More about Course Fees
What do my Course Fees cover?
Course Fees include the cost of tutoring, moderation, marking assessments and tests as well as giving you access to the course materials but exclude the cost of Awarding Body Registration.
We do not require payment of all the course fees up front but offer Course Fee instalment options spread across the period of your study.
Please remember Course Fee Instalments do not cover a specific period of study but are a payment towards your full Course Fee.
DLC Certificate of Achievement. If you do not manage to complete your full course, we will issue a Certificate which provides details of what you have achieved up to that point.
Taking a study break
If you feel that you need to suspend your studies during the course, for instance, because of a change in circumstances, work or other personal commitments, please discuss this with your tutor so we can agree suspension of your instalments.
If you restart your studies within less than 6 months, you will not need to pay the Enrolment Fee again. The option to go 'On Hold' only applies to periods of 2 months or more and is not designed to accommodate events such as children's school holidays or trips abroad. Options agreed with the tutor may vary according to the number of Units already completed.
Standing Orders
Notice to any students paying by Standing Order
Fees paid by Standing Order are completely under your control, we cannot cancel them! If you leave the course, it is up to you to cancel the Standing Order and we cannot offer refunds if you forget to do this. Paying Online by credit or debit card means that if you inform your tutor you are leaving, your payments will be automatically cancelled from the date you inform your tutor.
No Government Funding
Unlike traditional Colleges, the Distance Learning Centre receives no government funding. We are entirely reliant on the course fees from our students. However, we are still able to keep our costs extremely competitive in comparison to fees the colleges charge. As a result, we are not able to offer our courses at discretionary rates or free of charge. A few students have managed to secure some grant funding themselves. You may find some useful links on the Grants & Finance page but we do not offer a service to help you secure funds.
Registration Fee
When you complete the course we have to apply to OCNNWR for your Certificate, the charge for a full Access Diploma is £100.00 but will vary with other course options. OCNNWR do change the Registration Fee periodically, and this is outside our control. If they do raise the charge we have to charge you the additional amount as we pay it directly to the Awarding Body.
We do not release Certificates until the Registration fees are paid and any tuition arrears settled. Some students decide to pay a little extra each month to cover the cost as they progress through the course, whilst most pay a lump sum at the end.
Terms & Conditions
We do not offer refunds except under exceptional circumstances, neither do we refund parts of instalments already paid or parts of monthly fees. If you fail to pay your instalments and your tutor continues to provide tuition, you will be removed from the course until you pay the arrears and in extreme cases legal action may be taken to recover the debt.
If you leave the course before you complete we will not take any further payments, except for any instalment arrears, from the day your tutor records that you have left.
If you are having problems meeting the costs for your course, please talk to your tutor about it, we are here to help you succeed!
Please see our Terms & Conditions for more information about your financial contract with the DLC.
