Terms and Conditions

Course fees

If there are any changes to the UK VAT laws, International House Manchester reserve the right to pass on those charges to the client / their parents / agent.

Online Courses

If a student misses an online class, this will not be offered at another time, unless previously agreed with the school. This includes issues with joining the class due to problems with Zoom or internet provision.
Fees must be paid in full before starting classes.
Students should not allow anyone else to access classes with them, and they are not permitted to share access to e-course books and graded readers.
IH Manchester reserves the right to request proof of age if required – THINK 18

Deposit and Payment

A deposit of 15% of the total course fees must be paid when you book your course. The total course fees must be paid 14 days before the first day of your course. If a course is booked less than 14 days before the first day, all fees must be paid immediately.

There is an extra charge for late payments, unless agreed. If you pay late you must pay extra (interest is added at 5% above the Lloyds bank base in force at the time). We can cancel a course that has not been paid for. You must pay in Pounds Sterling £GBP) to our GBP account with Lloyds bank. The prices in our price list are fixed in £GBP. Please ensure that you cover all the costs of money exchange, bank transfer, etc. and that you make payment into the correct IJ tours limited bank account (the details are on the invoice).

Accommodation Fees

If you wish to change your accommodation during your course an additional accommodation finding fee of £50.00 will be charged. If you wish to pay for your accommodation in instalments a fee of £5.00 will be charged with each payment.

Confirmation

If you do not pay or if you pay late, we can cancel your course. If you book a group course, but we do not have a class at your level, we will give you 50% of the number of lessons as individual lessons instead.

Refunds

If a visa application is rejected and we receive written evidence of this, we will refund the fees received in full, less an administrative fee of £100. Where we receive this evidence, the refund will be paid to you within four weeks of your providing us with bank details and signed authorisation that the refund should be paid to that account.

Other applications for refunds will be considered individually and will only be accepted in exceptional circumstances. Please see “Cancellation” below for a list of cancellation fees payable. We cannot give refunds for late arrival, early departure, absence during a course or change of programme.

We cannot give refunds for days when the school is closed during bank holidays but we will aim to offer you classes on other days during your course to make up for any classes missed on a bank holiday.

If you decide to shorten your course and leave your course early, the fees that you have paid for unused weeks can be neither transferred nor refunded.

Refunds of course fees will be made directly to the bank account or to the individual who made the fee payment.

Cancellation

You have a legal right under the Consumer Contract (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 to cancel the Contract within 14 days (the “Cancellation Period”) without giving any reason. The Cancellation Period will expire 14 days from the date of your application. To cancel you must inform us by a clear statement. You may send your notice of cancellation in writing to [email protected], or by post to our Head Office address.  Please note that a cancellation is only valid when it has been acknowledged by email receipt from IH Manchester.

We will not start providing the Services to you during the Cancellation Period unless you have expressly requested us to do so on your application form.

If you decide to cancel your course near to the arrival date (but outside the 14 day cancellation period) we will charge a fee:

  • If you cancel up to 21 days before the course begins, you will lose the 15% deposit and registration fee
  • If you cancel from 21 days to 15 days, you will lose 33% of the total fees
  • If you cancel from 14 days to 8 days, you will lose 66% of the total fees
  • If you cancel 7 days or less before your course start date, you will lose 100% of the total fees

Activities and Excursions

Activities and excursions are optional and are not normally included in the course fee. Many activities on our social programme are managed and led by SMILE ADVENTURES. IH Manchester do not usually accompany staff on these excursions. Please note; International House Manchester accepts no responsibility for loss of any of your belongings or for any personal injury to you while participating in these activities.

Insurance

Students are strongly advised to arrange travel/ health insurance for their stay in the UK, unless specifically included in the programme details. Students are strongly advised to arrange their own travel/ health insurance for their stay in the UK. The school cannot accept responsibility for any losses or any medical costs incurred during your time at the school.

Unacceptable Behaviour

None of our staff, home stay providers or students should ever be subject to abusive, offensive or unacceptable behaviour. If a student behaves in an unacceptable manner, or infringes our policies in any way, we can decide to permanently exclude him or her or cancel their course. There will be no refund or reimbursement in this situation.

Internet Use in Host Family and in School

Many families allow students to use their internet connection / WiFi. Students must not download adult/sexual content and illegal and/or damaging software or web content while using their host’s or the school’s internet connection.

Force Majeure

If the school has to close and/or students have to return home early for reasons of natural disaster such as fire/flooding/infectious diseases or war/terrorism etc, which are beyond the reasonable control of the school, no refunds will be made. But, students may be able to claim compensation under their insurance policy. We will try hard to keep the school open, but this may mean making some classes larger or changing the timetable to allow staff to cover all scheduled lessons.

Data Protection

Any information you have provided to us at the school, or will provide in the future, will be processed by the school. This will be in compliance with the provisions of GDPR. Under data protection legislation you can ask for a copy of certain personal records held about you.

Homestay

IJ Tours Ltd take care to make sure that homestays are suitable for students. However, IJ Tours Ltd cannot accept responsibility for any accident / incident which occurs in the homestay.

Please note – if a student wishes to leave their homestay accommodation, they need to give one week’s notice, or pay for one week homestay fees if they wish to leave within a week.

Students aged 16 – 17

Students aged under 18 must follow the under 18 rules at all times. This includes obeying the curfew and IJ Tours Ltd reserves the right to permanently exclude students who disobey the rules, without reimbursement of fees or travel costs.

If you are not happy – Making a complaint

We hope that you will be very happy with us at International House Manchester. We always want to hear your ideas and feedback so that we can continue to improve what we do. However, if you are not happy with anything, please follow the procedure below:

Complaints Procedure

Please see our Complaints’ Policy.

Making a complaint through English UK

If you are not satisfied with the response from your accredited centre, you can contact English UK for further advice. The way we will handle your complaint will depend on the course provider you’re studying with.

For private schools and language centres, English UK will attempt to mediate. If this fails, the complaint can be put to the independent Ombudsman, who will issue an adjudication which is binding on the school.

If you feel you have a complaint against the school where you are studying, please first arrange a discussion with the Principal or an appropriate member of staff (for example, the Director of Studies, Accommodation Officer, or Student Counsellor).

If the reply you get from the school does not satisfy you, please write in English to English UK for the attention of the Chief Executive or e-mail [email protected]

We cannot accept complaints over the telephone because we need a record of the complaint in case it has to be referred to the Ombudsman. We can only deal with complaints from international students on an English language course at a member school.

We cannot accept complaints:

  • from teachers or other staff, agents or host families about problems with schools;
  • from people unwilling to give their names;
  • about courses such as computing or business studies, or work experience placements, even if these are at member schools; OR,
  • about schools which are not full members of English UK.

 

 

Unless there are exceptional reasons, we will not normally consider complaints about a course that has ended more than 6 months ago.

We can accept complaints made on behalf of a student by a close family member (parents, brother/sister, uncle or aunt). We can also accept complaints by a representative if the student has given written authorisation for the representative to pursue the complaint.

In outlining your complaint, keep to the facts and include a copy of any relevant documents (enrolment form, invoice, letters) which support your case. Pay particular attention to the school’s terms and conditions, which you accepted when enrolling. Say what you have done to try to resolve the complaint directly with the school. When English UK receives your complaint, we will write to you to let you know that we have received it, and at the same time we will write to the Principal of the school concerned to ask for a response within two weeks. We will reply to you in a letter based on this response.

If you are still not satisfied, we will write to the school with your further views and ask them to reconsider. We will reply to you with their response. If the school’s second response still does not satisfy you, we will refer the complaint to the independent Ombudsman. We will send him all the letters on the case, and he can ask to see any other documents that he thinks may be helpful. He can also ask questions of the school or the complainant, or anyone else, in order to come to a view on the case. He will prepare a report in writing giving a decision. This report will be sent to you and the school. His judgment is binding on the school: it must do what he says. The Ombudsman normally takes between 4 and6 weeks to come to a decision. There is no cost to you, and going to the Ombudsman does not affect your right to take legal action subsequently if you wish to do so. The Ombudsman process is intended to be a relatively fast and cost free way for students to have a complaint considered.

Once the Ombudsman has given his judgment and it has been carried out, the English UK complaints process is at an end. The Ombudsman will not engage in subsequent correspondence with either the school or the student, and English UK itself will regard the Ombudsman’s judgment as final. If you decide at any point in the process to start legal proceedings against the school, English UK will suspend its consideration of your complaint until the legal proceedings are complete so that no comment by us should prove prejudicial to the legal proceedings.