About the case

iStudent Complaints was contacted by a former student who felt that they had been disadvantaged from enrolling in the next intake for their course due to delays and communications made between the student, the Private Training Establishment (“the PTE”) and the PTE’s agent. As a result, the student had changed their plans, withdrawn from the PTE and was seeking a refund for the unused portion of tuition fees from the date of their withdrawal.

The student had been told by the PTE that no refund was available due to the refund clause in the contact not being satisfied.

How we helped

The facilitator contacted all the relevant parties and arranged a facilitated discussion. There were multiple participants who each contributed to the discussion and shared their unique perspectives. Once the parties agreed on the series of events that had taken place, the facilitator assisted the parties to explore and discuss the particular instances that lead the parties to this dispute. 

Outcome

Each of the parties acknowledged that this situation had not turned out the way they had hoped for when the student first enrolled with the PTE. The parties were able to agree that despite the strict refund clause, the unique situation required further consideration and together they agreed on terms to resolve the dispute. The parties continued to engage civilly and cordially following the facilitation to finalise the terms of resolution.