Policies

Full tuition is due by the payment deadline, which you may find on the program's webpage. Although a purchase order confirms enrollment, full payment is required by the final payment deadline. Please note that failure to pay by the deadline will result in your withdrawal from the program.

We accept payment by credit card, check, and bank wire transfer. Upon acceptance to a program, you will receive specific payment instructions as part of the confirmation process.

The Harvard Graduate School of Education reserves the right to change faculty or cancel programs at its discretion and is not responsible for any planning expenses incurred. If the School finds it necessary to cancel a program, then participants’ tuition payments will be refunded in full.

Please Note: Participants are responsible for their own travel expenses and hotel accommodations for on-campus programs. The School is not responsible for non-refundable travel arrangements or other planning expenses.

Limited tuition assistance is available for some programs and is granted based on institutional or participant needs. If you would like to inquire whether your program offers tuition assistance, please contact our team directly by submitting a case in the Professional Education Community under the Question Topic “Tuition Assistance.”

Requests for tuition assistance do not affect an applicant's prospects for admission. You may access the tuition assistance application after you have submitted your program application.

To be considered, please apply one month prior to the program’s final registration/application deadline. Applications submitted after that point cannot be considered.

AmeriCorps Education Award

AmeriCorps members who would like to use all or part of their Education Award to pay the program fee cost should, after acceptance and upon submitting enrollment confirmation, select “Segal AmeriCorps Education Award” when indicating how the program fee will be paid. Immediately after submitting the online confirmation, enrolled participants should then initiate a payment request online through their My AmeriCorps account and forward the completed request as confirmation to ppefinar@gse.harvard.edu. 

Please email ppefinar@gse.harvard.edu with any questions.

GI Bill Benefits - No Longer Available

The US Department of Veterans Affairs recently notified us of changes in how they interpret their education benefits policy. As a result, until further notice, the programs offered by Professional Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education are not eligible for payment under Chapter 33 Post-9/11 GI Bill® or the Yellow Ribbon Program. We are no longer developing a VA-specific catalog and have removed language about VA benefit payment options from our website.

As an HGSE Professional Education learner, you may request:

• A 100% refund of your tuition,
• A credit toward another program, or
• A deferral to a different iteration of the same program. 

In order to consider and grant your request, we ask that you submit it no later than the final payment deadline shown on the program’s webpage.

Once the deadline has passed, we cannot guarantee that you will be eligible for a refund or withdrawal.

To request a refund, credit, or deferral request, please contact our team directly by submitting a case in the Professional Education Community under the Question Topic “Program Cancelation or Withdrawal.”

For cases in which the School finds it necessary to cancel a program, please refer to the policies under “Payment”.

We extend a warm welcome to our community of learners! As a division of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), Professional Education supports the mission of the School, including its commitment to sustaining safe and respectful physical and online environments in which to work and learn. By participating in one of our executive education programs, you become a member of the HGSE community. As we welcome you to HGSE and Professional Education, it is important that you understand the Code of Conduct to which we expect you to adhere throughout your program experience, both in and out of the classroom. Professional Education seeks to foster a professional, open, and dynamic environment that creates a distinctive learning opportunity enriched by the diverse professionals who participate. All members of our learning community, including program participants, staff, and faculty, are entitled to respect. We expect all individuals to demonstrate respect for each person's worth, dignity, and capacity to contribute to the campus community. Since our time together is relatively brief, the policies and guidelines described below are used to establish the norms for high-quality learning in all Professional Education programs.  

Professionalism
All members of our community are entitled to function in an environment free from threat, harassment, abuse, and discrimination. Disrespectful or intolerant behavior—including physical and/or sexual harassment—are unacceptable. If you are subject to advances or behaviors that compromise your ability to make full use of the learning opportunities in our community, we ask that you notify the program director immediately. HGSE takes its obligation to provide a safe and professional environment for learners, staff, and faculty very seriously and, if necessary, will require any offending participant(s) to leave the program.  

Confidentiality 
Our programs are designed to promote professional growth and personal reflection. To achieve these important objectives, participants will be invited to take intellectual risks and to reflect openly about personal and professional challenges. It is expected that you will respect the confidentiality of all participants, their schools, districts, and institutions, and any sensitive information you may obtain while working with and learning from your program colleagues.  

Attendance 
Participants are admitted to Professional Education's programs with the understanding that they will devote their full time and attention to program activities. Unlike annual conferences and professional association meetings, your HGSE program experience has been designed as an integrated whole. Our faculty consider attendance by each participant at all sessions (large class meetings, small group discussions, and other informal learning opportunities) essential in order for the program to make a maximum contribution to the learning of each individual, team, and group.

Participation 
Your program experience affords a rare and wonderful opportunity to become a full-time and undistracted learner in ways that will enable you to disengage from the demands of your day-to-day work responsibilities. To gain the most from your time at Harvard and to maximize your contribution to the learning of others, we expect program participants to refrain from email correspondence, text messaging, and other personal activities during class sessions, group discussions, and other scheduled program events. 

Guests
Guests are not permitted to attend any program activities. Since we seek to foster the development of a tight-knit community of peers, participation in academic and social events is limited to enrolled program participants only. (Program staff will notify participants of any exceptions to this policy.)  

Consideration of Intellectual Property
If Professional Education plans to film or record any program activities, you will be informed and your permission will be sought. For participants, video recording, audio recording, or photographing any portion of the program content is prohibited without written permission from Professional Education and fellow participants. All program materials, whether distributed in class, posted on the program website, or distributed to participants via any other means, are owned by Harvard University or licensed to Harvard University by the authors and are copyright protected. All of these materials are shared with participants for their personal use only.  

In accordance with Harvard University policy, Professional Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education affirms the right of all individuals to equal treatment in education without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national or ethnic origin, veteran status, or disability.

Please note that U.S. law may restrict enrollment in HGSE Professional Education programs by persons residing in countries subject to U.S. trade sanctions. Prospective applicants who have questions about their eligibility should contact us prior to beginning the application.

Reasonable accommodations are available for Professional Education participants with disabilities, which may include mobility, vision, hearing, other physical impairments or health conditions, and learning disabilities.

Unless specified otherwise, English language proficiency is a requirement for application, registration, and successful participation in the programs provided by Professional Education. All participants are expected to have fluency in English, including a basic knowledge of education terminology, in order to effectively engage with the content, complete assignments, and interact with other members of the learning community.

To ensure the safety and well-being of our entire campus community, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts requires that educational visitors are immunized against common contagious illnesses. Please ensure that your immunizations are up to date prior to your arrival on campus

We are thrilled to host our learners and visitors on Appian Way. As we welcome Professional Education participants to the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) campus, we assure you that the health, safety, and well-being of our community remain our top priority. We closely monitor health and safety protocols as provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the State of Massachusetts, and Harvard University, and we will continue to make adjustments in response to evolving public health guidelines. Professional Education participants must adhere to all public health guidelines instituted by Harvard University and HGSE.

Due to the uncertainty of evolving public conditions, HGSE’s COVID-related safety requirements may be different when your program begins. If you are enrolled in an on-campus program and our requirements and policies change, the HGSE Professional Education team will contact you by email and on the program’s Canvas site. You may also find information about COVID-19 responses and expectations on the HGSE website and Harvard’s coronavirus website.

For more information, please visit the COVID-19 section on the Frequently Asked Questions page.

Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) is required to provide current and prospective online learning students with contact information for filing complaints. Students must first attempt to resolve their complaint by using internal administrative procedures offered by HGSE.

Students enrolled in online professional education courses who are residents of states other than Massachusetts, and when such state is a SARA participating state, may submit complaints to HGSE regarding their program.

Efforts will be made to determine the appropriate course of action, and the student will be notified within 10 days following the receipt of a complaint. 

If the attempt to resolve the complaint via internal institutional processes fails, students enrolled in online courses who are residents of states other than Massachusetts, and when such state is a SARA participating state, may appeal the College's decision to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education, which makes complaint forms available on its website. 

The contact information for the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education is: 
One Ashburton Place, Room 1401 
Boston, MA 02108 
(617) 994-6950

Harvard University will not in any way retaliate against an individual who reports a perceived violation of Harvard policy, state, federal, or local law. Further, Harvard will not tolerate retaliation by any employee or student.