Case Summaries
Back to Case SummariesService issues including consumer rights - CS092408
Case summary October 2024 | Not Justified
A first-year undergraduate student complained to their provider that their course had been mis-sold as full-time. The student said they wouldn’t have relocated to attend the course if they’d known it wasn’t full-time and asked the provider for financial compensation. The provider did not uphold the student’s complaint.
The student was unhappy with the provider’s decision and complained to us. We did not uphold the student’s complaint (we decided it was Not Justified) because we thought it was reasonable for the provider to have decided the student’s course was full time and hadn’t been mis-sold.
The student said they expected a full-time course to provide a minimum of 20 hours of teaching per week. But there was no evidence that the provider had made such a promise to the student in any of its marketing materials or other material information about the course.
The student said the average tuition they received was five hours per week, and that they were only required to attend campus on one day a week. However, the student’s timetable showed the average amount of weekly tuition was significantly higher (14.4 hours) and that over the duration of the year there were multiple weeks when tuition was scheduled on campus for more than one day. The course required students to complete 120 credits of study per year, which is consistent with full-time undergraduate degree course requirements. The provider also expected students to complete independent study in addition to scheduled teaching hours, which is a standard expectation across the sector.