AGB

Terms of Service of GRB Gemeinnütziges Rheinisches Bildungszentrum GmbH

Preamble

GRB Gemeinnütziges Rheinisches Bildungszentrum GmbH (hereinafter termed “GRB“) is the operator of Studienkolleg Düsseldorf (hereinafter termed “Studienkolleg“), which offers preparation / foundation courses preparing participants for the “Examination to Assess the Qualification of Foreign Applicants for Admission to Universities in the Federal Republic of Germany” as well as German courses intended to prepare participants (hereinafter termed “students”) for German language examinations according to the purposes and conditions set out below.

The following contractual terms shall apply to the tuition agreement between students and GRB:

§1 General Terms and Conditions

The following General Terms and Conditions govern the tuition agreement concluded between students and GRB. The agreement shall be ruled by the version of the General Terms and Conditions in force at the time that the agreement is entered into.

Divergent, conflicting or supplemental General Terms and Conditions shall not become part of the agreement, even if both parties are cognizant of them, unless their validity is expressly confirmed in writing.

GRB is entitled to alter and/or supplement these General Terms and Conditions with an adequate notice period. Students shall be apprised of each change via e-mail, using the e-mail address that they provided at the time they signed the tuition agreement. Unless students enter an objection within four weeks after the e-mail notifying them has been sent, the new General Terms and Conditions become valid. If students enter an objection within the notice period, the changes do not become valid.

§2 Agreement Conclusion

Students register using the registration form provided. The registration form can be downloaded from the Studienkolleg website www.studienkolleg-duesseldorf.de Students may register via letter or via e-mail. The completed registration form must be mailed to the following address: Studienkolleg Düsseldorf, Grafenberger Allee 87, 40237 Düsseldorf; Germany; or sent as a scanned PDF file via e-mail to: info@stk-duesseldorf.de.

Students can only enrol in the courses on offer.

Registration constitutes a binding offer on the part of students to enter into a tuition agreement. GRB is entitled to accept said offer within four days after receiving it. Silence on the part of GRB after receiving the offer never constitutes an acceptance of such offers. In case GRB should decline the offer, GRB is not required to give any reasons.

Agreements are concluded by GRB expressly accepting the offer by means of an e-mail to the e-mail address provided by the student. Only through the act of GRB accepting the offer does the tuition agreement between GRB and the student come into effect.

§3 Subject-Matter of the Agreement

Subject-matter of the agreement is the tuition on offer, intended to prepare students for a test of their German language proficiency. In the German language courses, students are taught with the objective of preparing them for an examination of their German-language proficiency according to the Common European Frame of Reference for Languages at the desired proficiency level (A1-C1). In the DSH-course, students are taught with the objective of preparing them for the “German Language Test for the Admission of Foreign Study Applicants” (DSH).

Another subject-matter of the agreement are the preparatory courses offered. Preparatory courses prepare students for the external “Examination to Assess the Qualification of Foreign Applicants for Admission to Universities in the Federal Republic of Germany” of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, administered twice a year by the district government of Cologne. In the T-, W-, M- and G-courses, the contents of four relevant examination subjects for each course are taught. The contents of the courses comply with the stipulations set forth by the district government of Cologne.

Passing the examinations does not form part of the services contractually owed by GRB and no assurances regarding the passing of these examinations are made.

Students are not entitled to be taught by specific course directors, or at specific times or in specific premises. GRB is solely responsible for choosing the course contents, the time and place of the courses. GRB is entitled unilaterally to change stipulations according to clauses 1 and 2. In doing so, GRB will consider the legitimate interests of students.

§4 Time and Place of the Measures

As a rule, tuition takes place from Mondays through to Saturdays. Specific changes according to the circumstances of each week or according to the roster of teachers available are possible. The total number of teaching units shall not be affected by these changes. Duration and contents of the courses depend upon the requirements set out in the District Government’s decrees and will be communicated to students well in advance through publications on the website of Studienkolleg Düsseldorf www.studienkolleg-duesseldorf.de or via e-mail.

Place of fulfilment is the premises of Studienkolleg Düsseldorf, Grafenberger Allee 87, 40237 Düsseldorf.

§5 Duties of GRB

GRB is obligated to implement the measures in a dutiful manner and is bound to take steps to ensure that:

the curriculum is adhered to,
an adequate replacement is available in case a course director is unable to attend,
knowledge required for attaining the goal of the measures is passed on,
solely lecturers whose training and professional experience qualify them for the task are entrusted with implementing the measures,
the required equipment and rooms for implementing the measures are provided.

Learning success is neither contractually owed nor is any such success assured.

§6 Students’ Duties

Once the tuition agreement has been concluded, students are obliged to pay their tuition fees in full and in a punctual manner according to § 7.
Students undertake regularly to participate in classes and constantly strive to acquire the requisite knowledge and skills, dutifully to fulfil the tasks assigned to them and to contribute to their own individual success.
Students undertake to participate in measures intended to assess their learning progress, whenever such measures are foreseen.
Students undertake to follow the instructions given by the tutors and the teaching staff.

§7 Tuition Fees

Once the tuition agreement has been concluded according to § 2 Para. 4, students are sent an invoice for their course fees. The amount due depends upon the Studienkolleg’s current schedule of fees, which is published and may be viewed on the Studienkolleg’s website www.studienkolleg-duesseldorf.de

The course fees are due from the moment onwards that the invoice is sent.

Students are granted a period of 14 days after GRB sends out the acceptance of the tuition agreement in which to settle their bills. The bill must be settled in full before the 14-day-period expires, at the latest. Timely payment of the course fees is a precondition for Studienkolleg offering its services. Sustaining the operations of Studienkolleg depends upon the punctual payment of the course fees.

The entire sum owed including any eventual bank charges is to be remitted in Euro (€) to the German bank account of Studienkolleg Düsseldorf:

Commerzbank
IBAN: DE92 3904 0013 0118 288001
BIC: COBADEFFXXX

If students do not pay within the 14-day-period, GRB is entitled to an extraordinary termination of the tuition agreement.

§8 Course Discontinuation / Cancellation

After the revocation period as set out in § 11 has expired, students may cancel the tuition agreement. During the revocation period, § 11 applies. If a cancellation is uttered during the revocation period, the cancellation shall be treated as a revocation, causing the stipulations on the consequences of a revocation according to § 11 to be applied, where the appropriate amount according to the final sentence of § 11 may not exceed the amount of 578,- €. Cancellations must be submitted in writing and additional documents, such as a notice of rejection from the competent German embassy, may be demanded by Studienkolleg.

When cancellations are submitted after the expiry of the revocation period, but earlier than four weeks before the date on which the course in question is due to start, GRB shall charge a cancellation fee of 578 €. If the cancellation is submitted after the expiry of the revocation period and later than four weeks before the date on which the course in question is due to start, no reimbursement whatsoever of the course fees is possible.

In case students fail to obtain the entry visa necessary for punctually commencing their courses at the beginning of the semester, the tuition period is moved forward to the next semester. If entry to Germany should again prove to be impossible at such time, the tuition period is postponed by another semester.

In case students cancel their tuition agreements, GRB reserves the right to notify the German embassy responsible for issuing the entry visa of that circumstance. The student hereby expressly consents to this procedure.

§9 Extraordinary Termination of the Tuition Agreement

Both parties are entitled to an extraordinary termination of the tuition agreement for important reasons. An important reason exists especially if:

there are substantial grounds for suspecting that students have violated or are violating German law, in particular criminal law or residence regulations;
there are substantial grounds for suspecting that students are violating ethical norms in a manner that cannot be tolerated by Studienkolleg, in particular by engaging in obscene, insulting, defamatory, ethically questionable, violence- glorifying, pornographic, harassing, racist, inflammatory, xenophobic, extremely right-wing and/or otherwise reprehensible behaviour;
students reach an absenteeism rate of more than 30%, where in case of belated arrival in class solely the teaching unit that has already begun (45 minutes) shall be counted as having been missed,
students do not comply with their obligations set forth under § 7.

§10 Data Protection

Through its data protection statement, GRB informs students about the kind, scope, duration and purpose of gathering, processing and using personal data, about their right to free-of-charge information on the personal data pertaining to themselves that GRB stores, as well as about their right to correct, delete and block personal data pertaining to themselves that GRB stores.

Data Protection Statement

What we store

Access Data

If you visit our site without giving out any information regarding your person, we only store the access data. These comprise, for example, the date and time of access, the referrer, the Web browser used and the name of the service provider. No person-related analysis of the data takes place. We solely analyze the data for statistical purposes.

Person-related Data

Person-related data comprise all information by which a person may be identified directly or indirectly, e. g., name, address, e-mail-address, date of birth, profession or bank account. We only gather your person-related data if you voluntarily share those with us whilst enrolling or whilst registering a customer account. We only use your person-related data for the duration of the implementation of the agreement. Once the agreement has been completely fulfilled and implemented, we block your data and delete them once the statutory data retention periods have expired. Other conditions solely apply if you have expressly agreed to any further use of the data.

Cookies

We use cookies. These make it easier for you to access our site when returning to the site and assist us in optimizing our offering. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your hard drive and which can only be read out again by our server once you establish a data connection to our server. We use both session cookies and persistent cookies. So-called session cookies are cookies that are deleted from your hard drive after each browser session. Persistent cookies remain on your hard drive, so that we will recognize your computer when you next visit. You may set your browser to accept cookies automatically, to notify you each time about the setting of cookies, or to deny the use of cookies every time without asking.

Your Right to Information

You have a right to receive free-of-charge information on any data pertaining to you that we have stored. Moreover, you may demand correction, blocking or deletion of the data.

Passing on of Data for Delivery and Payment

For delivering goods and other items to you, we pass on such personal data as are required for that purpose to the subcontractor selected by us. For payment processing, we transfer your payment data to the financial institution that we work with.

Your Point of Contact on Data Protection Matters

Do you have any questions regarding the gathering, processing or use of your person-related data, or do you desire information on, correction of, blocking or deletion of data or do you wish to retract your permission? In that case, please contact: judith.schwarz@stk-duesseldorf.de

§11 Instructions on Revocation Rights

Right of Revocation

You have the right to revoke this agreement within fourteen days without giving reasons.

The revocation period is fourteen days after the agreement was entered into. In order to exercise our right to revocation, you need to inform us (Studienkolleg Düsseldorf, Grafenberger Allee 87, 40237 Düsseldorf, Tel.: +49 (0) 211-9421-2207, E-Mail: info@stk-duesseldorf.de) by means of an unequivocal declaration (e. g., a postal letter or an e-mail) of your decision to revoke this agreement.

The timely dispatch of the revocation before the expiry of the revocation period shall be deemed sufficient for compliance with the revocation time limit.

Consequences of Revocation

If you revoke this agreement, we are obliged to reimburse you without delay for all payments received from you, at the latest within a period of fourteen days after we received notice of your revocation of this agreement. For reimbursing you, we shall use the same means of payment that you used for the original transaction, unless we explicitly agreed another solution with you. Under no circumstances will any fees be charged to you due to this reimbursement.

In case you requested that the services rendered should commence while the revocation period was still running, you are obliged to pay us a reasonable amount corresponding to the proportion of the services already rendered before you apprised us of your decision to exercise your revocation right relative to the complete total of the services as stipulated in the agreement.

§12 Dispute Settlement / Consumer Arbitration Board

The EU Commission provides an online dispute resolution platform, which may be reached via the following link:
http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/

We are neither obliged nor prepared to participate in a dispute resolution procedure before a consumer arbitration board.

§13 Severability Clause

The law of the Federal Republic of Germany shall apply. For consumers who do not enter into this agreement for professional or commercial purposes, this choice of governing law applies only unless the legal protection granted is nullified through mandatory provisions of the law of the state in which the consumer has his or her habitual residence. The provisions of the UN Convention on Agreements for the International Sale of Goods do not apply here and are expressly excluded.

Should individual terms of this agreement be ineffective or lose their effectiveness due to later circumstances or should a loophole emerge in this Agreement, the legal effectiveness of the other provisions is not affected.

Declaration of consent

I agree that GRB Gemeinnütziges Rheinisches Bildungszentrum GmbH, in case of cancellation of the tuition agreement entered into with GRB Gemeinnütziges Rheinisches Bildungszentrum GmbH, may contact the German embassy or consulate responsible for issuing my entry visa for Germany and inform said institution about the cancellation of the tuition agreement. In doing so, GRB Gemeinnütziges Rheinisches Bildungszentrum GmbH will communicate my personal details, i. e., my name, my address and my date of birth, to said institution.