A $6,000 prepayment pain

What happened?

An overseas student enrolled in a package of courses with an education provider consisting of a General English course and a Diploma of Project Management course. Although not required to, the student prepaid the $6,000 fee for the diploma course.

The student struggled with studying in Australia and decided to cancel their enrolment in the diploma course about 10 weeks before it was due to start. The student requested a refund of the $6,000 they had prepaid to the provider.

The provider refused to refund the money. They said their refund policy stipulated that any student who requested a cancellation of enrolment after the commencement of the earliest course they were enrolled in was not eligible for a refund.

What did we do?

The student appealed this decision with the provider but was unsuccessful. The student complained to the Office, and we investigated their complaint.

The Office gave the provider our preliminary view that retaining this $6,000 would be unreasonable, as the student had not been required to pay it in advance and had given the provider 10 weeks’ notice they would not be studying the diploma course.

We advised our view was that the provider should refund the amount to the student and amend their refund policy, as it applied to students withdrawing partway through a package of courses.

Outcome of our investigation

The provider accepted our view. It refunded the prepaid fees and amended its refund policy accordingly.  We anticipate that the amendment to the refund policy will support a simpler process for students in a similar situation in the future.