Case Summaries

The provider partly upheld the student’s complaint. It accepted that the offer letter sent to the student incorrectly said the tuition fees were £0. It acknowledged that this mistake was likely to have caused the student some distress and inconvenience. As a remedy it offered the student the opportunity to continue with their studies with a 20% fee waiver, or the opportunity to withdraw from the course with no fee liability.

The student rejected both offers and complained to us. They wanted their fees to be waived in full and for the provider to pay them financial compensation. During our review the provider also offered the student £750 as compensation for distress and inconvenience. The student rejected this offer because they were seeking a significantly higher amount of financial compensation.

We did not uphold the student’s complaint (we decided it was Not Justified) because we decided the provider’s offers to remedy the complaint were reasonable.

There was evidence to show that even though the offer letter was wrong, the student had been told about the correct tuition fees in several different ways and that the correct fees were clearly shown at the point at which the student enrolled for the course. It was clear the student had been aware there was a discrepancy between the fee shown in their offer letter and the advertised course fee and they could have queried this.

The provider had acted quickly to identify suitable practical remedies after the student raised their complaint, and it had also apologised to the student on several occasions. It was reasonable for the provider to have decided the student would need to pay fees if they wanted to continue with their course. The student had already accepted the offer to withdraw without fee liability, but we suggested that the provider repeat its offer of £750.