FAQ's

We hope this section of the website answers any questions you may have. If the answer you are looking for is not listed here, feel free to send us an email, using the 'contact form' in the website menu above. We are here to help you in any way we can!

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Teaching OnlineQ. Is this an online course?
A. None of our courses are completed online. For our degree courses we provide a full correspondence course. This is completed by the student in their own time and returned to us, via an online drop-box, for marking and grading. Students simply download 'editable' MS Word documents (one for each module) and complete their assignments by adding their essays and coursework to each module document, after-which they save and return each completed module document back to us, via the drop-box. With regard to our 120 Hour TESOL Course, the 'editable' MS Word exam document is downloaded by the student and they have 48 hours to complete it and return it to us, via the drop-box. It's as easy as that, and can be done from anywhere in the world, in the comfort of your own home!

Q. If I have any questions or difficulties during the course, is it OK to ask for help?
A. We always have student advisers on hand, to help students with any problems they may have.

Q. Does The TESOL University offer any other courses?
A. No. We are a 'specialist' niche university, dealing only with TEFL related courses, which is why we are good at what we do!

Q. Is The TESOL University accredited?
A. Yes. We are internationally accredited by Tecca.org for all our courses and certification. Tecca are universally renown for the quality of their international accreditation and therefore, to obtain this accreditation, is indeed an honour for us.

Q. You have several TESOL courses on offer. Do I need to take all of them to get a job?
A. The standard 120 Hour TESOL course is OK for many countries, however some schools, agencies and governments require teachers to have a degree of some sort or another. The reason for this is that the schools in many countries have difficulty in applying for teacher 'work permits' from their governments, unless the teacher has a degree.

Q. Is there an exam with the BA, MA or PhD Degree courses?
A. There are no exams with our Degree courses. Grading of the BA, MA and PhD Degree courses are based on your essay assignments and projects. When you complete them, they are each marked, and a grade is awarded. The grade you get will determine what 'Honours' are awarded with your degree (note: the 'Honour' system is not applicable to the PhD course). The BA and MA 'Honour' system is as follows:

Degree with First Class Honours
Degree with Upper Second Class Honours
Degree with Second Class Honours
Degree with Third Class Honours

Since almost all of our students are already ESL teachers, and have a lot of experience, it is extremely rare to have a student complete the course and not be awarded a degree, however, it is important that you read and understand the course projects, before you start each assignment. It is also important to check your grammar, punctuation and sentence structure when submitting completed essays, as this is also 'scored' when marking and grading coursework. Researching the essays on the Internet is easy, however, we always look for originality, and that you have a complete understanding of each essay project. Lastly, should a student fail an assignment, they are given the opportunity to correct the work, and our Student Advisors are always there (7 days a week!) to advise and point them in the right direction.

Q. How long will it take me to study the 120 hour TESOL course?
A. Generally, it takes students around one month to study the course book, however, you may take as much time as you need, until you feel confident enough, to take the exam.

Q. Are your courses, and certification recognised by employers and governments around the world?
A. There is no valid reason why our courses and certification should not recognised worldwide, by employers and government agencies. We have international accreditation for all our courses and certification. We pride ourselves on the quality of the courses that we provide to students. Our courses and are above the industry standard.

Q. When I start the one of the Degree courses, can I obtain a letter of enrolment from the university?
A. We do indeed provide a 'letter of course enrolment' for students, upon request (free), however, this can only be requested after 30 days, from the start of your course. The enrolment letter is useful if you are on some form of 'income support' from your own country, and need the time to study, rather than find an immediate job.  It can also be used to find teaching positions, however, we do not recommend that you apply for teaching jobs too early during your course, as employers are likely to want to fill 'current' vacancies straight away, and may reject your application as you have yet to complete and graduate from the course.

Q. Do you help students to find work?
A. Sorry, we are educators, and not an employment agency, however, we do get approached by such organizations and help students and employers, when we can. The truth is that there are so many excellent TESOL employment agencies out there. Students never have any difficulty in finding employment, as the world is screaming out for ESL teachers!

Q. Do you have a payment plan?
A. Since our courses are already highly subsidized by our sponsors, we simply cannot offer payment plans. The small course fee's we charge are used to cover the posting of certificates and the marking of exams. We do not profit from our courses!

Q. With the BA, MA and PhD TESOL Courses, do you provide a 'student transcripts' with the degree certificates?
A. Yes, we provide transcripts, as part of the certification package.

Q. Is The TESOL University based in the UK?
A. Though we were initially established in the United Kingdom, we are an internationally accredited 'cloud based' university with no allegiance to any country. We do not have a student campus since we only provide 'distance learning' correspondence courses. We also have an agency office in Thailand that provides 'live' in-class training and observation services for those that request or require them. Our management and student advisory team is made up of British and American staff, based in several countries around the world.

Q. I have seen many 'fake' and 'life' degrees on the Internet, are your courses and certificates the same?
A. NO. We do however understand student concerns due to the vast number of these 'fake' universities and companies out there offering ready made certificates for a fee. These 'businesses' damage the education system, as people can simply buy a degree or certificate without learning anything. Students from The TEFL University must successfully complete our courses and exams to be issued certificates. You cannot simply buy a degree from us!

Q. If a potential employer or agency contacts The TESOL University to validate a certificate, can you provide this service?
A. We provide a full validation service to schools, employment agencies and employers. They can find a link on the website to do this, and by entering the certificate ID number (located on every certificate we issue) we can inform them if the certificate is genuine or fake and the full details of whom it was issued to!

Q. I started the 120 Hour TESOL Course, but found a couple of the website links in the free course book, did not work?
A. We do our best to keep the 120 Hour TESOL Course Book up to date, however, if a link is not working, you should visit the 'Free Resources' page on our website, where you will find all the website and book links contained in our book. This is where we 'update' links with new links when old links become unavailable, so check there when you find a link not working in the book!

Q. I understand the certificates are sent to us by courier, but can you also provide a downloadable copy of the originals
A. We do indeed provide students with a PDF copy of each certificate to instantly download, as well as the originals, which are sent, anywhere in the world, via International courier service (delivery takes 10 working days or less). The PDF copies enable students to add these files to a free hosting service or website, in order that potential employers can quickly and easily download them.

Q. How do I get my degree notarized?
A. This is a simple procedure. The original copies of your degree and transcripts must be given to a notary public, a lawyer or a solicitor. They will then make a copy of the documents and stamp/notarize these as copies of the original documents.
If you are currently teaching in a foreign country, you can either send your documents back to your own country via an agent who will arrange the notarization of your documents and return the originals and notarized copies back to you, or you may also be able to have them notarized at your embassy in the country you are currently working in.

Q. What do I have to do to get my degree attested?
A. If you currently have a degree which was obtained at a campus based university in the country you are from, then attesting your certificates will not be a problem, although we do suggest that you use an 'apostille service' in your country to complete the process, as it is easy to make an error and have it rejected by your government.

Unfortunately, at this time, it is not always possible to have our certification attested in certain countries (notarization is not a problem). We are a ‘cloud based’ university (similar to 'The Open University') and not a ‘campus based’ university. In most countries, government attesting of certification is reserved only for universities that have a campus and are based inside the country. This is primarily a monetary issue, and largely due to the taxation each government receives from their campus based universities, and the interest they make by providing student loans!

The future of education is changing at a rapid pace and we expect that one day, all government labor departments, around the globe, will realize that 'distance learning'  education is quickly becoming the new 'normal' in the 21st century, and they will need to make way for it, especially when you consider that the curriculum of 'distance learning' courses, such as ours, is in no way different to those offered by any ‘campus based’ university throughout the world.

Here are just a few countries that don't require require our certification to be attested

Cambodia.  This is a fabulous country, and a great stepping stone for visiting other countries in South East Asia. The Cambodian people are warm and friendly, the culture is amazing, and there is a huge demand for English teachers.

There is also a big demand for English teachers across Central and South America. Here are just a few that we know of, that also do not require the attesting of our certification:

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru, Mexico, and Uruguay.


More updates regarding attesting, can be found below:

Extra notes about the attesting of certification for work permit applications, in certain countries:

We have graduates teaching all around the world. These include countries like China, where in tier 1 and tier 2 provinces (richer provinces), documentation currently requires attesting, however, in tier 3 and tier 4 self-governing provinces (poorer), the schools seem to have special relationships with their local labor offices, and are often able to obtain work visas, without a problem. Strangely, we also have 2 of our graduates teaching in tier 1 and tier 2 provinces, who managed to get our certification attested, and get their work visas (although they told that the attesting service they used was costly).

In some countries, like Saudi Arabia for example (many of our graduates teach there, as the salary and employment packages are one of the best in the world), there are several types of visas used by employers. The first is the 'iqama' residential work visa, which requires the attesting of documents, however, they also offer a 'work visit visa' and a 'business visa' both of which DO NOT require the attesting of documents. Since most employers in Saudi companies are limited by the government, on how many 'iqama' visas they can have, most opt to use the simple 'work visit visa' or 'business visa' for their ESL teachers.

Teaching English Online

Our certification is also ideal for teaching students online, in any country. With teaching online, you are not required to have documents notarized or attested, as you are not applying for a work visa. You will find a large selection of schools around the world, looking for online teachers, on our ‘Teaching Online’ page.
With a degree in TEFL or TESOL, you can be assured of finding an online teaching position, and are guaranteed to be placed at the top of the recruitment list by any potential employers!