Our annual programme of short courses is confirmed in September each year.

We offer a number of different types of courses, including those open to all and others with restricted access, including pilot courses, internal (UoB) only courses and a Materials & Recordings option. You will only be able to search and view courses within the booking system that you are eligible to attend. 

Our courses are predominantly delivered online. The format of each course varies, but may include live and asynchronous sessions and a combination of lectures, practicals and breakouts for groupwork.

Two courses, Writing a Journal Article and Writing a Qualitative Paper are delivered in person. Access to these courses is restricted to University of Bristol staff and postgraduate research students.

To facilitate effective waiting lists we separate course bookings into FREE and PAID. We also offer PILOT courses to University of Bristol Staff and PGR students. Courses display in our booking system with 'FREE', 'PAID' or 'PILOT' in the course title to distinguish these different types of courses. Please pay special attention to selecting the correct version before adding to your basket.

• If you are paying full price select the ‘PAID’ course.
• To use a 50% discount voucher (if applicable) select a 'PAID' course and use your voucher when prompted.
• To use a 100% discount voucher (if applicable) choose a 'FREE' course and use your voucher when prompted.
• To book a 'PILOT' course you do not need to use any of your voucher allocation.

You can use the 'show' option above the search bar in the booking system to filter results for 'Free (with voucher)', 'Paid', 'Pilot' or 'All' courses, as per the image below:

If there are no free places remaining on a course you can opt to join a free place waiting list. Additionally, you may also choose to book a paid place if one is available, though this will be subject to payment in the usual timescales and subject to our cancellation policy.

To ensure courses are suitable for you, and that you can fully benefit from participation, we identify a number of course prerequisites. We kindly request that you check you have access to the relevant IT resources needed for the course and meet the knowledge prerequisites before you book.

We offer voucher packs to eligible individuals. Subject to availability these can be applied during booking to secure a free or discounted place on a course. To find out if you qualify for a voucher pack please review our short course fee policy. All affiliations are checked to confirm eligibility and the best discount will be selected based on the information you provide.

If applicants are not eligible for free or discounted places, have used up their allowance or the free space limit on courses has been reached full price places may still be booked, subject to availability.

If a course is full, applicants may choose to join a waiting list. If a place becomes available on a course, applicants will be contacted in the order they joined the list. Applicants are given a time limited offer (usually 72 hours) to accept or decline the offer before their waiting list place is cancelled and the next applicant is approached. 

We regret that we are unable to advise on the likelihood that places will become available, but recommend that applicants hold the time in their diary if they are keen to attend. 

All bookings remain provisional until payment is received. We require prompt payment, in line with the booking terms and conditions below. Our short courses are popular and often have a waiting list. Therefore, if we have not received payment in line with the timescales specified in our terms and conditions, provisional places are automatically cancelled.

To find out more about payment options visit how to pay your short course fees.

To help participants make arrangements to attend courses, we aim to circulate provisional timetables approximately five weeks before each course.

Full joining instructions are sent via email approximately two weeks before each course. Joining instructions include the finalised course timetable, information about how to access the course, and details of any pre-course work that may be required.

We encourage all delegates to complete course feedback to help us to continually improve our courses.

For the 2024-2025 academic year there will be a Feedback Survey Prize Draw:

• Random draw for 5 x £50 vouchers. Entry is optional. 
• Each participant who gives an email address (only so you can be notified of winning) will get a Prize Draw entry number for every course feedback survey submitted so a participant can win more than 1 voucher. Maximum of 1 survey submission per course.
• Voucher options: Town & City Gift Card (choose locality from the website), National Book Tokens (can be spent online and/or in person in the UK and Ireland), or Amazon UK (or another country where Amazon has a website).
• Winners will be notified via the email address given at the end of this survey.
• Deadline for accepting with a voucher choice or declining it will be approximately 2 weeks.
• If the prize is declined or there is no reply by the deadline, there will be another random prize draw until all the vouchers have been accepted.

Subject to full attendance delegates will be provided with an electronic course certificate. We are unable to provide CPD accreditation.

• All bookings are subject to availability.
• All bookings operate on a strict first come first served basis. 
• Registrations and bookings must be made by the person attending the course. It is the individual responsibility of each participant to check they comply with the course prerequisites.
• It is the individual responsibility of each participant to ensure they have access to software listed in the course prerequisites on the day of the course.
• Bookings cannot be transferred from one named individual to another.
• Course materials contain copyright which is exclusive property of the University of Bristol. The booked individual is not permitted to share, distribute or use the course materials for any purpose other than undertaking the course.
• Bookings cannot be transferred from one academic year to the next.
• Payments cannot be transferred from one academic year to the next.
• Courses may be cancelled at any time at the discretion of the University of Bristol and the Short Course Team. This includes at any time before or during the course.
• Should a short course clash with University of Bristol staff industrial action, the course will be cancelled and only rearranged under exceptional circumstances.
• Course organisers and tutors can be changed at any time before or after bookings have been made.
• Course timings can be changed at any time before or after bookings have been made.
• Courses may be cancelled at any time at the discretion of the University of Bristol and the Short Course Team. This includes at any time before or during the course.
• Courses advertised as taking place on site and in person at the University of Bristol may become online only courses should circumstances change and it is no longer possible to host them on campus.
• Online lectures will be recorded and made available, with the presentation, to other audiences for educational purposes. By agreeing to our terms and conditions you give permission for the recordings to be used for these purposes.
• The Short Course Fees Policy is updated at the start of each academic year.
• The Short Course Director has final say on the application of the policy.
• All discount vouchers are distributed at the discretion of the short course team.
• Assignment of a voucher pack is determined by the information provided at registration. We do not proactively apply voucher packs to a user account.
• We reserve the right to check eligibility for voucher packs.
• The use of a voucher is subject to availability of a course place.
• Vouchers are not automatically applied to bookings. It is the responsibility of the person booking to apply the voucher at checkout.
• Eligible applicants may only use ONE voucher pack per academic year. Any additional bookings will be subject to full fees.
• Unused vouchers cannot be transferred from one academic year to the next.

• Applicants must be sure they have funding available to pay their course fees before they book. 
• Applicants must pay their course fees: 
  • within one month of the booking date where the booking is more than two months in advance of the course, or 
  • at least one month in advance of the course start date where the booking is two months or less in advance of the course, or 
  • immediately where the booking is one month or less in advance of the course.
• In each individual order, the course earliest in the academic year will be used to calculate the course fee payment deadline.  
• If payment is not received within the times given above provisional places will automatically be cancelled.  
• Our preferred method of payment is via the University Online shop. 
• For University of Bristol staff and students only: Journal payments for short course fees must be arranged via the Assistant Accountant for the payee’s grant code.
• In cases where the online shop cannot be used, we may accept payment by sales invoice, provided an official Purchase Order (PO) from your institution, including a £40 invoice administration fee, is emailed to short-course@bristol.ac.uk before the payment due date.
• Payment via sales invoice will not normally be accepted if the course is 1 month or less away, when payment is due immediately.
• Payment by sales invoice will incur an administration fee of £40, non-refundable in the event of cancellation. 
• If applicants need to cancel a booking, we ask for as much notice as possible to allow others to take advantage of the available course place. 
• Applicants cancelling more than 4 weeks before the start of a course will receive a full refund. 
• We will not normally refund fees if a cancellation is made 4 weeks or less before the start of a course. 
• In the event that we are obliged to cancel or curtail a short course, our liability is limited to refunding course fees for the days affected. We recommend that applicants have adequate insurance cover to reclaim any travel or accommodation expenses. 

• University of Bristol applicants must obtain approval from their line manager/supervisor before booking.
• Applicants are expected to attend all sessions in full. 
• If you need to cancel your course, please do so with as much notice as possible.  
• If you repeatedly cancel courses at short notice, we reserve the right to restrict access to further courses. 
• Bookings for new applicants take priority. Applicants who have already completed a course and wish to repeat it may contact the short course team 2 weeks in advance of the course start date to see if there are places available or to join the waiting list.
• Course attendance is monitored. Electronic course certificates are supplied subject to attendance.

These policies are enforced to ensure that as many people as possible can benefit from our very popular courses. 

• Internal-only, 'materials & recordings' and pilot short courses are available only to specified internal University of Bristol applicants.
• Course fees do not apply to 'materials & recordings' and pilot courses and do not use up any voucher allocations.
• Course fees apply to internal-only courses and will use up voucher allocations. Full fees are payable if voucher allocations have been exceeded.
• Attendance of Pilot courses is mandatory and on the condition that detailed feedback is provided following the course. Failure to attend in full, without a valid reason, will result in your access to pilot course materials being rescinded and you will not be permitted to attend any further pilot courses within the same academic year.