Education Terms and Conditions 2024
Please refer to our Courses FAQ on the this website for more information regarding our courses, including information on booking, eligibility, feedback and cancelling a course booking. You can access the Courses FAQ here.
These Terms and Conditions contain the main terms that apply to our legal relationship, so in the event of inconsistency between what we say here and the Courses FAQ, the terms of these Terms and Conditions will prevail.
1. About these Terms and Conditions
These are the Terms and Conditions on which we supply Courses to you. Please read them carefully. You should not book a place on one of our Courses if you do not agree to these Terms and Conditions. If anything in these Terms and Conditions is unclear or you have any questions about them or our Courses generally, then please contact the Education Team at Education, The Royal College of Surgeons of England, 35-43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2A 3PE, or email education@rcseng.ac.uk to discuss. When we receive your payment of the fees we will confirm your place on the Course, at which point a contract will come into existence between you and us.
In these Terms and Conditions, references to “the College”, “we” or “us” are to The Royal College of Surgeons of England a registered charity number 212808, whose registered address is 35-43 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3PE.
IMPORTANT: These Terms and Conditions only apply to Courses where payment is made directly to the RCS England which are those Courses run and delivered by us or Courses delivered and assessed online (e-learning programmes or online modules). If you learn online or via e-learning you must also comply with the RCS England standard website terms and conditions
These Terms and Conditions do not apply to Courses where you do not pay us directly, including those run by Regional or International Centres. The Regional Centre or International Centre will issue their own terms and conditions to you.
2. Course cancellation by you
2.1 If you wish to cancel your place on the Course after you have booked and paid, you can do this from your Account, or email education@rcseng.ac.uk
2.2 If you notify us to cancel your place more than four weeks before the start date of the Course we will refund you the Course fee paid less an administration charge of 10% (or £50, whichever is greater) to cover our costs of administering your application.
2.3 However, if you notify us to cancel your place less than four weeks before the start date of the Course, once the Course has started or if you do not notify us at all, the total Course fee will be charged and you will not receive any refund.
2.4 The College reserves the right to consider late arrival at, and/ or early departure from a course as non-attendance. If you believe that you will be late or need to leave early, you must notify the course organisers as soon as possible. The College will endeavour to accommodate participants needs, within the context of the course material, learning outcomes and needs of the other participants.
2.5 If you wish to cancel your place on an e-learning programme or online module (ie, courses delivered and assessed online) you must notify the Education Team by email (education@rcseng.ac.uk). If you notify us to cancel within 24 hours of booking the e-learning programme or e-module, you will receive a full refund of any fees paid. We will not refund fees paid for e-learning programmes or online modules if you notify us to cancel more than 24 hours after booking. Courses or programmes that are made up of both online content and components that are delivered face-to-face are subject to the cancellation policy in paragraphs 2.1 to 2.3 above.
3. Course cancellation by us
We make every effort to run courses as advertised. From time to time, we may need to cancel a Course after you have booked your place, for example if we are affected by an event outside our control or if it is not financially viable for us to run the Course. If we do this, we will tell you as soon as possible and provide you with a full refund of Course fees paid.
We will not be responsible for any consequential losses (e.g. travel or accommodation costs) incurred by you in such cases and you may wish to consider taking out appropriate travel insurance for any non-refundable costs you incur when arranging to attend the Course.
We may cancel your place on the Course and terminate our contract by giving you notice if:
(a) you do not pay any fees due within fifteen days of our written reminder;
(b) you commit a material breach of these Terms & Conditions;
(c) you are expelled or excluded from the Course as a result of your misconduct or behaviour on the Course;
(d) your behaviour or conduct does not in our reasonable opinion meet professional standards or rules, including those relating to integrity, ethics, honesty and trustworthiness; and/or
(e) your attendance or progress is unsatisfactory and/or we find that you are unsuitable for the Course and in our reasonable opinion, the cancellation is in our best interests and/or your best interests.
4. Your place on the Course is not transferable
Your place on the Course and access to online accounts and content provided by us is non-transferable to any third party. This means that you cannot transfer your place on a Course to someone else. Furthermore, these Terms and Conditions are personal to you and us and you cannot transfer your rights and obligations under them to any other person.You do not have the right to defer or delay your place on the Course to a later or alternative Course.
5. Copyright and other intellectual property rights
All copyright and other intellectual property rights in our Courses (including Course content and teaching materials) belong exclusively to us or are used by us with a third party's permission. Participation in a Course or event does not transfer or grant any rights over such material to you or any third party. This means that you must not use, copy, record or otherwise share such materials without our written permission. We give you permission to use our materials for your personal private study whilst you are on the Course.
6. Language
All of our Courses, programmes and content are delivered in English. It is your responsibility to ensure that your level of English is sufficient for the Course you wish to take.
7. Information provided by you
You must ensure that all information provided to us is accurate, current and complete. If any information provided by you is found to be untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete then we may cancel your place on the Course, suspend or terminate your account and any enrolments or involvement in our programmes or events, without refunding any fees paid by you.
8. Access to online content
Access to online content begins upon receipt of valid log-in details from us, and shall last for the period specified at the time you booked your place except where we terminate or suspend your access because of something you have done wrong (for example, because you have breached these Terms and Conditions).
You agree that you will not share your password, access or account details with any third party for any reason.
9. Passwords
You agree that you will not share your password, access or account details with any third party.
10. Minimum requirements
The current technical requirements we recommend to best access and view online content is here. We reserve the right to update these requirements as becomes necessary and without notice.
11. Courses as described
We will deliver our Courses in line with our advertised materials and as described on our website, subject to the terms and conditions concerning Changes to Courses set out in clause 13 below. Course joining information provided to you will include information on how the Course is assessed and any rules or conditions concerning how any certificates will be issued.
12. Fees
The fees for our Courses are as set out on our website. You must pay us the fees before you start the Course except where we have otherwise expressly agreed this in writing with your employer or someone paying the fees on your behalf. All payments made by you must be in Pounds Sterling. You are personally responsible to us for the payment of all fees and other sums due in respect of the Course, irrespective of whether any third party (such as your employer or the NHS) has agreed to sponsor you or pay your fees on your behalf. You will remain liable to us directly even if your sponsor fails to pay the fees due. We will not allow you to attend the Course if the fees have not been paid on time.
The fees generally include all tuition, course materials and light refreshments during the Course. Our website will set out any exceptions to this.
13. Changes to courses
We may need to modify, revise or alter the content of our Courses, the Course location, teaching staff or Course timetable, or equipment used on the Course after you have booked your place. We will notify you electronically of any such changes using the contact details you have provided to us. If any of these changes go to the heart of the value or nature of the Course you receive or mean you would receive a Course significantly different to what you were told and what you would have expected when you accepted your place and you are unhappy with the change, you can cancel your place on the Course and will receive a full refund of any fees paid. Examples of such changes are a change in the Course location or date. Please note that cancellations following less significant changes (including changes to the faculty delivering the Course or less significant changes to Course content) will be dealt with in accordance with the cancellation provisions in clause 2 above.
14. Communications
You consent to receiving electronic communications from us (by email or via our website). If you want to email us, in the first instance email education@rcseng.ac.uk
15. Interruptions to service and events outside our control
We will not be responsible for any failure or delay by us in performing our obligations if our failure is caused by an event outside our control. In this clause the phrase "event outside our control" includes any act or event beyond our reasonable control including without limitation strikes, other industrial action, civil commotion, riot, invasion, terrorist attack or threat, war or preparation of war, fire, explosion, storm, flood, subsidence, epidemic, public health emergency, or other natural disaster, or failure of communications networks.
Whilst we will make every effort to ensure that our website and course content are available and error- and virus-free, we cannot accept any responsibility for interruptions, technical errors or viruses caused by events outside our control. We may occasionally suspend or restrict access to our website and course content to allow for updates, repairs and maintenance. We will attempt to limit the frequency and duration of any such interruption and notify you of any scheduled downtime where possible.
16. Our use of personal information about you
Personal information about you may be processed by us for following purposes: providing the Course to you, processing your payment of the fees, Course administration, education services, accounting, record-keeping, fundraising, the provision of references and confirmation of your attendance and/or your results to actual or prospective employers and sponsors, health and safety, compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, and any other reasonable purpose relating to our relationship with you. You consent to the processing by the College of personal data relating to you for all of the purposes mentioned in this clause and as set out in our Privacy Policy (available here: https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/terms-and-conditions/) where you can also find out more information about how we collect personal information about you, how is it used, and your rights.
17. Our liability to you
We will be responsible for losses or damage you suffer if the cause is our fault, for example if we have been negligent or careless. However, we will have no liability to you for any loss of employment, loss of employment prospect, loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption or loss of business opportunity arising from any breach of contract or negligence on our part. We will also not be responsible for loss or damage to your own personal property such as laptops, mobile phones, and other personal items.
Except to the extent that our liability to you may not be excluded under applicable laws, our maximum liability to you (whether or not arising in negligence) is limited to the fees you have paid for the Course.
18. Changes to these Terms and Conditions
We may at our discretion vary these Terms & Conditions from time to time in order to assist the proper delivery of our Courses or to reflect changes in relevant laws and regulatory requirements.
Any variation to these Terms and Conditions or special conditions that we may agree with a particular participant will only be effective if agreed by us in writing to avoid any confusion between you and us.
19. The law that applies to these Terms and Conditions and where legal proceedings should be brought
These Terms and Conditions are governed by English Law and you and we both agree to bring any legal proceedings in respect of this contract in the English courts.
20. Complaints and contacting us
If you have any questions or complaints about the Course or these Terms and Conditions, please contact us. You can email our Education Team on education@rcseng.ac.uk, or telephone us 020 7869 6300 (for surgical courses) or 020 7869 6813/14/15 (for dental courses). You can also or write to us at Education Team, The Royal College of Surgeons of England, 35-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3PE.
Date: 12 August 2024