Foundation Course agreement

Foundation Course Enrolment Agreement

Version: foundation-course-v8

This is the current agreement presented for new Foundation Course enrolments and upgrades. Save or print this page for your records.

1. Course and parties

Mark Jude D'Cruz, trading as Mă-Kè Permaculture Academy (the Academy), at Rua Projetada a Dona Maria II 9, Vila Pinheiro, 2500-532 Caldas da Rainha, Portugal, Portuguese tax number 316974838, supplies the English-language Mă-Kè Permaculture Foundation Course through an individual Academy account. It is a separate introductory course and is not the full Permaculture Design Certificate.

2. Learning pathways

The Free Study Pathway provides the complete Foundation Course learning materials and ordinary self-directed exercises at no charge for one period of 28 consecutive days beginning at free enrolment. It does not include individual design assessment, formal course-completion approval or a certificate.

The Assessed Pathway costs €50.00 as a one-time gross payment, including tax where applicable. For a Portuguese private customer to whom the approved Portuguese treatment applies, the gross price includes IVA at 23%. The transaction-specific tax treatment is determined from authoritative customer and provider evidence. It provides 60 days of course access from the successful purchase, plus eligibility to submit one introductory permaculture design for individual review by a human tutor. The tutor provides feedback and may require reasonable revisions and resubmission. Payment does not guarantee approval, formal completion or a certificate.

Learning-progress completion records completion of the published Foundation learning sequence only. It is not formal assessed course completion. Formal Assessed Pathway completion occurs only after the introductory design meets the course requirements and receives tutor approval. Certificate eligibility then follows, with issuance or availability recorded separately. The resulting Foundation Course Certificate of Completion is not a PDC or PDC Certificate.

The Free Study Pathway is offered worldwide. For this launch, purchase of the paid Assessed Pathway is enabled only for customers with a validated Portuguese billing address. Learners in other countries may maintain an Academy profile and use authorised non-purchase services, but purchasing is not yet available in their country. A paid-route restriction never prevents the Free Study Pathway.

3. Access, payment and account use

Free Study learning access begins when the Academy records the accepted current agreement and creates the enrolment, and expires exactly 28 days later. Assessed learning access begins at the successful payment time recorded by the Academy's authoritative server-side fulfilment process and expires exactly 60 days later. A learner upgrading from Free Study keeps the same enrolment and learning progress, but the Assessed access dates replace the earlier Free Study access dates and cannot be shortened by the earlier Free expiry. Duplicate payment notifications do not restart or extend the recorded Assessed period. Stripe Checkout is created by the Academy. A browser success page does not grant access, assessment eligibility, completion or certificate status.

Learning materials and new assessment submissions are unavailable after the applicable 28-day Free Study or 60-day Assessed access period ends. Academic records and learning progress remain recorded. A valid introductory design submitted on or before the learner's recorded Assessed deadline remains available to the authorised tutor for review and decision after access ends.

If the tutor records a valid revisions-requested decision, the learner has until the later of the recorded 60-day Assessed access expiry or exactly 14 days after that recorded decision to resubmit the original eligible design. Ordinary learning access still ends after 60 days. Where the revision deadline falls after that expiry, access is restricted to the submitted design, released tutor feedback, the requested-revision instructions and resubmission functions. It does not restore Foundation learning materials, permit a new design or assessment, or extend the ordinary Assessed period. The deadline is bound to the original eligible submission and cannot be restarted, extended or reassigned by duplicate decisions, repeated notifications or edits.

Keep your Academy login private and use the course and learning records for personal, lawful study. Course materials may not be republished, sold or shared as a substitute course.

4. Consumer rights and early commencement

Private consumers normally have statutory rights for distance contracts, digital content and continuing services. If you choose the paid Assessed Pathway, you may ask the Academy to begin the tutor-led educational service during a statutory withdrawal period. That continuing service is not fully performed at payment or when learning materials are opened; it continues through submission, assessment, possible revision and a final tutor decision.

You may also expressly consent to immediate supply of the digital learning materials and acknowledge the legal consequence stated beside that confirmation. This does not remove rights relating to non-conforming content or services, privacy rights, or any right that cannot lawfully be excluded. Questions or an unequivocal withdrawal notice may be sent to enquiries@makepermaculture.com.

The Academy applies the consumer rules relevant to the learner's transaction and does not exclude any right that cannot lawfully be excluded.

5. Privacy, providers and fiscal record

The Academy uses account, agreement, learning and, for assessed enrolments, payment information to supply and protect the course and meet legal, tax and accounting obligations. Read the Privacy and Cookie Notice. Stripe processes the card payment and supplies authoritative payment and tax evidence. After confirmed payment the Academy records a separate fiscal obligation for InvoiceXpress item PFC-ONLINE-ASMT. A payment confirmation email is not the Portuguese fiscal document. Payment, fiscal-document status, learning progress, formal completion and certificate status remain separate.

Confirmations recorded at enrolment

  1. I have read and accept this agreement (version foundation-course-v8) and the Privacy and Cookie Notice. I understand the 28-day Free Study period; the 60-day Assessed period beginning at successful purchase; the protected submission-bound revision deadline of at least 14 days after a revisions-requested decision; the distinction between ordinary and restricted revision access; the distinction between learning-progress completion and formal assessed course completion; and that payment does not guarantee approval, formal completion or a certificate.
  2. If I choose the Assessed Pathway, I expressly request the Academy to begin the continuing tutor-led educational service after authoritative payment confirmation, even if this is within a statutory withdrawal period. I understand that the service continues through submission, assessment, possible revision and a final tutor decision, and that statutory consumer rights remain unaffected.
  3. I expressly consent to immediate supply of the Foundation Course digital learning materials. I understand and acknowledge that beginning supply may affect the statutory withdrawal right for digital content where the law permits, while my rights relating to non-conforming content or services and any rights that cannot lawfully be excluded remain unaffected.