CIEP terms and conditions for professional development events and courses

By booking onto an event or training course via the CIEP website, you are entering into a formal contract with the CIEP and accepting the following terms and conditions. Please make careful note of them, particularly regarding refunds and cancellations (see below).

Payment

Please note that payment must be made in full at least two working days in advance of a virtual learning course or online event, and at least five working days in advance of a live in-person course or in-person event. In the case of e-learning (online) courses, payment must be made in advance of receiving enrolment details. All e-learning courses can be paid for online. If you require an invoice to be raised for your place on an e-learning course, please email [email protected]. Remittance advice will be required prior to enrolment details being provided.

If your organisation operates a purchase order system, the purchase order number must be provided at the time of booking. 

If you wish to pay via credit card after you have made an invoice request, a link to pay online can be found on the invoice.

Please note: at the point when you book, the course/event may not have reached the required minimum number to take place as advertised. The CIEP reserves the right to amend or postpone a course/event in the event that there are insufficient attendees to make the course/event viable. You should therefore make sure that any travel or accommodation bookings made for in-person courses/events allow for the possibility of cancellation. The CIEP cannot take responsibility for any monies lost due to the cancellation of a course/event.

VAT 

Sales tax will be applied at the participant’s local rate.

Refunds

Cancelling your place

Cancellations made up to 20 working days prior to a virtual learning or in-person course/event may be eligible for a 50% refund. The CIEP reserves the right to charge an administration fee of £65 + VAT, which will be deducted from the refund.

Cancellations made within 20 working days prior to a virtual learning or in-person course/event taking place are not eligible for a refund. If you have requested an invoice but fail to attend, you will still be charged.

In the case of e-learning (online) courses, refunds will only be provided if a student or delegate has not yet started the course, and the request is made within 10 working days of the student or delegate enrolling on the course. The CIEP reserves the right to deduct a £65 + VAT administration fee from any refunds provided. No refunds will be issued, regardless of whether or not a student or delegate has started their course, if the request is made more than 10 working days after the date of enrolment.

If a course for which a student/delegate has paid has to be withdrawn for any reason, the CIEP will endeavour to enable the student/delegate to complete the course; if that is not possible, a pro rata refund will be issued.

Making amendments to your booking 

Delegates may be able to postpone or transfer their place up to 20 working days ahead of an event/virtual learning course.

Any changes made less than 20 working days ahead of an event/virtual learning course taking place will be subject to an administration fee of £65 + VAT.

Students/delegates who wish to make a change to their booking on an e-learning course (moving from one e-learning course to another) may do so free of charge if the request is made within 10 working days of the original booking. Any requests made more than 10 workings days after the original booking is made will be subject to an administration fee of £65 + VAT. 

Change of delegate

If the named delegate cannot attend, the booking may be transferred to another person in the organisation at no additional cost (unless the other person would have a different ticket type: ie the original booking was made by a CIEP member and the new delegate is not a CIEP member). The delegate who made the original booking should confirm the details of the new delegate before the course or event by emailing [email protected].

E-learning courses

The CIEP offers online, e-learning courses subject to availability of tutors and course material.

Students/delegates are expected to read the course information when they enrol and check that the details are correct and complete. If anything looks wrong or incomplete, students/delegates are expected to email or phone the CIEP office immediately. It is the responsibility of the student/delegate to ensure they have the ability and aptitude (and, where appropriate, the experience) to benefit from the CIEP course(s) on which they have enrolled.

Students/delegates have six months to complete their course. If for any reason a student/delegate cannot complete their course within six months, they should contact their assigned tutor (for assessed courses) or the CIEP head office (for self-assessed courses) to discuss their options.  Please see further information under Course extensions.

Virtual learning (webinar) courses

Virtual learning courses are those which include live webinars which take place on set dates and set times.

There are maximum – as well as minimum – numbers on each course. If a course is undersubscribed, it may be cancelled or postponed. In that case, we will notify you at least five working days before the course date and, where possible, arrange for you to attend on another date. If you are unable to attend on another date, we will provide a full refund.

Places are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. We urge you to register for a course/event as soon as possible. If a course/event is full, you may be placed on a waiting list. You will be notified if cancellations occur and space becomes available.

Course extensions and placing courses on hold

Students and delegates on e-learning courses have access to their course for six months from the date of enrolment. Should a student or delegate require an extension to their six months’ access, they should either contact the CIEP head office by emailing [email protected] (for delegates on self-assessed courses) or discuss their requirement with their tutor (for students on assessed courses). Students on self-assessed courses can request one one-month extension free of charge. Any additional extensions will be subject to an administration fee of £65 + VAT. Students on assessed courses can request one one-month extension free of charge. Any additional extensions will be subject to an administration fee of £99 + VAT. Students can request additional extensions of up to three months. Extenuating circumstances will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Students and delegates on e-learning courses are able to place their chosen course on hold after they have enrolled if necessary. Courses can be placed on hold for up to 12 months, after which the student or delegate will be required to re-enrol on the course and pay the full enrolment fee. 

Self-assessed courses

Tutor support

Delegates on self-assessed courses are eligible for one hour of tutor time to support them with any queries. Delegates should email [email protected], including the name of their course in the subject line. Emails are monitored daily, and a relevant tutor will respond to queries within 72 hours. If, after 72 hours, a response has not been received, delegates should email [email protected]. Additional tutor time is available subject to a fee of £41 + VAT per hour.

Assessed courses

Tutor support

Students on assessed courses will be allocated a dedicated tutor who will support them through the course and mark their assignments. Students are also eligible for one hour of tutor time to support them with any queries on the feedback they receive or other aspects of the course materials. Additional tutor time is available subject to a fee of £41 + VAT per hour.

A member of the head office team will email students on assessed courses to confirm the details of their tutor. It is the student’s responsibility to contact their tutor and to highlight any concerns or issues which may impede their ability to complete the course. Tutors will, as far as possible, offer students additional support where required, but it is the responsibility of the student to ensure that the format of the course is appropriate to their needs. 

Submitting assignments on assessed courses

Students on assessed courses should submit assignments to their allocated tutor via email. Students are expected to act in a professional manner when communicating with their tutor and to adhere to the CIEP’s member codes (if applicable). Tutors will guarantee to mark and return assignments within three weeks of them being submitted, unless there are exceptional circumstances that prevent them from doing so. In such circumstances, the relevant tutor will contact the student to explain the delay.

Change of tutor

Should a student wish to request a change of tutor, they should contact the CIEP head office team by emailing [email protected]. Students requesting a change of tutor will be required to provide specific information regarding their concerns and, where relevant, evidence to support their request. Students may be reallocated to a different tutor free of charge on one occasion per course. Any further reallocation will be subject to an administration fee of £65 + VAT.

Queries regarding assessment marks

All CIEP tutors are highly experienced copyediting and proofreading professionals. Standard matrices are used to mark students’ assignments to allow for fair and objective marking, and final assignments where the mark determining the course outcome is borderline will be second marked by another member of the CIEP tutor team.

Should a student wish to request a re-mark of their final assignment, they must write to the CIEP head office team by emailing [email protected] within 10 working days of their final course result being confirmed. The purpose of the re-mark request process is not to dispute the academic judgement of CIEP tutors on the quality of a student’s work, but is to ensure that consideration can be given to whether CIEP has applied its processes correctly and whether any decision was reasonable and proportionate. Re-mark requests will only be considered if the student can demonstrate that their request meets at least one of the following criteria:

• the mark is not consistent with the feedback given, or
• the feedback suggests that part of the student’s submission has not been considered, or
• the assessment criteria have not been applied appropriately.

Students are permitted to make one re-mark request per course. Following consideration of the request and an investigation into the circumstances, conducted by the head office team and the CIEP director(s) responsible for professional development, the decision made is final.

Retakes

At the end of a course students will receive a certificate confirming either that they have passed the course or, if they have not achieved the required pass mark, that they have completed the programme of study.

Should a student not achieve the required minimum mark to pass a course in the final assignment, they will be permitted to complete a retake assignment. If the student achieves the required pass mark for the retake assignment, they will receive a pass mark for that course. Students will be permitted only one retake opportunity per course. The additional assignment will incur an administration and marking fee of £120 + VAT. Once students have received the retake exercise, they will have three months in which to complete it and submit it to their assigned tutor for marking. 

Students who do not achieve a pass mark at level two of the core skills courses (Proofreading 2 and Copyediting 2) are not required to complete the retake assignment before progressing to the level three courses (Proofreading 3 and Copyediting 3). The result achieved for the level two course will have no bearing on the result achieved for the level three course.

Intellectual property

Course materials are the intellectual property of the CIEP and may not be reproduced, circulated or distributed; they are provided solely for your own use as the student enrolled on the course for which you have paid.

Other information 

The CIEP reserves the right to postpone or cancel courses/events due to low enrolment or circumstances beyond its control.

The CIEP reserves the right to alter the content or any other aspect of the course at its sole discretion, to accommodate new circumstances. The CIEP will not make significant changes to the course as advertised without giving one month’s advance notice.