IELTS course fees charged by 15 institutions vary up to 20 times - consumer watchdog

Costs of face-to-face courses for IELTS - one of the most recognized English language proficiency tests - offered by 15 institutions vary by up to 20 times, the Consumer Council said on Tuesday.  

The watchdog's staff posed as general customers to collect information from the websites of 15 institutions and made further inquiries to understand the course content and service terms.  

For courses with fixed hours of duration, the institutions charged from HK$32 to HK$663 per hour for in-person classes.  

For courses where students can choose the duration according to their needs, the average hourly fee ranges from HK$115 to HK$417.  

The council also received complaints about free trial classes offered by institutions.  

One institution claimed to offer a "free trial class" while promoting their IELTS courses but ended up charging a complainant HK$300 as a "deposit."  

On the day of the trial class, the complainant was exposed to a 2-hour sales bombardment and had to pay about HK$4,000 as the first installment of the tuition fee to leave.  

The watchdog also found an institution that required students to pay HK$90 to take an English language test before enrolling for free classes, while two charged additional fees for the trial classes.  

Moreover, six institutions offered "grade guarantee" packages – meaning students are assured that they won't be charged if they fail to pass the IELTS exam. But most of them included a number of terms and conditions, such as the students should have attained certain levels in public examinations or school results. Class attendance rate, homework, and mock examinations are also taken into consideration.   

One institution charged its tuition fee based on the students' target scores. The charge for a target IELTS score of 4.5 or below was HK$24,800, whereas HK$29,300 was charged for a target between 5 and 7.5, a difference of about 20 percent.   

Besides tuition fees, a consumer may prefer face-to-face lessons for learning effectiveness or consider online classes if they want more flexibility. Five institutions surveyed offered face-to-face real-time courses only, and four others offered real-time online courses only. The remaining six offered a mixed mode.