Effective as of June 01, 2025
Last Updated: May 25, 2025
Issued by: International Association of Private Universities and Colleges (IAPUC)
1. General Provisions & Applicability
This standalone Refund Policy is formally formulated in accordance with international higher education accreditation norms, non-profit organizational operation standards and global commercial and civil compliance requirements. It serves as the sole authoritative basis for all refund applications, fee settlement, service cancellation and financial dispute resolution for all paid services provided by the International Association of Private Universities and Colleges (“IAPUC”, “we”, “us”, “our”).
This Policy applies to all institutional members, individual applicants, certification candidates, event participants, training enrollees and all users who complete fee payment for any official paid services of IAPUC. All paid service transactions conducted via official IAPUC channels are subject to the terms and constraints of this Policy, superseding any prior oral or informal agreements.
As a non-profit global higher education quality assurance organization, all service fees collected by IAPUC are exclusively used for platform operation, accreditation system maintenance, expert review compensation, academic service delivery and public welfare higher education development. No service fees are used for commercial profit distribution.
2. Covered Paid Service Categories
This Policy governs refund rules for all official paid fees charged and collected by IAPUC through authorized channels, including but not limited to:
(1) Institutional membership registration fees and annual membership renewal fees;
(2) IQA institutional accreditation initial application fees, document review fees, on-site inspection service fees and periodic supervision review fees;
(3) Academic training program tuition, professional qualification workshop fees and online course enrollment fees;
(4) International academic conference, seminar and summit official registration fees;
(5) Expedited review service fees, customized consulting service fees and other value-added official service fees;
(6) Any other paid service fees explicitly announced and collected via official IAPUC notices.
Fees waived by official written approval, complimentary service quotas, third-party sponsored fees and free public welfare services are not eligible for refund application under any circumstances.
3. Legal Principles Governing Refund Judgments
All refund reviews and approvals strictly abide by three core international institutional compliance principles to ensure fairness, transparency and standardization:
3.1 Service Progress Matching Principle: Refund proportion is strictly linked to the actual completion progress of service preparation, resource allocation, expert arrangement and service delivery. Completed service links and incurred legitimate costs will not be refunded.
3.2 Minimal Cost Deduction Principle: Only objectively incurred, verifiable and reasonable administrative labor costs, expert service costs and third-party outsourcing costs are deducted. No arbitrary penalty fees or excessive handling fees are charged.
3.3 Non-discrimination Principle: All institutional and individual applicants enjoy equal refund review standards and service rights, with no differential treatment based on region, scale or cooperation cycle.
4. Full Refund Eligibility (100% Refund)
Applicants shall be entitled to a full refund of all paid service fees without any cost deduction under any of the following objective and non-user fault circumstances:
(1) IAPUC officially cancels, suspends or terminates scheduled accreditation reviews, training programs, academic conferences and other paid services due to institutional policy adjustment, official arrangement optimization or internal standardized management needs;
(2) System errors, repeated deductions, wrong deductions or abnormal fee collection occur in official payment channels, resulting in excessive or erroneous payment by users;
(3) The user submits a service cancellation application, and IAPUC has not initiated any service preparation work, including no document review, no expert assignment, no resource deployment and no administrative process activation;
(4) IAPUC fails to provide corresponding paid services as agreed due to exclusive organizational liability, resulting in complete non-performance of service obligations;
(5) The service cannot be normally delivered due to official mandatory regulatory adjustment or policy changes, and no alternative equivalent service solution is available;
(6) Other full refund scenarios explicitly confirmed in writing by the IAPUC Secretariat.
5. Special Fixed Refund Rules for Membership & Accreditation Fees
5.1 Unified Membership Refund Rule (Individual, Institutional and Accredited Members)
Regardless of user type, including institutional members, individual members, and accreditation registered members, a full 100% fee refund will be granted if a formal refund application is submitted within 7 calendar days of successful payment and service activation. All refund applications submitted 15 calendar days or more after payment confirmation shall be denied and are non-refundable.
5.2 Non-Refundable Rule for All Accreditation Related Fees
All accreditation-related fees, including but not limited to accreditation application fees, document review fees, preliminary verification fees, review arrangement fees and accreditation service reservation fees, arestrictly non-refundable once the official application is successfully submitted. Submission of a complete and valid application constitutes official activation of the accreditation service process and resource occupation, and no refund request will be accepted under any circumstances thereafter.
5.3 Third-Party Payment Handling Fee Exemption Clause
For all approved refund applications, IAPUC is only responsible for refunding the original service fee amount received by IAPUC. All bank handling fees, payment platform service fees, exchange difference losses, transfer charges and other incidental fees arising from fund payment and refund processing shall be borne solely by the applicant. IAPUC shall not be liable for any third-party channel fee losses.
6. General Partial Refund Eligibility (Proportional Refund)
For voluntary service cancellation applications initiated by users where partial service preparation or partial service delivery has been completed, IAPUC shall implement proportional partial refund after deducting actual incurred legitimate costs, in line with international academic institution practices:
6.1 Accreditation Service Partial Refund: If the user voluntarily withdraws the accreditation application after IAPUC has completed document verification, expert grouping or preliminary review arrangement, the unconsumed portion of the service fee shall be refunded after deducting actual expert labor costs, document review costs and administrative operation costs incurred in the early stage. No refund shall be granted for completed review links.
6.2 Training & Academic Event Partial Refund: For paid training and conference services, standardized time-based proportional refund rules apply: cancellation applications submitted 15 or more calendar days before the official start date are eligible for a 70% refund; applications submitted 8 to 14 calendar days in advance are eligible for a 40% refund; applications submitted 3 to 7 calendar days in advance are eligible for a 20% refund.
6.3 Membership Service Partial Refund: For voluntary early termination of valid membership qualifications, IAPUC shall calculate the residual valid term on a monthly average basis, refund the residual unused fee portion, and deduct the already enjoyed exclusive member resource costs and fixed administrative annual operating costs.
7. International Payment Security Compliance Statement
IAPUC strictly abides by global international payment security standards, financial industry compliance specifications and cross-border transaction safety management norms. All official payment channels, fund collection and refund settlement systems adopted by IAPUC fully comply with international payment security strategies, including PCI DSS data security standards, cross-border fund transaction compliance rules and global non-profit organization financial safety management requirements.
All user payment data, transaction records, fund information and billing data are transmitted and stored through encrypted protocols, with full data encryption protection, access permission control and security audit mechanisms in place. IAPUC does not store users’ bank card original information, payment passwords or core financial sensitive data, effectively avoiding transaction risks, data leakage and financial security hazards.
All third-party payment service providers cooperated by IAPUC hold valid international financial service qualifications and security certification credentials, with standardized risk control, anti-fraud and transaction monitoring systems. All payment and refund behaviors are implemented under standardized international financial supervision mechanisms to ensure the legality, security, traceability and stability of user fund transactions.
8. Deduction Standard & Non-Refundable Administrative Fee Clause
IAPUC does not charge arbitrary penalty fees or excess handling fees. All cost deductions are limited to real, reasonable and verifiable expenditures generated for user service preparation. Consistent with international industry norms, a fixed non-refundable basic administrative processing fee will be deducted for eligible partial refund scenarios to cover system operation, document filing, staff review and basic resource scheduling costs.
All deduction standards are publicly transparent, supported by internal financial audit records, and comply with non-profit financial supervision requirements. Users have the right to inquire about the detailed composition of deducted costs during the refund review process.
9. Non-Refundable Circumstances (Official Standard Exclusions)
No refund application shall be accepted or approved under any of the following circumstances, which conforms to the unified exemption rules of international accreditation and academic service institutions, including the special non-refund provisions stipulated in Clause 5 of this Policy:
(1) The core service content has been fully delivered, reviewed, completed and confirmed by the user, including completed accreditation reviews, issued evaluation reports, finished training courses and attended academic events;
(2) The user voluntarily abandons service qualifications, fails to participate in scheduled services without valid reasons, or actively gives up review progress after IAPUC completes all service preparation and resource deployment;
(3) The user provides false, forged, altered or incomplete application materials, resulting in service suspension, review termination or qualification rejection;
(4) The user violates IAPUC institutional codes, academic ethics, service disciplines and accreditation norms, leading to mandatory cancellation of service qualifications and cooperative relations;
(5) The user submits cancellation requests within 2 calendar days before the service start date or after the official commencement of any paid service;
(6) The user disagrees with professional evaluation opinions, accreditation conclusions and academic review results, and applies for a refund on this ground;
(7) Service delay or inability to complete the application process caused by the user’s delayed document submission, uncooperative verification or failure to cooperate with review work;
(8) Service termination and inability to perform obligations caused by force majeure factors beyond the reasonable control of IAPUC;
(9) Items explicitly marked as non-refundable in official service announcements, application agreements and fee specification documents;
(10) Membership fee refund applications submitted 15 calendar days or more after payment confirmation;
(11) All accreditation fees once the accreditation application is successfully submitted.
10. Standard Refund Application & Review Procedure
All refund applications must follow the unified written official procedure. No verbal applications, informal message applications or overdue applications will be accepted:
10.1 Application Submission: The applicant shall submit a formal written refund application via the official dedicated email, including institutional or individual user information, service order number, complete payment voucher screenshot, specific refund reason and valid contact information.
10.2 Material Verification: The IAPUC Financial Review Team and Service Management Team jointly verify payment authenticity, service progress, cost generation and compliance of the application within 7 working days.
10.3 Result Notification: The official review result (full approval, partial approval or rejection) and detailed reason description shall be notified to the applicant via official email in written form.
10.4 Fund Settlement: For approved refund applications, IAPUC will complete fund settlement via theoriginal payment channel within 15 working days. The actual arrival time is subject to the processing cycle of banks and third-party payment institutions.
11. Force Majeure & Alternative Remedy Mechanism
IAPUC shall not be liable for cash refund compensation for service adjustment, delay or termination caused by force majeure events, including natural disasters, public health emergencies, government regulatory policy adjustments, network system overall failures and other objective uncontrollable factors.
Under force majeure circumstances, IAPUC will prioritize providing reasonable alternative remedies for users, including service term extension, service replacement, free supplementary resources and deferred service rights, to protect users’ legitimate service interests to the greatest extent.
12. Overpayment & Wrong Payment Special Rules
For systematic overpayment, repeated payment and wrong payment scenarios confirmed by official verification, IAPUC shall actively initiate the refund procedure, complete full refund settlement within the statutory time limit, and bear all relevant channel handling fees. Users are entitled to full refund rights without any deduction in such scenarios.
13. Dispute Resolution & Appeal Mechanism
If the user has objections to the refund review result, the user may submit a formal written appeal application with supplementary valid evidential materials within 10 working days after receiving the result notification.
IAPUC will launch a secondary independent review by the senior management team within 7 working days after receiving the appeal, and the final review result shall be the final authoritative settlement basis. All settlement processes comply with international non-profit institutional dispute resolution norms.
14. Policy Correlation & Legal Priority
This Policy is an independent official compliance document, forming a complete service constraint system together with IAPUC Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and other institutional normative documents. All paid service behaviors and refund disputes shall be governed by this Policy.
In case of inconsistency between individual clauses and other auxiliary rules, the provisions of this Refund Policy shall prevail in terms of refund settlement and financial dispute resolution.
15. Policy Revision & Update Mechanism
IAPUC reserves the exclusive right to revise, update and supplement this Policy in accordance with institutional service iteration, international industry standard updates and legal requirement adjustments. Material revisions affecting user refund rights will be publicly announced on the official website in advance.
Users’ continued participation in IAPUC paid services after the policy update takes effect shall be deemed as full acceptance of the latest refund terms.
16. Official Inquiry Contact Channel
For refund application consultation, progress inquiry, appeal submission and policy interpretation, please contact the official dedicated channel:
Official Email: secretariat@iapuc.org
Official Website: www.iapuc.org
17. Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2024~2025 International Association of Private Universities and Colleges (IAPUC). All Rights Reserved. This Refund Policy is an officially released exclusive institutional normative document of IAPUC. No unauthorized reproduction, excerpt, modification, dissemination or commercial use is permitted. All official interpretation rights are reserved exclusively by IAPUC.
