The Various Legal Aspects Associated with the Warwickshire College - Essay Example

The Various Legal Aspects Associated with the Warwickshire College Table of Contents Introduction 2 Legal Aspects Legal Status Based On Ownership Type 2 Trading Terms and Conditions 3 Licenses, Planning Permission, Contract 3 Local and National Laws 4 Conclusion 5 5 References 6 Introduction Before getting in touch with the various legal aspects associated with the ‘Warwickshire College’, it is necessary that few factors and general aspects regarding this college gets known. Thus, from a general perspective, it can be stated that ‘Warwickshire College’ is one of the largest and highly reputed college functional within England. As for the educational services rendered by this college it can be stated that this college mainly provides ‘national curriculum’ and ‘vocational coaching’ over a wide range of subjects to the teenage students. The college as a whole has been formed as a result of merger of few other colleges and was established in the year1996. In the backdrop of this, the essay intends to produce an informal report considering the legal aspects of Warwickshire College. Discussion Legal Aspects Legal Status Based On Ownership Type This section generally describes about the type of legal status that gets associated with a firm or even an educational organization depended on its types. Since property ownership can be of multiple types and thus the associated legal aspects also vary accordingly. Examples of ownership model include government ownership, cooperative ownership, private ownership, public ownership, collective ownership and other types of ownership. Warwickshire College is an autonomous Corporation with exempt charity status incorporated under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 (Warwickshire College, n.d.). Additively, the college corporation appears to be made up of the membership of the local community business, stakeholder partners, local authorities and the staff-student members. This organization also abides by the general ‘employment’, ‘diversity’, ‘equality’, ‘health’ and ‘safety’ laws as established by the UK government. Depending on these health and safety principles, the college provides a clean and safe environment for the students and the employees to work. Trading Terms and Conditions Pricing policy, Credit facilities and Payment Terms The pricing policy in context to this college generally refers to its fee structure. Concerning fee structure, the college demands for a full payment of the course fee before it issues the Visa letter to its students. In certain cases where college fails to issue the Visa letter to students, it provides a complete refund of the submitted course fee to the student after deduction of certain percentage as administrative charges. This refunding process needs to be carried out within three months from the date of refusal of the visa. The variation within the yearly course fee completely depends on the decision of the college. With respect to payment term, it is undertaken in a yearly fashion. In addition, the credit facilities provided by the college also take place depending on the period of the study. For instance any credit related issue due to overpayment or due to adjustment within the student’s fee payment will have to be resolved within three months after the end of the academic year. Licenses, Planning Permission, Contract Licensing in context to this college generally refers to the various types of affiliations attained by the college in terms of its education and other service standards. As for the recognition, the college holds the membership as well as the recognition of ‘Landex’ based on which it reflects its experience and perfection in terms of provision of its educational services. The member bodies of this college also demonstrate the quality and the excellence of this college and thus abide by the established commitments. Moreover, this college also holds the membership of the ‘Peter Jones Enterprise Academy’ which itself holds a higher reputed ground in terms of providing quality entrepreneurial education to the management students. Apart from just the licensing part, the college also maintains multiple established policies for maintaining the collected records of the employees and the students in a safe and confidential manner. These policies generally include guidelines as to who is eligible for accessing the confidential records and how to create or dispose such records in an effective manner. All these steps have been mentioned in the record retention guidelines as proposed by the college. At the same time, any member of staff, student or member of the public can request information from the college under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is not personal, commercially sensitive or would otherwise come within the exemptions to the Act. With respect to the factors pertaining to cashbook, sale and purchase ledgers along with employee wages, this educational organization also plays a part in terms of effective execution of the ‘Warwickshire pension fund’ with the collaborative efforts of other members such as ‘Alcester Town Council’, ‘Atherstone Town Council’, ‘Long Itchington Parish Council’ and many more. Adding to that, through this pension fund, the college presently covers around 7000 employees who are liable for this pension scheme. These committees along with the college also form the regulatory bodies along with the sources of advices regarding any sort of decision making process. Thus before undertaking any type of planning process, the college has to specifically take permission from the committee members Local and National Laws Date Protection Act 1998 Warwickshire College has also got itself registered under the Data Protection Act of 1998 based on which it promotes itself as being concerned regarding safeguarding the ‘right of the individual to confidentiality’. It also holds its registration as provided by the ‘Information Commissioner’. In accordance to this act, the college abides by the eight principles articulated in the Data Protection Act of 1998. Additively, the college also takes appropriate steps regarding the students and the members who peruse against these principles. The college has also made efforts in terms of the ensuring the health and safety of the students and the staff members within the campus in accordance to the ‘HSE document HSG 65’. Based on these Act, the college has established separate smoking facilities for the smokers and has prohibited smoking outside of these designated areas. This is mainly due to the intention of promoting a healthy and comfortable working environment. The college also abides by the policies and guidelines in context to ensuring the safety of the staff members and the students along with prevention of hazards. This subsequently reduces the chances o0f liability formation for the college. Conclusion The above discussion projects a brief understanding of the legal aspects and the law abidance in context for Warwickshire College. All these law abidance gradually add up in terms of improvising the reputation of the college regarding the quality of education services being provided by it. References Warwickshire College, No Date. Governance. About Us. [Online] Available at: http://www.warwickshire.ac.uk/about_us/governance.aspx [Accessed Jun 14, 2014]. Read More