Rights when paying for a further education college course?

toribop

Last September I started a CILEX course at a college. I'm 27, funded it myself and travelled an hour each way to attend the lessons. CILEX themselves offer distance learning but I opted for the the course run through the college due to having access to teachers and learning in a classroom rather than studying home alone. I paid for 6 modules (£175 each module plus £88 to take exam for each module)
During the course I began to have concerns with one lecturers inability to teach, lessons weren't prepared for, classes finished after a 45 mins instead of the 2hr class it should have been. I made some complaints directly to the college and they attempted to sort it out....it didn't work and the teacher failed to improve. I was not the only class member to complain and as exams drew closer I really began to panic that we had been taught nowhere near enough to pass an exam. I complained once more and was told that after the exams they would not renew the contract with the lecturer as the college were also concerned. Bizarrely with only two lessons left the lecturer left and a new one was put in place. She took 2 out of the 13 lessons that I'd Paid for and she was brilliant but there was only so much she could cover in 4hrs that we had left of the course.
I spent my exam revision panicking and self studying buying extra material to try and teach myself. I could not afford to fail/resit this module. (It's a mandatory unit of the Cilex course)
Do I have rights given the poor level of teaching? I felt that the problem lays with the college given that they hired a poor teacher??
As I have to study further units with the college I requested that they only charge for 3 out of the 4 units that I am studying with them this term by way of recompense. They have refused stating that whilst the results won't be out til March 29th that someone went through my exam paper and believe that I passed and due to me passing they won't refund?! i feel annoyed because I only passed due to the extra work I put in, meeting with a different lecturer who is also a solicitor to help me go through the syllabus and purchasing extra study materials.
If I'm purchasing a service that wasn't provided where do I stand?

sgun

In your course student handbook it will state how to complain to the college, what you should expect from course delivery (paperwork etc), what you are entitled to from the lecturers and how to escalate any complaints. CILEX, as an accredited provider will run annual checks on the course and the inclusion of this information within student handbooks will be part of the checks that they make. Follow the procedure fully, here is an example... http://www.northumberland.ac.uk/media/212337/complaints_procedure_leaflet_v3_aug.pdf

gettingtheresometime

The problem with this type of service is that you could have the best lecturer in the world but you'd still fail the exam because you hadn't put the work in.

hollydays

There are many reports of poor so called colleges offering inferior products. Did you thoroughly research this one online?