University of Hertfordshire: Contract Terms, Course Changes, and Discontinuance, Exercises of Natural Resources

Download University of Hertfordshire: Contract Terms, Course Changes, and Discontinuance and more Exercises Natural Resources in PDF only on Docsity! 1 | P a g e University of Hertfordshire Key Facts document For study in our 2022/23 academic year (Academic Year – 1st August 2022 to 31st July 2023) Version 1.0 2 | P a g e 1 Introduction This document is intended to provide you with some key facts about the relationship that you will have with us (the University of Hertfordshire) if you are a student studying with us in our 2022/23 academic year. You should therefore read this document carefully. 2 Our student community As a student of the University of Hertfordshire you will become a member of a community which enjoys many rights and privileges. You will also be expected to accept a number of responsibilities in the interests of the community as a whole. These rights and responsibilities form part of the contractual relationship that will exist between us. The special ongoing nature of the relationship between you and us makes it impractical to set out the terms of the contract in their entirety in a single place. You can however find the main terms of your contract to study with us in the following places: • Your Offer (our formal offer of a place) • Our documents that accompany your Offer including this Key Facts document, the Fees and Finance Policy, the Student Refund and Compensation Policy and, where applicable, the About your course factsheet and Programme Specification • Our University Policies and Regulations or “UPRs” (see Section 3 below) • Any of our “local” policies that apply to your particular circumstances or to your particular course of studies; for example Fitness to Practise policies if you are on a course that leads to a professional qualification. Local policies will normally be provided to you by your School of Study and will often also be listed in the About your course factsheet These “local” policies usually supplement, but may occasionally override, what is contained in this Key Facts document. • Our prospectus relating to your course or studies (which you can find at www.herts.ac.uk/apply/request-a-prospectus) • Any other specific agreements that you may enter into with us in relation to your course (for example, in relation to intellectual property) • The registration declaration you make when you complete our registration processes (see Section 9 below) • For students with a time limited visa only, an additional Code of Practice (see Section 17) Please bear in mind that our prospectuses are published a long time in advance of offers being made, to provide information to potential students as early as possible. Their content is therefore subject to correction and update. A list of corrections and updates is maintained on our web site at https://www.herts.ac.uk/study/our-prospectuses/changes-to-the-printed-prospectus so please check this list before accepting your offer. Despite our best efforts, there may still be an occasional inconsistency between something in our prospectus and something in your Offer and its accompanying documents/our local policies. If so, the correct version is what is contained in your Offer and/or the accompanying documents/policies. 3 The UPRs We publish our principal policies and regulations in a series of documents called UPRs. They cover all aspects of our activities. A number of our UPRs relate specifically to our students and to the wider academic community. The areas covered include, but are not limited to, academic quality and standards, assessment and examination, confidentiality, data protection, intellectual property, IT security, equality and diversity, freedom of speech, and student complaints and discipline. 5 | P a g e advance. Where practical, we will also try to find you a suitable alternative course with us or offer you the opportunity to defer your entry to a subsequent intake. In exceptional circumstances, we may have to merge or even discontinue your course once you have started your studies (and before you have completed them), for one or more of the following reasons: • to comply with legal, regulatory or governmental requirements • to safeguard the health, safety and wellbeing of our students and staff • where accreditation or validation of the course is withdrawn • where a commissioning or sponsoring body which we rely on for the financial or other viability of the course withdraws its support or its allocation of places and/or funding for the course (for example, an NHS authority in respect of certain nursing courses) • in other circumstances outside our reasonable control which make it impossible or prohibitively impractical to continue the course If we decide to merge or discontinue your course in these circumstances, we will inform you as soon as reasonably practicable and we will use every reasonable effort to minimise the impact it has on you. Where appropriate, we will try to find you a suitable alternative course with us or (if you prefer) we will try to suggest a suitable alternative course with another education provider. If you do transfer to another education provider in these circumstances, we will co-operate with your new provider in respect of any transfer of credit/ academic progress. If you do not transfer to an alternative course either with us or with another provider, we will keep a record of your credit/academic progress in case you return to higher education in the future. Any entitlement you may have to a refund for tuition fees you have already paid will be determined in accordance with our Fees and Finance Policy. 8 Place of Study We have two campuses in Hatfield, which are only a short distance apart, and serviced by a shuttle bus. Where a course is simply advertised as being delivered at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield it may mean either our College Lane or De Havilland campus and even if a course is advertised as being delivered at one of these specific campuses we reserve the right to switch its delivery to the other campus (or, in exceptional circumstances, to another location in or around Hatfield or to deliver the course wholly or partly online). Certain courses which are mostly delivered at one of these campuses may also be partly delivered at other locations, for example at the University’s Bayfordbury Campus (which has a range of specialist facilities such as a teaching observatory). If you are studying with one of our Consortium Colleges please see Section 16 below. 9 Registration Before beginning your course, you will need to formally register with us as a student. As part of this process you will be sent the necessary information to complete this registration process. This will include a Registration Declaration, the current version of which you can see at https://www.herts.ac.uk/study/your-offer-package (but which may be updated in future years). This is the stage at which, amongst other things, you confirm your commitment to pay your tuition fees and any other course-related fees by the dates they are due. This is not however a new contract that you enter into with us; it is part of the same contract you entered into when you accepted our offer. You will also have to register at the start of each academic year of your course, but again this is not a new contract that you will be entering into with us each year; it forms part of the same overall contract with us and we will make you aware of any material changes to its terms. When you begin your studies with us we will also check your identification and nationality documentation including any visa you may hold. 6 | P a g e 10 Pre-study/pre-placement checks After registration, and regardless of any certificate of English proficiency that you might hold, if your first language is not English you may be tested on your English when you arrive at the University. If your result is deemed insufficient for the course for which you have registered, you will either be required to attend extra English classes or other assistance with the language will be offered to you. As a last resort we reserve the right to withdraw you from your course if we do not believe your English will be good enough, in which case if we have sponsored your entry into the UK you will also have to return home. If you have accepted an offer for certain courses (predominantly in health and education) we will need to carry out Occupational Health checks and Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) screening. These may be done prior to registration, upon your arrival at the University, but may alternatively or additionally be done before you start your placement (for example in a hospital). If as a result of checks and/or screening carried out before registration you are not eligible to register on the course, we will make every reasonable effort to transfer you to another appropriate course that does not require these checks and/or screening. If, however, we cannot find another appropriate course, you will not be permitted to register, and we will refund any tuition fees (less any non- refundable deposit) that you have paid in advance in respect of the course. If you are an International student (as defined in Section 17) you will also be required under the terms of your visa to return home: any tuition fees you have paid in respect of the course (less any non-refundable deposit) will be returned to the originating bank account. If as a result of checks and/or screening carried out before you start a placement you are not eligible to participate in the placement, you may not be able to remain on your course. In these circumstances, we will similarly make every reasonable effort to transfer you to another appropriate course that does not require these checks and/or screening. If however we cannot find another appropriate course, you may ultimately have to leave the University in which case, if you are an International student, you will also be required to return home. It is therefore imperative that you declare, when you have received your offer, information which may be relevant to: a. your eligibility to register on your specific course; b. your eligibility to participate in a placement; and/or c. your application to utilise University accommodation. Such information may include any current or previous, unspent criminal conviction or underlying health condition. If you have concerns or would like further information, please contact ask@herts.ac.uk 11 Fees You can find detailed information about your tuition fees, including how much they will be and when they are due, in the Fees and Finance Policy. This document is updated for each academic year and then applies in its updated form to all members of our community. However, any increases in your fees will, provided you remain on the same course and mode of study (full/part time), continue to be governed by the relevant provisions of the Fees and Finance Policy for 2022/23. The About your course factsheet also contains information about any additional course-specific costs that you may have to pay (for example, for specialist equipment such as art supplies or laboratory overalls, or for contributions to field trips). If we have not yet set the fees for the first year of your course when you receive your Offer (for example, because you are applying for admission very early in the academic cycle), we will let you 7 | P a g e know exactly how much they will be as soon as we can. In the meantime we will try wherever possible to give you an indication of what the first year fees are likely to be, but we would still advise you not to make any firm commitment to join us (such as by giving notice to your employer or buying/renting a property in Hatfield) until you know what they are and you are happy with them. Of course, if you no longer wish to study with us after we have informed you how much your first year fees will be, you are under no obligation to do so. 12 Data Protection We hold and process personal information about individual students including some sensitive personal information. Further details about how we process such information (in compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018) can be found at http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/secreg/upr/IM08.htm. Please take the time to read these pages, as it is important to us that you are comfortable about how we will use your personal information. 13 Intellectual Property (“IP”) IP refers to “creations of the mind” and includes inventions, literary and artistic works, symbols, names and images. We value and respect the IP that our students create. Undergraduate and taught master’s students generally retain ownership of their own IP unless they agree otherwise (for example, in return for being given the opportunity to take part in a project sponsored by a commercial partner where the partner wishes to own the IP that is created). Research students are normally expected to give to us the IP they create in the course of their studies and/or research, in return for being potentially entitled to share in some of the benefit we receive from any exploitation of this IP. Where a research student declares in their acceptance of our offer that they are prevented by an existing agreement with someone else (such as an employer) from giving this IP to us, we reserve the right to ask them for a copy of this agreement and/or for other written evidence that they are not able to give the IP to us. If we are not satisfied with the reasons for and effect of their declaration and/or with the evidence they provide, we reserve the right not to accept them for registration (called “enrolment” for research students), or only to accept them for registration on the basis that we are able to reach agreement with the other person as to our rights of ownership and/or use of the IP concerned. The above is only a summary of a complex issue. Full details about our policy on IP can be found in UPR CA04 https://www.herts.ac.uk/ data/assets/pdf_file/0018/232524/CA04-Intellectual- Property.pdf 14 Complaints Our aim is to provide an excellent service to all our applicants and students. We recognise that occasionally things do go wrong and if, for whatever reason, you are unhappy with any aspect of our relationship with you, you can raise it with us either as a complaint or less formally. If you are an applicant and wish to request a review of a decision on whether you satisfy the general principles of admission and the entry requirements of the course you have applied for, you should follow the procedure set out in our UPR SA02 (for prospective research students) or UPR SA03 (all other prospective students) both of which can be found at https://www.herts.ac.uk/about- us/governance/university-policies-and-regulations-uprs/uprs. UPR SA02 and UPR SA03 describe the further steps that you might take if you remain dissatisfied with the outcome of this review. You should raise the matter in the first instance with the Director of the Student Administration Service by emailing ask@herts.ac.uk 10 | P a g e 19 Deferring your place In most cases we are happy to consider applications during the 2022/23 admissions cycle for deferred entry into later academic years. If we make you an offer for deferred entry, the documents that accompany your Offer will relate to entry into the 2022/23 academic year. However, where relevant, these documents will also apply to you until such time as we send you the updated documents (including the updated Key Facts document and Fees and Finance Policy) which will then apply for your deferred year of entry. We will normally do this in the course of the academic year before you commence your studies. If at that point you decide you no longer wish to study with us, we will refund any tuition fees (less any non-refundable deposit) that you have paid, in advance, in respect of the course in question. If you wish to defer taking up your place once you have accepted your offer for entry into a particular year, you must request this in writing to ask@herts.ac.uk. We will give your request all due consideration but cannot guarantee that we will be able to agree to it. If we do agree to it, the same process will then apply regarding updated documents as set out in the paragraph immediately above this one. 20 Third party rights Our contractual relationship with you is just between you and us. No other person shall have the right to enforce any of the terms of this contract. 21. Changing this Key Facts document We reserve the right to make changes to this Key Facts document, even after you have accepted an offer or joined us as a student, for one or more of the following reasons: • to comply with a change in the law or in government requirements or policy • to deal with any serious health and safety or public health issues or concerns • to take account of a decision or ruling of a court or similar body; or to comply with any requirements, policies or guidance of a regulatory or similar body (such as the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, or the Information Commissioner’s Office). We will inform you of any changes to this Key Facts document as soon as reasonably practicable and we will use every reasonable effort to minimise any adverse effect that a change may have on you. 22 Governing law Our relationship with you is governed by English law and is subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts. 23 Changing your mind and your cancellation rights If you accept an offer of a place with us, we naturally hope that you will remain with us until the end of your course. We appreciate, however, that there may be circumstances when you change your mind 11 | P a g e about studying with us after accepting an offer, or when you want to withdraw early from your course after you have joined us. If you withdraw early from your course, your liability for unpaid tuition fees and/or your entitlement to a refund of paid fees depends upon the date when you withdraw in the relevant academic year. Full details of this can be found in the Fees and Finance Policy and the Student Refund and Compensation Policy. In addition, you have a specific cancellation right which is given to you by law if you accept our offer of a place, as set out under sub-sections (a), (b) and (c) below: (a) Right to cancel If for any reason you change your mind about joining us after you have accepted our offer (which is the point when your contract to study with us is formed), you have a legal right to cancel your contract for a period of 14 calendar days starting on the day after you accepted our offer. To exercise this right to cancel, you must inform us of your decision to cancel by way of any clear statement (e.g. by e-mail). You may use the PDF model cancellation form on the final page of this document, which is what we have to make available to you, but it is not obligatory. You may find it more convenient to fill in and submit our online version of this form at http://www.herts.ac.uk/about-us/legal/cancellation-form; if you use this option, we will acknowledge receipt of your cancellation by e-mail without delay. To meet the cancellation deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right to cancel before the cancellation period has expired. If you made your application via UCAS, please also refer to the offer letter sent by UCAS (visible in your UCAS Track account) for any cancellation instructions they may have given you. (b) Effect of cancellation If you cancel your contract in accordance with the previous sub-section, we will reimburse to you all payments received from you in respect of the cancelled contract. We will make the reimbursement without undue delay, and not later than 10 working days (which means Mondays through Fridays but shall not include Saturdays, Sundays or public bank holidays as prescribed in England), after the day on which we are informed about your decision to cancel the contract. We will make the reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed with us otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of the reimbursement. (c) Starting your course before the end of the cancellation period Notwithstanding the above, if you ask us to let you start your course before the end of the cancellation period: (a) you will lose your cancellation right if your course completely finishes within the cancellation period and you had acknowledged that you would lose that right in these circumstances; and/or (b) you will retain your cancellation right if your course does not completely finish within the cancellation period, but you will have to pay us for what you have received until the time we were informed of your decision to cancel, calculated on the basis of the value of what you have received in relation to what you would have had to pay for your course as a whole if you had not cancelled. University of Hertfordshire Higher Education Corporation. A Higher Education Corporation under the Education Reform Act 1988, a degree-awarding university under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992, and an exempt charity. VAT number: 539959672. Principal address: College Lane, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, AL10 9AB, United Kingdom. Telephone Number (main switchboard): +44(0)1707 284000. Fax (main switchboard): +44 (0)1707 284115. E-mail (main switchboard): ask@herts.ac.uk. 12 | P a g e 24 Version Control