Course Fees

Best quality courses with great value for money

Our ethos has always been to provide the highest quality online courses at prices that are affordable.

This has been at the forefront of our approach for 30 years because we believe that accessing an excellent education should be an option for all.

At the same time we design our fees to be flexible, so you can keep your money in your pocket for as long as possible. What do we mean?

No cheap sales gimmicks

We are educators, not salespeople.

We don't over-inflate our prices so that we can run bottom-priced sales. We don't have tiered packages of provision that can top-up your course, or add-ons to improve your learning experience, because every student gets what they need to achieve their potential and succeed as standard.

Every tutor is a fully qualified teacher, all learning materials are written by specialists in their field, and all courses are designed to prepare you fully for the qualification you're studying now, and for your future studies and career.

Universities recommend us because of the quality of our provision.

We do not take advantage if you are not making progress

One of the key reasons that we are such great value is because we are proactive. This means we contact you regularly to check on progress and provide support, we don't just wait for you to contact us. This helps many of our students to succeed when otherwise they may have paid a lot of money only to fail.

It is sometimes hard to imagine when you start a course that there may be times when you may struggle with motivation or that life can get in the way. But if you seem to us to be having problems such as this, we will contact you to try to help. Our focus is your success. From your personal tutor, to Student Services and our pastoral care team: we are all here to support you. Whether that means a tutorial to get you back on track, offering a study break, or further support, there are dedicated staff who will be there to help and advise you.

You are not tied into a credit agreement or a contract when you study with us. This means that you can put your studies on hold or finish your course if your circumstances change without being liable to pay for a course you are not studying.

This is unlike most other online providers. Most often, when you enrol on a course you have a 'cooling off' period (such as 14 days) in which you can decide not to continue with the course and get your money back. If you pass that period or access your learning materials, you are usually tied in to your instalments even if you find later on that you are unable to continue.

We are not like that. If you decide you cannot continue, you do not have to pay any further fees (except any outstanding instalments which may have already become due). And you can still return any time and pick up your course where you left off with any fees you have already paid still in place.

In addition, on request, if you do decide to leave within one week of an instalment becoming due, we will refund the instalment in full.

Range of payment options available

You can:

• Pay all the fees up front ₍₁₎
• Pay in monthly instalments
• Pay in 2-weekly instalments ₍₁₎

1. does not apply to Bespoke Courses which can only be paid in monthly instalments.

Maximum study days

Most courses specify a maximum number of study days ₍₃₎ and this is the maximum amount of time you have to cover your Course Fee. We set this as the amount of time during which most students can complete the course. If you take longer to complete, you move on to Monthly Extension Fees. If you take a Study/Payment Break these days are not used up during the break ₍₄₎.

3. does not apply to Bespoke Courses which are charged monthly depending on how long you take you to complete. For GCSEs there is a specified maximum by which Course Fees have to be paid in full but there is no Extension Fee.
4. only applies when you have requested a Study/Payment Break. If you have not requested a break but have not been actively engaged with your course that is your responsibility/decision and your study days will be used.

We are aware that people's circumstances often change in unexpected ways so we accommodate this with our Study/Payment Breaks (which we call 'going On Hold').

When you are On Hold, your course fee instalments are suspended and your number of study days used is also frozen.

Breaks can be between 1 and 6 months and when you request to go On Hold you tell us the date you intend to return. A week or so before you are due to return we send you an email with the option to contact us if you wish to extend your break.

Study Breaks might be used for financial reasons or due to lack of time you have available to study.

There is no limit to the number of breaks you are allowed to take during your course.

Flexible Course Fee instalments

When you start your course, you choose your Start Date and your Target Completion Date. The Target Completion Date (TCD) is the date by which you intend to complete your course.

If paying by instalments, the amount you pay each instalment is governed by your Start Date and TCD.

Your TCD can be changed as many times as you need to reflect your personal circumstances, be that the time you have available to study, financial pressures, or meeting university entry deadlines. How this helps you

Changing your payment date

You can request a change of payment date via your tutor or Student Finance to suit your needs.

For a number of reasons, some students decide to leave the course without completing their studies and then find, further down the line, that their circumstances change and they wish to return.

On our courses, you can always come back and pick up where you left off ₍₁₎.

Your previously paid course fees will still be in place and so will any work you submitted whilst studying.

For Access to HE Diplomas and ABID, your Awarding Body Registration is valid for 5 years ₍₁₎, so even if the course has changed during your absence, you can still study the version which was in place when you started your studies.

1. the 5 year registration only applies if you have paid the full Awarding Body Registration Fee for the course. If you have only paid the first part, we will have to register you again on the newest version. We can normally map most, if not all, of the work you have completed, to the new Qualification.