costs associated with online distance learning

Planning ahead, understanding any additional costs

The majority of our courses are entirely self-contained, providing everything you need within the comprehensive course fee. However, we believe in complete transparency about the financial commitment involved in your educational journey.

For some specific courses, there may be additional costs to consider that aren’t included in the initial course fee. These potential expenses vary depending on your chosen subject and qualification level, and being aware of them from the outset helps you budget effectively for your entire learning experience.

We encourage you to review the detailed course information or speak directly with our Course Advice Team on 0800 389 2839 to get a complete picture of any supplementary costs associated with your specific programme of study.

Texts and resources

Wherever possible, we have developed our courses in such a way that everything you need is included in the course materials we provide.

However, in some cases you will need to acquire one or more texts that the course materials will refer to. For example, A level English Literature will require some books that you’ll read as part of your course.

If your course requires any additional resources they will be listed on the course information page for that subject, under ‘Set texts and resources’, so you can see what you’ll need before you enrol.

Exam fees

If your course leads to a qualification for which you have to sit exams, such as for A levels and GCSEs, exam fees are not included in your course fee. Your exam fees will need to be paid to the exam centre where you will sit your exams.

Every awarding body charges a subject entry fee to each exam centre for every unit entered, which the exam centre then passes on to students. These fees vary from subject to subject and between different exam centres.

If you’re registering for your exams at one of our partnership exam centres, our student support team will arrange this for you and tell you how much the registration fee will be. If you’re sitting your exams elsewhere, you’ll need to speak to the centre’s examinations officer to find out the exact costs.

Registration with awarding bodies

If your course leads to a vocational qualification you will probably need to register with the awarding body to become a member before you can sit the exam or be assessed (for example: registering with CMI for a management course). This fee may be an annual charge. Any relevant information will be given on the specific course information page.

Optional extra services

To help you get the best results from your study, we offer a range additional services that can be purchased separately.

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Past paper marking

You can choose to add a past paper to be marked. Our A level and AS level courses include one past paper as standard, so if you’d like more to be marked, then this service would be useful.

The fee is £40.

Revision tutorial

If you’d like help to plan and manage your revision timetable before taking your exams, you can choose either a one hour or 30 minute tutorial, designed to help you to structure your revision. The session will be tailored to your individual needs and led by the tutor.

Revision tutorials cost £45 for 30 minutes or £60 for one hour.

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Optional tutorial

As with revision tutorials, you can choose the duration and this will be useful if there is a particular area that requires additional attention. You can choose the subject of the tutorial.

Optional tutorials cost £45 for 30 minutes or £60 for one hour.

Exam performance feedback service

If you are an NEC student disappointed with the exam result you received and want to know how you could have improved your answers to gain higher marks, our new Exam performance feedback service can analyse your exam paper for you.

You will need to request a copy of your exam paper from your awarding body.

Your NEC tutor will then provide you with detailed feedback on the marks you received. They will explain where you lost marks and how you could have answered the question(s) differently to gain a higher mark.

If you are planning on resitting your exam, or if you are sitting exams in other subjects in future, this tutor feedback can help you better prepare for the result you hope to achieve.

The fee for this service is £45 per paper

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Additional review

An additional review can be provided on your progress to date.

The fee for a Review is £40.

Exam centres

NEC exam partners

As an NEC student your are guaranteed an exam place. The NEC partner with various exam centres across the UK, so let us deal with booking your exam and non-exam assessments.

Exams and assessment

UCAS application service for NEC students

NEC offers two services to support you in your UCAS Application

1) Predicted grades

Predicted grades are a key part of the UCAS application process. They reflect the grade of qualification that your tutor believes you are likely to achieve in positive circumstances, which is then used by universities and colleges as an indicator of your academic ability and suitability for higher education.

NEC can only provide you with predicted grades for the course or courses you study with us once you have completed 50% of your course assignments, not including your Introductory Assignment. This requirement is because your tutor needs to have seen enough evidence of your usual way of working to base a predicted grade or academic comment on.

Please be aware that, for 2025 entry to university, the deadline to submit assignment work is by 15th September 2024 for 15th October 2024 UCAS deadline, and by 15th December 2024 for 29th January 2025 UCAS deadline.

NEC can also provide a reference. The UCAS reference has 3 distinct sections:

Section 1: establishment details – a general statement about NEC (mandatory)

Section 2: any information about extenuating circumstances which may affect an applicant’s performance in examinations or other assessments (optional)

Section 3: any other supportive information specific to the applicant that universities/colleges should be aware of (optional)

Extenuating circumstances

NEC is able to comment on the non-standard educational route of distance learning and we may be able to acknowledge information you have provided to NEC either on the ‘More About You’ form completed at enrolment or via our Pastoral service.

Supportive Information

NEC may be able to include relevant academic comments from your tutors in Section 3 – Supportive Information. We are not able to request comments from your tutors until you have completed a minimum of 50% of your course assignments (as for predicted grades).

Please note that due to the nature of distance learning, NEC is unable to comment on work experience or extracurricular activities.

Once you have enrolled for this service, if NEC is providing all of your predicted grades and acting as your referee then you can opt to use NEC as your UCAS centre. We can provide you with our buzzword. Alternatively, we can email your predicted grade(s) and/or reference to an external referee of your choosing to be incorporated into their reference, or send this directly to your university.

2) Personal Statement (£45)

The Personal Statement is the section of the UCAS application form where you tell the Admissions Tutors of your chosen universities about yourself and why you want to study the course you are applying to. You have an upper limit of 4,000 characters or 47 lines of text (including spaces and blank lines) to do this. The same Personal Statement will be sent to all of the different universities and courses you are applying to, so we have found this can be a challenging task for a lot of students.

NEC’s Personal Statement Review is a chance for you to gain additional support by submitting a draft of your Personal Statement to one of our experienced tutors for feedback. As far as possible, we will try to match you with one of our tutors who has a background in the area you want to study.

Ways to find more information:

Pre-enrolment: Contact our Course Advice Team at info@www.nec.ac.uk or give them a call at 0800 389 2839. 

After you enrol: Have a look at our Applying to University area on learn@nec, your learning platform, for more detailed guidance. You can also find our UCAS services request form here, once you’re ready.

If you are considering applying to university, please have a look at the UCAS website in good time. UCAS provides a lot of resources to support you in making your application, including key dates you need to be aware of, specific course information and how to apply. NEC is not able to provide support about any entry requirements you will need to meet.

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