Professional Education Policies
Honor Code
As an enrolled student in a Stanford University course, you are required to adhere to the following Stanford guidelines:
Grading
Professional education courses do not grant letter grades. Successful completion of the course will be shown with an “S”, for Satisfactory, on your Record of Completion. In many cases, you can also earn professional development units (PDU), continuing education units (CEU), or continuing medical education credits (CME).
Record of Completion
The Record of Completion is considered an official document that has been signed digitally and certified by Stanford. When you complete the sequence of required courses for a program, you will receive a final certificate.
Payment
Your course payment must be made within 30 days of registration or prior to the start date of the course (whichever comes first). If we do not receive your payment within this period, you will not be granted course access and you will be dropped from the course.
Interest-Free Payment Option
The interest-free payment option is only available if you choose to enroll in an All-Access Plan and make payments using a credit card. If you choose this payment option, your first payment will be due immediately. With this first payment, you will gain full access to all courses in the program. Your second and third payments, which will be automatically charged to your credit card, will be due one month and then two months after your initial payment, respectively.
There are no additional fees associated with this payment option. The total amount of the three installment payments is equal to the total amount of the All-Access Plan if paid once in full.
If you would like to make either your second or third payments prior to the due dates, please login to your mystanfordconnection and click on “Invoices” and enter in your credit card.
If, for any reason, we do not receive either of the final two payments within 5 business days of their due dates, your access to any and all of the courses in the program will be cancelled. If you have already earned a certificate of completion, you will retain your credential.
Drop
Refunds For On-Campus and Live Virtual Courses
Reimbursements for dropping a live virtual course or a course delivered at Stanford will be made according to the following schedule based on the number of calendar days prior the start date of the course:
- 30 days—Full refund (minus a $100 drop fee)
- 15-29 days—50% refund
- 1-14 days—No refund
The Stanford Center for Professional Development (SCPD) reserves the right to decline refund requests.
Refunds for instructor-paced, online courses
The rules and deadlines for dropping or transferring from an instructor-paced program such as Artificial Intelligence and Product Management Accelerated may vary. Please, consult the course syllabus or ask course organizers for details
Refunds For Self-Paced, Online Courses and All-Access Plans
If your request to drop a course or All-Access Plan is sent within the first 24 hours from your time of enrollment, you will be reimbursed for 50% of your tuition. Otherwise, we will not refund any portion of your tuition. SCPD reserves the right to decline refund requests.
Program Cancellation
On rare occasions, it is necessary for us to cancel on-campus programs. In the case of a cancellation, Stanford’s responsibility is limited to a refund of any program tuition that you have already paid, not including airline or other tickets or payments, or any similar fee penalties that you may incur as a result of any trip cancellations or changes.
Can I drop a course?
To drop a course, you can either request a drop through your mystanfordconnection account, or email a drop request to scpd-information@stanford.edu within the first 24 hours after registering.
What is the refund policy?
If a refund is due and the original payment was by credit card, that same credit card account will be credited within 7 business days. If you made payment via wire transfer, company check, or a credit card that was processed over six months ago, a check will be issued as a refund and can take up to 5 weeks to process.
Refunds For On-Campus and Live Virtual Courses: Reimbursements for dropping a live virtual course or a course delivered at Stanford will be made according to the following schedule based on the number of calendar days prior the start date of the course:
- 30 days—Full refund (minus a $100 drop fee)
- 15-29 days—50% refund
- 1-14 days—No refund
Refunds for instructor-paced, online courses: The rules and deadlines for dropping or transferring from an instructor-paced program such as Artificial Intelligence and Product Management Accelerated may vary. Please, consult the course syllabus or ask course organizers for details.
The Stanford Center for Professional Development (SCPD) reserves the right to decline refund requests.
Program Cancellation: On rare occasions, it is necessary for us to cancel on-campus programs. In the case of a cancellation, Stanford’s responsibility is limited to a refund of any program tuition that you have already paid, not including airline or other tickets or payments, or any similar fee penalties that you may incur as a result of any trip cancellations or changes.
What is the grading policy?
Completing a course: You can complete your course either by a final multiple choice exam, a final assignment, a course survey, or an attendance requirement. The course completion requirements may be found on the course page.
Grades: Professional education courses do not grant letter grades. Successful completion of the course will be shown with an “S”, for Satisfactory. In many cases, you can also earn professional development units (PDU), continuing education units (CEU), or continuing medical education credits (CME). For more information, please refer to Grades and Units Information.
What credentials will I receive?
Record of Completion: The Record of Completion is considered an official document that has been signed digitally and certified by Stanford. For each course you complete you will receive a digital Record of Completion. When you complete the sequence of required courses for a program, you will receive a final certificate.
Continuing Education Units: One Continuing Education Unit, or CEU, is granted for every 10 hours of instructional time. This includes time spent performing learning activities (e.g., assessments, evaluations, final projects, etc.) needed to successfully complete all course requirements. CEUs cannot be applied to any Stanford degree. Applicability of CEUs at other institutions is dependent on their individual policies.
Professional Development Units: The Stanford Center for Professional Development is a registered education provider of the Project Management Institute (Provider #1963). Please use the Project Management Institute codes below to claim PDUs at http://www.pmi.org for eligible completed courses. Not all courses are eligible for PDUs. For more information, please see the Grades and Units Information page.
Digital Credential: Your digital badge or certificate is a digital credential that allows for web-based verification of your course or program completion. We offer two types of digital credentials: a badge for a completed course, and a certificate for a completed program. On your credential, you’ll find information about grades, Professional Development Units (PDUs) and Continuing Education Units (CEUs), as described above.
For more information on our credentials, please see the Stanford Credentials page.
Honor Code
By enrolling in a Stanford University course, you agree to adhere to the following Stanford guidelines:
