment should be in cleared funds with the College at least 14 days prior to the start of the first service purchased.

Should any monies be outstanding, the costs incurred due to measures taken to recover unpaid fees will be paid by the student.

Payments can be made via bank transfer, Flywire, Stripe, WorldPay, cash and card.

Any details that You provide and confirm in the booking and payment process must be complete and factually correct, and We reserve the right to cancel a booking if we have reasonable grounds to suspect that such details are wilfully incorrect or have been used illegally.

We may cancel your enrolment if you do not pay. If a tuition fee debt remains overdue, You may not be allowed in the classroom and the College reserves the right to cancel the course. If You, or if Your sponsoring employer or third party funder fail to make payment, the tuition fee debt will be actively progressed through use of an external debt collection agency, where required, and Court Action taken as necessary. When a debt is recorded with the external debt collection agency or their solicitors, Your future credit rating will be affected and additional cost incurred

You will need a book for most courses. if You study a full-time General English course, your first book is included - though subsequent books will have to be purchased by You.

Teachers will provide You with additional relevant learning materials for Your course (either in soft or hard format). These materials cannot be copied by You- please see the copyright section in the Student Code of Conduct.

If You wish to purchase course books NOT through the College, We will advise You of the correct title and ISBN number of the book You will need to purchase.

Materials used and distributed in online courses are also subject to copyright as indeed are the lessons themselves. You may not copy these materials or record these classes under any circumstances.

At the time of booking, it is strongly recommended that You disclose any current or past mental or physical illness, allergy, disability or condition that may interfere with Your ability to successfully complete Your booked course or that may impact the well-being of any other student or staff member or that may require monitoring, treatment or emergency intervention during Your course, or that may require special accommodation. This condition applies irrespective of whether You are booking online or face-to-face courses.

We will never discriminate on the basis of any above-mentioned conditions and will seek to offer all possible support to You. However, we are responsible for all students and staff and so We have to reserve the right to terminate an enrolment if Your continued participation can reasonably be seen as a risk to Your own, other students or staff members’ health and safety ( physical or mental). In this unlikely event, refunds will be provided based on a pro-rata basis.

Applying for a visa to come to the UK is a serious business and we recommend that you seek official and professional advice on so doing. In the first instance please make sure that you need a visa and that You are applying for the correct visa - the first place You should look is on the UK Govt. website here.

As You will have to apply for the relevant visa, we cannot be held responsible for decisions taken by embassies or immigration police regarding entry visas or visa extensions. Visa advice can only be given by the appropriate Embassy, Consulate or High Commission. We are also not responsible for any changes made to regulations that may affect Your booking with us.

Before booking a course with Us we strongly recommend that You seek professional advice as to the chances that You will be granted a visa. Once You start the application process, We will provide You with relevant documentation to support Your application. If You require original documents then We will advise You of the the courier costs that We will charge to ship those papers.

If Your visa is granted then please confirm this to us as soon as possible, so that we can start the preparations for your course. Failure to advise Us may lead to unnecessary delays.

If Your visa application is rejected please contact us immediately to discuss your next steps.

Other important visa considerations

• You should not make any visa application using fraudulently obtained or altered or faked documentation.
• You must ensure that You have a visa valid for studying the type of course You have booked and that it remains in date. If Your visa expires or is withdrawn then Your course will be terminated immediately.
• Many visas require a minimum number of course hours/weeks and a minimum level of attendance - make sure that You are following the rules under which the visa was granted to You.
• We may take and retain for the duration of Your course an electronic copy of Your visa and passport. This practice is governed by Our data protection policy.

Please note that we can only provide visa application support documents and information to students who have booked a full-time course.

If You wish to book online, You will be asked at the point of booking if You already have the right to study in the UK. You must have that right to proceed with Your booking. If You answer that question falsely or inaccurately there will be no refund, except in cases where You are protected by the terms of the 14-day cooling-off period ( please refer to the Cancellation Policy section in the Making Changes section of these Terms and Conditions.

For your convenience, UKCE offers accommodation services.

These services are not directly owned or managed by UKCE but are operated by third parties whose provisions we re-sell on their behalf. We will at all times apply their terms and conditions where a booking, postponement, termination or cancellation is concerned. Such terms and conditions will vary between providers and we will notify you of those when you make a booking or booking enquiry.

We work with homestay providers who are registered with the British Council. Our current partners are

Hosts International - https://www.hosts-international.com/

Britannia Student Services - https://britanniastudents.com/

We work with residence agencies to supply accommodation services. We also inspect the residences listed on our price list annually.

London Nest - https://www.londonnest.com/

Britannia Student Services -https://britanniastudents.com/

Other important accommodation considerations:

• Accommodation will be confirmed when full payment is made.
• International students will only have accommodation details and confirmation of the final address when they get their visas and after sending a copy to the relevant department.
• The College reserves the right to change the type of accommodation if we cannot provide what has been requested when the payment is received. You may be asked to pay a difference if Your original accommodation request is not available.
• The minimum stay is 2 weeks for homestays and 4 weeks for house share and residential accommodation. A one-week supplement of £15 will apply to bookings of under 2 weeks if an exception is made.
• When booking accommodation, You must inform UKCE of Your estimated arrival time at least 3 days in advance of Your arrival in the UK. This is to ensure that someone is available when You arrive. Failure to do this may result in You having to wait to gain access to Your accommodation. UKCE will not be held responsible for such delays, nor will We pay for any expenses incurred as a result.
• Should You wish to extend Your stay, We must be given at least 1 week’s notice. Extensions are subject to availability. If an extension is not possible, We will endeavour to find a similar alternative. All revisions and extensions to Your stay must come through Us directly and not the host.

Airport Transfers

• Transfers are also operated by third parties, and their terms and conditions will apply. Those terms and conditions will be supplied to You along with Your booking confirmation.
• Waiting time will depend on the transfer company and it can vary from 45 minutes up to an hour and a half.
• Please do not leave the airport without contacting the driver first. Their number will be included in Your booking confirmation.
• There are no refunds for Airport Transfers. Please read Your Airport Transfer confirmation documents carefully before departure to the UK.

Our course levels are based on the Common European Framework irrespective of which centre you attend and You will be tested and placed according to the assessment procedures that We have created. If You have been assessed by another institution at a certain CEFR level, this will not necessarily translate into You being placed into the same or higher level when You start Your course with us.

Where We adminster Our initial placement and testing procedure, We will administer further tests throughout Our courses. If You are a short-term student or You do not start on a date that would fit within the regular testing cycle, then You will not automatically be re-tested.

You will be tested and assessed prior to starting Your course and We will, using the data from that process, place You in a class that We know will be most appropriate for Your skills and abilities. If You feel You are misplaced then You should speak to Your teacher who will discuss Your case with the academic management team. You will also be required to be re-tested prior to any class change being made.

The College recognises, in accordance with UK law, that an adult is a person aged 18 or above.

The minimum age for course participation at our adult centres is 16. We also accept closed groups that include students under the age of 18, with appropriate safeguarding measures in place.

• We reserve the right to see and confirm proof of age
• As a point of information only, the average age range of students in regular UKCE programmes is between 25 and 34 years old.

Adults clients should be aware that we accept closed groups of teenage students at those centres. Those teenage students are not integrated into regular classes but have closed tuition groups and will normally be put on a different timetable to the regular centre timetable.

• We also accept closed groups of young learners throughout the year which may comprise students as young as 12.
• These groups are closed and kept separate from the main adult programmes.
• Extra safeguarding measures are in place to keep younger students safe.
• All under-18 groups must be accompanied by adult group leaders at all times.
• Group Leaders must sign all relevant agreements before and/or upon arrival. It is their responsibility to provide the College with all the necessary documentation.
• All groups are governed by their own Terms and Conditions.

The number of activities and workshops included in a package will vary depending on the length of the package.

You must be 18 or over in order to purchase a Social Activities package.

As specified on the booking page, all packages must start on Monday. If You select a different day, Your package will be reallocated to the following Monday.

The package will cover events and activities up to, and including, the last Friday of Your package duration.

Packages have no monetary value and cannot be exchanged for anything else.

Packages are personal and cannot be shared or transferred to anybody else.

Most of the advertised activities require a minimum number of students to operate. We reserve the right to cancel or reschedule any activities due to insufficient demand, or any other reason.

We will not be liable for any failure or delay in performing Our obligations where that failure or delay results from any cause that is beyond Our reasonable control. Such causes include, but are not limited to: power failure, internet service provider failure, strikes, lock-outs or other industrial action by third parties, riots and other civil unrest, fire, explosion, flood, storms, earthquakes, subsidence, acts of terrorism (threatened or actual), acts of war (declared, undeclared, threatened, actual or preparations for war), epidemics or pandemics; natural disasters, or any other event that is beyond Our reasonable control. If any event described above occurs that is likely to adversely affect Our performance of any of Our obligations under these Terms and Conditions:

• We will inform You as soon as is reasonably possible.
• Our obligations under these Terms and Conditions will be suspended and any time limits that We are bound by will be extended accordingly.
• We will inform You when the event outside of Our control is over and provide details of any new dates, times or availability of Services as necessary.

If an activity or workshop is cancelled, we will notify you prior to the day of the activity or workshop. We reserve the right to cancel a specific booking or remove a specific student prior to an activity or workshop. Activities cannot be recovered. If You miss an activity or workshop, You will not be allowed to recuperate them.

We will not be responsible for any loss or damage to Your personal belongings during any of the activities or workshops. We therefore advise You not to bring any valuable belongings to Our premises.

Refunds:

• As with courses, You have a right to a “cooling-off” period within which You can cancel Your package for any reason. This period begins once Your booking has been made, that is the day that you book and pay for the Social Activities package. The period ends at the end of 14 calendar days after that date.
• If You cancel after provision of the package has begun but is not yet complete, You will still be required to pay for the activities provided up until the point at which You inform Us that You wish to cancel. The amount due shall be calculated in proportion to the individual price of the activities provided. Any sums that have already been paid for the package shall be refunded subject to deductions calculated in accordance with the foregoing.
• Refunds, where applicable, will be issued within in any event no later than 14 calendar days after You inform Us that You wish to cancel. Refunds will be made using the same payment method You used when ordering the course.

Photographs, video may be taken during these activities and can be used by the UK College of English, or by a third-party agent, for promotional purposes including printed and online marketing materials and on any social media network without further consent or notification. For more information the Filiming, Recording and Photography section in these terms and conditions.