Terms of Service: Apparatus online courses

PRICING, PAYMENT AND DELIVERY

Course fees: When you register for a Course, you agree to pay the applicable Course fee and such other amounts as may be due by you arising from your participation in the Course.

Bank charges: In the event that bank charges and/or fees are levied on or added to a payment made by you to us from any country or jurisdiction, you shall be liable for all such bank charges and additional costs.

Dispute: If there is a dispute between us relating to the payment of any Course fee, or the way in which you use the Online Campus or the Website, we may at our sole discretion suspend your participation in the Course for the period of the dispute.

CANCELLATION AND RESTRICTION POLICY

When making an online purchase you may change your mind within seven (07) days of purchase, so long as materials have not been provided to you, downloaded, streamed or otherwise accessed. If you do wish to cancel, please contact us via email.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you meet the system requirements, including compatible hardware, software, telecommunications equipment and Internet service, prior to purchasing any content. We are unable to provide refunds where your access to the Products is inhibited due to insufficient system requirements.

We may restrict your access to the Products if you breach these terms, including without limitation:

• a) A failure to make any payment due to us; or

• b) Failure to provide accurate information that is necessary for us to provide the Products to you.

In these circumstances, we will inform you in writing with seven (7) days’ notice that your access to the Products will be restricted.

LIABILITY

No liability for Course outcomes: We will not, under any circumstances, be liable for any costs, claims or damages that you may sustain or suffer as a result of registering for and/or participating in any Course or other service offered by us which is not relevant, suitable or does not meet yours and/or any relevant industry or commercial body's requirements. Under no circumstances do we guarantee your suitability for a particular Course based on the levels of difficulty. We cannot, under any circumstances, be held liable to you for any costs, claims or damages, if after the completion of a course you are not able to obtain employment or a promotion within your chosen field of study, or any other outcome you may believe completing a Course will assist you to attain.

Limitation of liability: To the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree that we will not be liable for any cost, claims, damages (including, without limitation, indirect, extrinsic, special, penal, punitive, exemplary or consequential loss (such as loss of profits, business, goodwill, revenue or anticipated savings) or other damages of any kind, penalties, actions, judgments, suits, expenses, disbursements, fines or other amounts that you or any third party might suffer that relates to or arises from these Terms, your participation in a Course, or termination of a Course for any reason, whether or not anyone anticipated or should have anticipated that damages would occur. In no event shall Apparatus's aggregate liability to you for any and all claims exceed the total amount of fees received from you in the six months preceding any cause of action.

Acknowledgement: You acknowledge and agree that the disclaimers and limitations of liability set forth in these Terms reflect a reasonable and fair allocation of risk between you and Apparatus, and that these limitations are an essential basis to our ability to make services available to you on an economically feasible basis.

Time constraint: You agree that, to the extent permissible by applicable law, any cause of action related to these Terms of Apparatus's services or Courses must commence within 1 calendar month after the cause of action comes into being. If not, such cause of action shall be permanently barred.

Indemnity: Subject to any applicable laws, you agree to indemnify and hold us harmless in respect of any claim that a third party might bring against us that relates to or arises from these Terms arising from your registration for a Course. This indemnity includes claims arising from your use of the Online Campus in a way that does not comply with these Terms, or if we transfer your profile to another person, or if another person accesses your profile without your consent. This indemnity also includes all liability or loss that we might suffer as a result of a claim, including legal costs on the highest permissible scale and any additional legal and collection costs.

Interruption of service: You acknowledge and agree that from time to time, the Apparatus Website and/or Online Campus may be inaccessible or inoperable, by reason of one or more of the following:

Equipment malfunctions or faults.

Periodic maintenance procedures, downtime, or repairs that we may undertake from time to time.

Causes beyond our control, including, without limitation, interruption or failure of telecommunication or digital transmission links, attacks on the network and network congestion or other failures.

No breach: Such interruption to the accessibility of the Apparatus Website or Online Campus will not be deemed a breach of this Agreement under any circumstances whatsoever and we will not, under any circumstances, be liable to you for any costs, claims or damages that you may sustain or suffer as a result of any interruption, inoperability or inaccessibility of the Apparatus Website and/or Online Campus.

Security: We will use reasonable commercial measures to secure our system and your profile in the Online Campus, and related information, however, we cannot guarantee that unauthorised third parties will not be able to defeat our security measures. You undertake to notify us immediately of any compromise or unauthorised use of your account.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

Reservation of rights: Except where expressly stated to the contrary, copyright in the HTML, text, graphics, audio clips, video clips, source and/or object code and all other works (including trading marks and names) contained on the Website or Online Campus or otherwise provided to students by Apparatus, is owned by us or licensed to us, and we assert and reserve all of our rights in this regard. Access to or use of our services and Courses will not in any way result in an assignment or license of any intellectual property owned by us or any other party.

Student content: The services and Courses may enable you to share your own content, including assignments, with Apparatus, Head Tutors, Tutors, the Student Success Team, and fellow students. You retain all intellectual property rights in, and are responsible for, the content that you share, however you specifically agree and consent that we shall be entitled to use (at our discretion) all content shared by you on our Online Campus for internal research and development, Course improvement and non-commercial purposes. In relation to specific Courses, a policy statement on intellectual property sharing may be included in the Online Campus for further guidance to you in the sharing of your ideas and assignments. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to ensure the proper protection of your student intellectual property – if your student intellectual property will be best protected by way of trade secret, or you have not filed for protection of your protectable intellectual property, then non-disclosure may be essential protection. We cannot, and do not, guarantee that any intellectual property shared on the Online Campus or otherwise through the Website will not be used by other students.

Warranties and disclaimers

Disclaimers: To the extent permissible under applicable laws, all services, Courses and their content are provided "as is” without representations or warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, in respect thereof, and in particular, we make no representations or warranties regarding the quality of the Course content or the fitness of the Course content for the purpose for which you acquired it.

Student warranties: You warrant that all and any information that you provide to us, in accordance with this Agreement, in order to register for a Course or otherwise, is true and accurate.

COMPLAINTS AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION

General complaints policy: Whether it is positive or negative, Apparatus encourages feedback from students. Where this feedback is a complaint about our Course, product or service offering, or our conduct, we are committed to addressing the complaint in a timely and appropriate manner. All complaints are taken seriously, and every effort has been made to ensure that Apparatus can cater for complaints received on all levels, regardless of severity. Apparatus will seek to address a complaint in a mutually beneficial and satisfactory manner, whenever reasonably possible.

Speak up: Should you wish to lodge a complaint, you are required to submit this to Apparatus in email. We will strive to ensure that anyone giving feedback is treated with the utmost courtesy and respect, and in return, we expect that anyone giving feedback or making a complaint will do so in a fair and appropriate manner. Where we determine that a complaint is abusive, unreasonable, or a student is unreasonably pursuing a complaint that has previously been investigated, we reserve our rights in relation to our response, and in particular, may elect not to pursue the procedure set out below.

Review and investigation: Once a complaint has been lodged, we will investigate and attempt to address the matter in question. At this stage, you may be required to provide supporting documentation or other evidence that may be relevant. We will endeavour to address complaints within 3 working days (although this may not always be possible). In all cases, we will maintain open channels of communication and provide feedback or updates on the progress of the investigation. If a complaint cannot be addressed at its first stage, either party may request that the matter be looked into further. Escalations of this nature may be referred to the University collaborating on your Course who may investigate the matter further, and may recommend an outcome or course of action.

Feedback: Once a complaint has been fully investigated and due process followed, a course of action will be determined by Apparatus. The result will either be that the complaint is upheld (in part or in full), and an appropriate form of action is taken, or, that no action is taken, in which case comprehensive feedback and reasons will be provided. This includes, but is not limited to, instances where you have not requested an outcome other than having a platform to voice your concerns.

Disputes: If a mutually-satisfactory outcome, course of action, or conclusion cannot be reached following from the complaints procedure, or any other kind of dispute arises between Apparatus and you, then you agree that it will be resolved individually, without resort to any form of class action, and, to the extent compliant with applicable law, exclusively by a court of competent jurisdiction located in Potchefstroom, South Africa. As a consumer you may benefit from the right to bring an action in the courts of the country in which you are resident. Nothing in these terms and conditions affects your rights to bring a claim in the courts of the country in which you are resident. To the extent permitted by applicable law, all issues and questions concerning the construction, validity, interpretation, and enforceability of these Terms, your rights and obligations, or the rights and obligations of Apparatus, shall be governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of South Africa. As a consumer, you may benefit from certain mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which you are resident. Nothing in these terms and conditions, including this 'Disputes' clause, affects your rights as a consumer to rely on such mandatory provisions of local law.

Nothing in this section will restrict our right to apply to a competent court for relief should our intellectual property rights be violated or threatened, or where otherwise appropriate to obtain urgent, injunctive or equitable relief.

GENERAL

Entire Agreement: These Terms, together with the Honor Code and Policies, shall constitute the entire agreement between you and Apparatus concerning your registration for a Course.

Revision of Terms: We reserve the right to revise these Terms (including Policies) at our sole discretion from time to time. These revisions will become effective immediately on being posted to the Website and Online Campus, however, for all material changes to the Terms, we will take reasonable steps to notify you of such changes if you are registered for a Course at the time when such changes come into effect.

Conflict: If any aspect of these Terms conflicts with any information provided on our Website or in information packs or other Course materials, these Terms will prevail unless expressly stated otherwise.

Severability: In the event that any part of these Terms is found to be partially or fully unenforceable because it does not comply with any law, or for any other reason, this will not affect the application or enforceability of the remainder of these Terms.

Assignment: These Terms, and any rights and licenses granted in terms of these Terms, may not be transferred or assigned by you, but may be assigned by Apparatus without restriction.

No indulgence/waiver: If Apparatus chooses not to enforce any part of these Terms, this does not mean that it cannot do so at a later time. No waiver of any term of these Terms shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such term or any other Term.