Course Refund Policy

Last updated date: 05 February 2026
We aim to make our programs accessible and affordable for students from all economic backgrounds. To support this, we provide adjustments based on cost of living, and offer discounts or fee waivers when necessary.
The course fees go directly to support our Teaching Assistants and to sustain the Academy each year. For this reason, we do not offer refunds or course cancellations after the matching date - when students are assigned to their learning pod based on timeslot, research interests, and language preference -  except for the specific reasons outlined below.

Refund process

  • Refunds may only be requested through our  Refund Request Form .
  • Refund requests are reviewed within one week. If approved, refunds are processed and expected to appear in your account within 5–7 business days.
The processing fee is not refundable and is scaled based on your local cost of living. You can see the fee amount  here .

Refund Eligibility

Refunds are determined by the timing of your request:
  • Requests submitted up until the Matching Date are eligible for a full refund.
  • Requests submitted after the Matching Date are eligible for a partial refund (50%), only under specific circumstances.
    Up until the Matching Date (usually end of May or beginning of June)
Refunds are available for any reason, including those listed below.
    Between Matching Date and Course Start
Eligible only for:
  • Loss of financial support by the student’s host institution
  • Any exceptional circumstance described in Section 3
    Exceptional Circumstances (After Course Start)
After the course starts, refunds only apply for the following exceptional circumstances:
  • Severe illness or death
  • A pod dynamics issue not resolvable by the Ombuds team within 2 days
  • Deportation or forced and unanticipated emigration
  • Required military service that was not planned
We explicitly do not provide refunds for the following reasons after the matching date:
  • The course is more difficult or time-consuming than expected.
  • A lab, work, or research opportunity becomes available unexpectedly, and the student was unsure it would be.
  • A pod dynamics issue that was successfully resolved.
  • Student error in matching time (should have submitted a pod swap request before the course started)