Changing Your Program Status
Changes to a Participant’s Enrollment Status (Withdrawal, Deferral, Drop a Term)
This Section is effective for Programs that start after February 1, 2020. Access the previous policies here.
HBS Online understands a Participant's plans to join an HBS Online offering may change. Therefore, depending on the offering, HBS Online offers participants the opportunity to make changes to their enrollment, such as deferring their enrollment, dropping a term, and/or withdrawing from the offering. Please note that available enrollment changes vary by HBS Online Program. Additional policies apply to participants who are company-sponsored and enrolled in a Corporate Learning Program through their employer or sponsoring entity.
For Participants in Certificate Programs, including On Demand, Core Business Essentials, and CDIS (individually enrolled, independent of an employer or educational sponsorship)
Shifting Your Admission (For applicable Programs that have an application): After admission to a Program but before enrollment (completed payment), Participants may opt to shift their admission to a later Program through the “My Dashboard” page. If the enrollment deadline to the Program has passed and the participant’s application has expired, participants will need to submit a new application to be considered for a future cohort.
Deferring Enrollment. PLEASE NOTE: Participants in On-Demand Programs are not eligible to defer their enrollment. Once a participant has enrolled in a Program, the participant may request a deferral of their enrollment through the “My Dashboard” page. Participants may defer their enrollment to a later offering of the same Program, subject to the following policies.
Participants may request an enrollment deferral at any time before their Program starts, and up to one week after the start of their Program. Note that participants will need to start the Program over after deferring—no work completed will transfer to the later offering.
Participants must defer to one of the next open offerings of the Program in which they are enrolled. A list of upcoming offerings may be found on the Program’s page on our website.
Participants may only defer once. If a participant has previously deferred, they will not be eligible for an additional deferral or a refund. For this reason, please consider requesting a refund if the Program has not started and you are uncertain about joining a later offering.
Withdrawals and Refunds: After enrolling in a Program, participants may request a withdrawal with refund up until 24 hours after the start of your Program. Please note, this is 24 hours after the course materials become available, not after the participant logs in. HBS Online encourages participants to log in to their Program as soon as it starts to confirm the Program will be a good fit for their learning needs. To request a withdrawal with refund, log in to your account and select “Change Program Status” for the relevant Program.
Once a participant has requested a withdrawal with refund, HBS Online will return funds to the payment method used during enrollment, minus a $100 nonrefundable processing fee.
If you withdraw more than 24 hours after the start of the Program, or if you are found to be in violation of the Agreements or any other Harvard Business School Online or Program-specific policy, you will not be issued a refund unless Harvard Business School Online elects to do so.
Please be advised, if the original payment was by Western Union, refunds will be paid by check and mailed via the United States Postal Service (USPS).
Participants may request a withdrawal without refund only if they have completed less than half of the Program. Withdrawal from a Program without refund, if the participant has completed less than half of the Program will allow the participant to reenroll in the same Program, at a later time – such reenrollment will require payment of the full cost of the Program. If the participant has completed more than half the Program, the participant is not permitted to withdraw from the Program. The participant must either complete the Program or if they are unable to complete the Program, they will not receive their certificate of completion. Such participants are not eligible to reenroll in the Program at any time.
For Participants enrolled in HBS Online Sprints (individually enrolled, independent of an employer or educational sponsorship)
Enrollment Changes
Participants enrolled in HBS Online Sprints are not eligible to defer, transfer, or make changes to their enrollments.Withdrawals
Sprint participants are not eligible for self-service withdrawals.Refunds
Sprint enrollments are not eligible for refunds.
For Participants enrolled in CLIMB (individually enrolled, independent of an employer or educational sponsorship)
Dropping a Term. Enrollment for CLIMB takes place on a term-by-term basis. Participants may request to drop a term with refund up until 24 hours after the start of the term. Please note, this is 24 hours after the term begins, not the start date of any specific courses within the term.
If a participant is unable to complete a given term of CLIMB, but wishes to remain enrolled in the CLIMB Program, they may drop a term at any time. To change your Program status, please contact the HBS Online Support Team and select “Enrollment”. Participants who drop a term outside the 24 hours from the start of the term period or outside of our Exception Policy for extreme life events will not receive a refund of their term fee.
If a participant elects to drop the first term of the Program, they must reapply to CLIMB before reenrolling. For all other terms, participants may return to the Program when the relevant term is next offered. Participants must complete the CLIMB Program within two years of completing their first term.
Elective Enrollment: Elective enrollment takes place during Terms 2 and 3. Participants cannot change their elective after they have successfully enrolled in a term (i.e. paid the Program Fee) and cannot defer or withdraw from the elective itself. Participants may only drop the term altogether or withdraw as noted in the policies detailed on this page for CLIMB participants. Please be aware that participants may receive messaging regarding withdrawing or deferring their elective course that is not relevant to CLIMB participants.
Program Withdrawal: Participants who wish to withdraw from the Program completely must contact the HBS Online Team to request a Program exception. Please navigate to the Support Portal to select the appropriate withdrawal option for review.
Enrollment completed for upcoming terms may be refunded up until 24 hours after the term start date in the event of a Program withdrawal. Learners who withdraw from CLIMB may be eligible to reapply and reenroll to the Program at a later date.
Refund Information: In the event a participant elects to drop a term or withdraw from the Program prior to or within the first 24 hours of the start of the term, HBS Online will return funds to the payment method used during enrollment, minus a $100 nonrefundable processing fee. Please be advised, if the original payment was by Western Union, refunds will be paid by check and mailed via the United States Postal Service (USPS).
Participants in a Corporate Learning Program
Participants in a Corporate Learning Program means any participant who is enrolled in a company-sponsored Program and enrolled in a Program through their employer, educational, or sponsoring entity. Such Participants may not defer, withdraw, drop a term, or receive a refund except upon the direct request from their employer or sponsoring entity. If such a participant wishes to defer, withdraw, drop a term, or receive a refund, the participant must contact the appropriate representative at their employer or sponsoring entity and the employer or sponsoring entity will inform HBS Online. Please note, participants enrolled in CLIMB via a Corporate Learning Program are not permitted to defer or drop a term after the CLIMB Program has started, even upon a direct request from their employer. CLIMB Participants enrolled via a Corporate Learning Program may only withdraw or defer from the CLIMB Program prior to the start of the first CLIMB Term.
If a participant in a Corporate Learning Program pays the Program Fees, or pays a portion of the Program Fees, any change to the participant’s enrollment status is still subject to the request of the employer or sponsoring entity. Prior to the start of a Program, and at the request of the employer or sponsoring entity, the participant may be withdrawn from the Program, which will result in the participant being refunded their original payment method.
Please note, these restrictions do not apply to individual Participants individually enrolled, independent of an employer or educational sponsorship, who completed their enrollment, paid for the Program themselves, and plan to request employer reimbursement, or sent their employer the third-party payment link during the enrollment process— these participants are still eligible for deferrals and refunds in this case.