Cancelling or postponing courses

To avoid incurring penalties on a booking, it is very important that you read this page:

Sometimes a client's plans can change and they need to postpone or cancel their course.  This can be for a number of reasons including:

• Their work plans have changed and they can no longer attend the course as planned.
• They - or a family member - have fallen ill and they can not travel.
• They have been refused a visa.
• Their visa has not been issued a week before the course is due to start.

All of the above are perfectly good reasons for needing to postpone or cancel a course and we try to be as flexible as we can.  However, clients can not expect to be able to cancel or postpone a course at the last minute without penalty.

Please remember why we charge a penalty: we are a small but busy school with limited places.  If we do not have sufficient notice that someone will not attend a course then we do not have sufficient time to fill the place and the revenue is lost.  Provided that you follow the conditions outlined below, we simply ask that you contact us about your circumstances, so that we can advise of what we can do to help.  It may still be possible to hold a place and avoid charges, but only if you contact us before the penalty period.  We will do what we can to help, if we feel that our current booking position allows for greater flexibility.

In order to avoid penalties for cancellation or postponement, it is very important that you make your clients aware of the following conditions:

1. If you want to cancel a course, you (or your agent) must do so in writing. You may cancel on the following conditions:

• give us more than 15 working days’ (Monday–Friday) notice before the course begins: no penalty
• give us 6 working days to 15 working days’ notice before the course begins: 50% penalty
• give us less than 6 working days’ notice before the course begins: 100% penalty.

Each 'course' has a minimum period for the purposes of booking, cancellation or postponement (for example, 1 week for International Business Communication or 3 weeks for English for Young Lawyers. The minimum period on the 'Intensive general English' or 'English for University' courses is 6 weeks.See paragraph 1 of our full terms and conditions).

2. If you want to postpone a course, you (or your agent) must do so in writing. You may postpone on the following conditions:

• you must pay the full course fees by the original starting date of the course booked, and
• you must take the postponed course within 3 months of the original starting date.

If you postpone a booking, we will give you a credit towards the postponed booking as follows:

• 6 working days’ notice or more before the course begins: 100% credit of course fees paid
• less than 6 working days’ notice before the course begins: 50% credit of course fees paid.

A postponed booking cannot be postponed again or cancelled. If you postpone Individual Tuition (including combination courses) with less than 3 working days’ notice, you will not receive any credit of your fees.

3. If you cancel your booking because of a visa refusal, we will refund any fees that you have paid if you send us a copy of the visa refusal letter issued by the British Embassy/Consulate. You must do this at least 5 working days before your course is due to start. If you notify us later, we reserve the right to charge you in line with our normal cancellation terms. If you cancel less than 5 full working days before your arrival date, and homestay has been arranged, you must pay for 1 week’s accommodation, and the accommodation placement fee, even if your cancellation is caused by a visa refusal. Please note that it is your responsibility to apply for your visa in good time. 

If the issuing of your visa is delayed, the same conditions apply - you must give us 5 full days' notice of this to avoid penalties.

Read our full terms and conditions