Conditions of participation

1. Registration
Registering for courses can be done at any time by filling out our registration form. We advise you to book early as our courses fill up quickly. To participate, you have to be at least 16 years old and be able to read and write using Roman script.
Your registration only becomes binding after ifa receives full payment of the course fees.

2. Payment
The fees for a course must be paid no later than two weeks after registration, either in cash or by bank cheque at ifa’s office, or by a free-of-charge bank transfer payment to one of our accounts. No further request for the payment of fees will be issued by ifa before the two week deadline.
If you register less than four weeks prior to the beginning of a course, fees will have to be paid directly upon registration at ifa’s office. Registration for a course only becomes binding upon full receipt of payment of fees. If you choose to book several courses (take note of our discounts!) the fees for the first course are to be paid, as stated above, within two weeks of registration but fees for follow up courses can be paid anytime up to four weeks prior to the beginning of new course.

3. Cancellation
You may cancel or change your course registration: 
• up to two weeks prior to the beginning of intensive courses;
• up to one week prior to the beginning of all other courses;
• for TELC examinations and TELC Preparation Day courses, up to three weeks beforehand;
• for TestDaF exams, up until 2 p.m. on the deadline day mentioned on TestDaF’s Homepage.
However, in the case of cancellations and course changes, certain fees apply:  for Holiday Courses , Supplementary Courses, and for TELC and TestDaF examinations and Preparation Courses, 25 euros; for all other courses, 50 euros.
Cancellations or changes to courses are no longer possible after the above-mentioned deadlines.

4. Placement Test
If you want to do an Intensive Course, from Grundstufe II (Elementary Level II) onwards, you have to take a placement test. The result of this test is binding to your course level classification. This test always takes place around one week prior to the beginning of the course, at 9 a.m., in our school. If you are not able to take the test at the specified time, we charge a fee of 15 euros to arrange a special appointment for another test date.
If you have already completed an Intensive Course at our school and have enrolled for the next course, you don’t have to sit for the Placement Test - your successful completion of a preceding level is a sufficient precondition for participation in the next level course.

5. Compulsory Attendance
Participants must attend at least 80 percent of all lessons in order to successfully pass a course and receive a certificate.

6. Course Cancellation
Courses can only take place with a certain minimum number of students. We reserve the right to cancel an Intensive Course, and the respective examinations, if there is not a sufficient number of students two weeks prior to the course’s beginning. In the case of the TELC exams and the preparation day course, there must be sufficient student numbers three weeks prior.  For all other courses, sufficient student numbers are needed one week prior to the beginning of a course.

7. Right to Privacy
A course participant knowingly allows the Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen to enter his or her personal information, as stated on the application form, into its electronic data bank. This information will be processed and handled electronically.

The data will only be used for registration and billing purposes, and for internal evaluation of the efficiency of ifa’s German courses. It will not be used by or forwarded to anyone else for any other purpose.

Your data will be stored in our data bank for a period of ten years. Within this period, you can request a new copy of any certificates you acquired at ifa. Also, on the basis of this recorded data, we can grant you a discount, as stated in our general terms and conditions, for any further course enrolments. After a period of ten years, we can provide no further information on courses you may have completed.

After having completed your course, you can lodge an objection to the further storage of your data. The onus of proof of any certificates you acquired or courses you completed will then rest with you.