Question: Is It True That All Your Programs Are Free?
Answer: All our programs from bachelors up doctoral programs are free of tuition. No tuition fees is ever demanded. There is no hidden fee. However, there is a small entry-fees (registration-fees) that everyone from Developed Countries need to pay. This would be less than the tuition fees that they might have to pay for a single credit hour of course in other institutions.
Students from Developing Countries do not have to pay any entry fees because they come from the poorest among the poor countries.
All students (irrespective of the country of their origin) will have to pay a small Graduation-fees. This amount takes care of final exams, printing and packing of transcripts and diplomas. This amount also takes care of the special international courier which we use for the delivery of the documents. Graduation fees, however, has to be paid only at the time of graduation.
Question: Do You Ever Waive Registration Fees For Students From Developed Countries?
Answer: Our entry/registration fees is very low and almost everyone can afford it. Most people can pay it in one go. Some will need instalment, and we do allow that. In rarest of rare cases we do consider waving off part or full of the registration fees even for applicants from Developed Countries. This would include, for example, single moms, people who are on a very small disability pension, and others with serious financial handicaps.
Question: If you are a free Bible school or a free Theological Seminary, then why do you charge even a registration fees.
Answer: We do not claim that we are a ‘free Bible School’. Rather, we are a no-tuition-fees Bible Seminary. Bible schools and seminaries worldwide charge a good amount of admission fees and then charge a good amount of tuition fees per semester hour. This tuition fees amounts to about 95 to 98% of the total fees the student pays. We, however, have completely written off that amount and operate solely on the meagre 2% that is paid by some students. That is a token of love and commitment to ISDET to students who join from developed countries where they can easily afford the small, one-time, registration fees.
Remember, only less than 5% of our students are from developed countries, and therefore you can imagine the very small amount that comes in from those 5% of students not sufficient to manage ISDET utility, internet, and other fixed expenses. Thus ISDET has become possible only because numerous volunteers worldwide give their time and energy freely to ISDET students without any remuneration whatsoever. They believe in the principle of ‘Freely you have received, freely you must give’.
Question: Why can’t you make it absolutely free with no registration fees and no graduation fees?
Answer: That is a good question. We have been able to write off tuition fees completely because all faculty members give of their time and energy voluntarily and without any financial demands. They consider it a ministry to teach Bible and Theology to students worldwide.
We wish we could write off the registration and graduation fees also. However, you need to keep in mind that nobody volunteers to give us electricity, internet, and office supplies free of cost. We need to pay for all of these, and many more items, and an office cannot function without these. That is the reason we charge a bare minimum registration fees from students who hail from a developed country. Please remember that 95% of students come from the poorest of poor countries and they cannot afford to pay anything whatsoever.
Similarly, we need to print, pack, and send the graduation documents by Special International Courier (for the sake of safety of documents). None of these comes free and therefore a nominal charge has to be levied to meet (just) the minimum costs of preparing and sending these documents.
.
