advice on tuition refund please

Hello all:
I'm asking this for a friend's daughter in china who applied to study A-level here. She paid 10000 pounds tuition fees for the whole year, but was unfortunately denied visa to come here. The reason is that her father's employment address is fake. So the college( named 'cats canterbury college') claimed that this is forged document and refused to refund any amount of tuition fee.
personally,I think this is robbery, simply an excuse for them to rob her. If they insisted on taking the deposite and say a thousand pounds , that's reasonable, but the whole year tuition fee is outrageous.
So I checked their terms and conditions for enrolment which says tuition fee is not refundable for the visa refusal 'of your own fault', now this I mentioned to them is too broad a definition, even a wrong phone number would just do their purpose the same way. the bottom line is: they want to take all the money.
what I hope to find out is: does the college have the right to claim the 10000 pounds tuition fee( which covers 6 terms) for such a ridiculous reason which does no ****ing damage to the college? shouldn't they just take the deposite and retain some money and refund the rest?
If anybody has any suggestions or advice , it's greatly appreciated.
Now I personally think the college is too greedy to refund any money, so any advice on legal procedures would be greatly appreciated as well.

Reply 1

Darkphilosopher

16

Um, perhaps she shouldn't have given the visa people fake details then...

And how exactly is that too broad of a definition? It looks very straight forward and obvious to me.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 2

tsnake23

1

You should seek UK legal advise, however I'm sure they cannot keep the £10,000 as they have not provided you with the service that you paid for. However they may be able to keep any costs associated with handling your application.

Reply 3

MatureStudent36

5

Original post by tsnake23

You should seek UK legal advise, however I'm sure they cannot keep the £10,000 as they have not provided you with the service that you paid for. However they may be able to keep any costs associated with handling your application.

That depends.

Money has been exchanged to provide a service. That service has been offered and a place secured meaning the college/university is unable to take another student in the place.

False details have been given and the academic year has now started. Basically through negligence/deceit if money is paid back then its actually the university/college that is out of pocket as they've lost income from a student that they could've taken on.

Reply 4

tintintintin

OP

Original post by Darkphilosopher

Um, perhaps she shouldn't have given the visa people fake details then...

And how exactly is that too broad of a definition? It looks very straight forward and obvious to me.

thanks for the reply, I wouldn't argue that she didn't make a mistake, but it isn't something serious, she did that only with a good will to come here and study.
for the college, I personally think that they should take some deposite but not all the 1.5 years tuition fee she paid. I doubt the college's legal right to ask her to pay 10000 pounds at the first place, you can't just go on charging people for 1.5 years tuition fee without being sure the visa is cleared. even my friend who came to study in cambridge only paid the tuition fee by terms and only after he arrived in uk.
also,she did the application through agency which probably has some contract with the college,since every email I sent to the college were forwarded to some chinese emails. The agency however, knew all along her situation including her father's false employment address. now they're urging her to sign to disclaim the request for refund.

Reply 5

tintintintin

OP

Original post by tsnake23

You should seek UK legal advise, however I'm sure they cannot keep the £10,000 as they have not provided you with the service that you paid for. However they may be able to keep any costs associated with handling your application.

thanks, I was thinking the same thing, that they should keep some deposite and some money, but not all the 1.5 year tuition fee. I was planning to suggest my friend to go through legal procedures if other means fail.

Reply 6

tintintintin

OP

Original post by MatureStudent36

That depends.

Money has been exchanged to provide a service. That service has been offered and a place secured meaning the college/university is unable to take another student in the place.

False details have been given and the academic year has now started. Basically through negligence/deceit if money is paid back then its actually the university/college that is out of pocket as they've lost income from a student that they could've taken on.

thanks, but please don't neglect the fact that she didn't only paid the deposite but also 1.5 year tuition fee. I don't think it's legally right for the college to take 1.5 year tuition fee before knowing the visa result. all my friends who came here to study in college or uni only paid deposite first and tuition by terms , and the tuition is only paid after they arrive in uk.
if she paid only deposite, I would say they definitely have the legal right to keep all the deposite. but her 10000 pounds covers 6 terms.

Reply 7

L i b

19

It depends if her fault caused the college to be unable to fill the place through other means or whatever.

Reply 8

tintintintin

OP

Original post by L i b

It depends if her fault caused the college to be unable to fill the place through other means or whatever.

I just found out their terms and conditions doesn't even mention the case of visa refusal due to own fault, and their cancellation policy states to the worst case, that if you cancel one week before the programe starts, they can only take half term's tuition fee. not to mention my friend paid 6 terms tuition fee, that's 1.5 years. thanks for your reply

Reply 9

MatureStudent36

5

Original post by tintintintin

I just found out their terms and conditions doesn't even mention the case of visa refusal due to own fault, and their cancellation policy states to the worst case, that if you cancel one week before the programe starts, they can only take half term's tuition fee. not to mention my friend paid 6 terms tuition fee, that's 1.5 years. thanks for your reply