The Mutapa Times Academy Terms

Mutapa Times Academy

Terms and Conditions

These terms govern your enrolment in and use of The Mutapa Times Academy (the "Academy"), an online journalism course operated by The Mutapa Times ("we", "us", "our"). By ticking the box at sign-up, paying for the course, or otherwise using the Academy, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not enrol. They sit alongside, and do not replace, the wider Mutapa Times Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, which also apply to you.

Effective date: 16 June 2026.

Contents

On this page

Eligibility

1. Who can enrol

You must be at least 16 years old (or the age of digital consent in your country, if higher) and have the legal capacity to enter a binding contract. If you enrol on behalf of an organisation, school or newsroom, you confirm you have authority to bind it to these terms. You agree to give accurate enrolment details and to keep your email address current so we can deliver your access and certificate.

What it is

2. What the Academy is, and is not

The Academy is a self-paced, online course in the craft of journalism, designed and assessed by practising editors of The Mutapa Times. On passing, it awards a Professional Certificate in Journalism, which is a certificate of completion from a working newsroom.

It is not an accredited academic degree, diploma or government-recognised qualification, and we never describe it as one. We make no claim that it carries academic credit, professional licensure, or recognition by any university, regulator or accreditation body. Any decision by an employer or institution to recognise the certificate is theirs alone.

Payment

3. Fees, payment and currency

The course fee is shown at enrolment and is a one-time payment unless stated otherwise. Card payments are processed by our payment provider, Lemon Squeezy, which acts as merchant of record and whose own terms and privacy policy apply to the transaction. We do not see or store your full card details.

Prices are displayed in the stated currency. You are responsible for any taxes, duties, currency-conversion charges or bank fees that apply to you. Where you arrange a local payment method in Zimbabwe (for example Mukuru, EcoCash, bank transfer or cash) by emailing us, access is granted by an access code once we confirm receipt of cleared funds.

Refunds

4. Refunds and cancellation

The Academy is a digital product to which you get immediate, full access on payment. To the extent permitted by law, and because the content is delivered immediately, fees are non-refundable once access has been granted, except where these terms or the law say otherwise.

Nothing here removes any statutory consumer rights you have in your country of residence, including any cooling-off right you may have if you ask us to begin supply before that period ends. If you believe the course was misdescribed or is not as promised, email us within 14 days and we will work with you in good faith to put it right, which may include a refund at our discretion.

Access

5. Your account and access

Access is personal to you and granted for your own learning. You may not share, resell, sublicense or transfer your access, access code, or login to anyone else. We may issue, suspend or revoke access codes to protect against misuse.

Where we describe access as "lifetime", this means for as long as we continue to operate the Academy in substantially its current form; it does not mean in perpetuity regardless of circumstances. Course progress may be stored per device unless you use a feature we provide to sync it. We are not liable for progress lost due to your device, browser settings, or clearing local storage.

Assessment

6. Automated and AI assessment

Some written exercises, the in-exam written task, and pre-submission feedback are graded automatically using artificial intelligence against a fixed editorial rubric. You consent to your submitted text being sent to and processed by our AI provider for this purpose. AI assessment is provided to help you learn and is not guaranteed to be accurate, complete or free of error, and any feedback, score or suggested wording it produces is guidance, not a professional or editorial guarantee.

The final capstone article is reviewed by a real Mutapa Times editor, so there is always a human in the loop on the work that decides the certificate. Marks and pass or fail decisions are made on the standards we set and are final, although you may raise a genuine concern about a result by emailing us.

Certificate

7. The certificate

A certificate is issued only when you complete the required lessons, checkpoints and final exam at the standards set out in the course, and pass the capstone review. It records your name, the course, the date and your final mark. Each certificate carries a unique credential ID that anyone can check at our public verifier.

You may share, print and display your certificate and its credential ID truthfully. You must not alter, forge or reproduce a certificate, misrepresent your mark or status, claim a credential you did not earn, or present the certificate as an accredited degree. We may revoke a certificate and its verification record if it was obtained through cheating, false information or breach of these terms, and we may note a revocation on the verifier.

Your work

8. Your submissions and capstone work

You keep ownership of the original written work, articles, bios and other material you submit ("your submissions"). You confirm that your submissions are your own, do not infringe anyone else's rights, are not defamatory or unlawful, and were not produced by passing off someone else's work, or undisclosed AI output, as your own.

By submitting work to the Academy, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, process, copy and review it for the purposes of assessing you, operating and improving the course, and verifying your certificate. This licence does not let us publish your submissions as Mutapa Times articles unless you separately pitch them and we agree to commission them under section 9.

Bylines

9. Pitching, bylines and references

Graduates may pitch stories to The Mutapa Times. A pitch is an invitation only: we are under no obligation to commission, edit, publish or pay for any pitch, column or article, and any commission is a separate arrangement on its own terms. Where we do agree to publish your work, the terms of that commission (including any rights, edits and payment) will be agreed at the time.

Any reference, recommendation or endorsement from the newsroom is given at our sole discretion, reflects our honest opinion, and is not promised as part of enrolment.

Conduct

10. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

Breaching this section may lead to loss of access, failure of an assessment, or revocation of a certificate, without refund.

Our IP

11. Our content and intellectual property

All course content, including lessons, exercises, exams, rubrics, text, design, the Academy and Mutapa Times names and marks, and the underlying software, is owned by or licensed to The Mutapa Times and protected by law. You are granted a limited, personal, non-transferable, non-exclusive licence to access and use the course for your own learning only. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. You may not reproduce, distribute, adapt, publicly display or create derivative works from our content without our prior written permission.

Data

12. Communications and your data

When you enrol we use your name and email to deliver your access, run the course, send service messages, and operate a welcome and study email journey, including reminders, completion messages and invitations to pitch. We also add you to the Mutapa Times newsletter; you can unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time using the link in any email, though we may still send essential service messages about your enrolment.

Emails are sent through our provider Brevo, payments through Lemon Squeezy, and written assessment through our AI provider, each acting as a processor or independent controller as set out in our Privacy Policy, which explains what we collect, how we use it, how long we keep it, and your rights. By enrolling you acknowledge that policy.

No promises of results

13. No guarantee of outcomes

The Academy teaches skills, but we do not guarantee any particular result, including that you will pass, earn a byline, gain admission to any institution, secure employment, freelance work or income, or that any third party will recognise the certificate. Your results depend on your own effort and on factors outside our control.

Service

14. Availability and changes

We aim to keep the Academy available but do not guarantee uninterrupted or error-free service, and we may carry out maintenance or experience downtime. We may update, add, remove or reorganise course content, exercises, features and assessment from time to time to keep the course current. We will not remove the core ability of an enrolled, paying learner to complete the course and earn a certificate without a fair alternative, save where required by law or events beyond our control.

Termination

15. Suspension and termination

We may suspend or end your access, and where appropriate revoke a certificate, if you materially breach these terms, including by cheating, sharing access, attempting fraud, or misusing the service. Where the breach is not serious or is capable of being fixed, we will, where practical, give you notice and a chance to put it right first. On termination for breach you are not entitled to a refund. Sections that by their nature should survive (including intellectual property, submissions licence, disclaimers, liability and governing law) continue after your access ends.

Liability

16. Disclaimers and liability

The Academy and its content are provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we exclude all implied warranties and do not warrant that the course, AI feedback, or certificate will meet any particular requirement or be error-free.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including your statutory consumer rights. Subject to that, we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special or consequential loss, or for loss of profits, opportunity, data or goodwill, and our total liability to you arising out of or in connection with the Academy is limited to the amount of the course fee you paid to us.

Law

17. Governing law

These terms, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them (including non-contractual disputes), are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction, save that this does not affect any statutory consumer rights you have, or your right to bring proceedings, in your country of habitual residence.

Updates

18. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms from time to time. The current version, with its effective date, will always be posted on this page. For significant changes we will take reasonable steps to notify enrolled learners, for example by email. Continuing to use the Academy after a change takes effect means you accept the updated terms.

Contact

19. Contact

The Academy is operated by The Mutapa Times. For anything to do with these terms, your enrolment, refunds, your data, or verifying a credential, email [email protected].

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