About Us

Rutherford College has been offering courses to educate, inspire and up-skill adults since 1973. All of our tutors are qualified in teaching to adults - many of them specialists in their particular field - and you'll find that learning is easy in the relaxed sociable atmosphere of Community Education.

We schedule more than 200 courses each year and offer a range of family friendly courses that are designed to allow students 13yrs+ to participate when accompanied by an adult. The majority of our courses are run on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and we also have day-time classes and weekend workshops. We look forward to having you participate in our programme.

First Class

Report to the Community Education Office at the front of the school or the advertised offsite venue.

Enrolments

Enrolments may be made by post, phone, in person or online. You are encouraged to make use of our secure website to select, register and pay for your course. We don't confirm enrolments; If you don't hear from us assume your class will start on the advertised date.

Fees

Since government subsidies for ACE have been reduced most courses are self-funding. Non-residents will incur a surcharge for all government assisted courses. Fees must be paid in full at the time of enrolment; fees not marked (+) include all course materials; fees are GST inclusive. Please note, we do not accept cash payments

Course Cancellations

If minimum numbers are not obtained prior to course start date, students will be notified of cancellation. We attempt to notify students of course cancellations at least 2 or 3 full days prior to start date.

Subsidies and Assistance

A 10% discount applies for senior citizens (65+) and those with a Community Services card. Those receiving a benefit administered by WINZ may be entitled to a Training Incentive Allowance: contact your Income Support Office. If you have special needs please contact us for assistance.

Returning students

Please don't assume you will be automatically re-enrolled for the following term.

Waiting lists

Waiting lists operate for classes filled to capacity. You will be contacted if a place becomes available. Transfers may be arranged so that students study at an appropriate level. All transfers must be discussed with the co-ordinator.

Refunds

If a class has insufficient enrolments, we will advise you and a full refund will be given or a transfer to another class may be suggested.

If you are unable to attend a course and provide at least 5 working days notice before the course starts, we will refund you or transfer you, less a $10 administration charge. Refunds or transfers will not be given for withdrawals within 5 working days of the class start, or once a class has started.

For ESOL courses, course fees are payable two weeks before the course starts. Course fees are non-refundable and non-transferable after this time.

If you paid by credit card online, your fees will be transferred back to your credit card. All other methods of payment will be refunded via bank transfer and students will need to provide an official bank deposit slip or a copy of a bank statement that clearly shows the students name and account number.

School Policies

Schools implement, as part of their charters, policies on sexual harassment, smoking, drugs and alcohol. All schools are SMOKE FREE. Schools take every precaution to comply with the Health and Safety in Employment Act and the Privacy Act.

Certificates

Attendance Certificates can be provided on request if the student has been present for 80% of the course. A $5.00 administration fee may be charged.

Programme Alterations

In unforeseen circumstances we reserve the right to change the advertised programme and/or tutor. Every effort will be made to inform enrolees.

Publicity

Photographs taken of classes in progress are intended for publicity purposes only

Cars and Parking

Parking is available in the main carpark on weekends and evenings only, although this can be limited. Some parking spaces are also available at the back of the school (accessed via Toru Street) in evenings and weekends.

We regret there is no parking available for Monday to Friday day-time course participants other than school holidays.

Parking is not permitted in gateways or on grassed areas. Vehicles that block access or are incorrectly parked may be towed away.

Privacy Policy  

On enrolment we collect personal information from you, including your:

• name
• contact details (phone/email/address)
• ethnicity, gender, level of education and age group 
• billing or purchase information. 

Please note: If you choose to pay for courses using A2A, no record of your bank details is stored on our file. If you choose to pay for courses with credit card, Windcave, the secure online payment company we use, stores partial details of your credit card with us. We are not provided or do not store full details on our system.

We collect your personal information to assist us in providing statistical information to the Tertiary Education Commision (TEC) about learners who are attending our courses, their eligibility to be subsidised by the New Zealand Government and to ensure only NZ residents are attending courses.

Besides our staff and the TEC, your information is not shared with anyone else. We keep your information safe for 7 years by storing it in encrypted files and only allowing authorised staff to access it. After 7 years, if you are no longer attending courses your information is removed from our database. 

You have the right to ask for a copy of any personal information we hold about you, and to ask for it to be corrected if you think it is wrong. If you’d like to ask for a copy of your information, or to have it corrected, please contact us.