Please read these Terms together with the Privacy Policy and Disclaimer. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.
1. Agreement and eligibility
By accessing or using educoast.co.za and related EduCoast services, you agree to these Terms. If you use the Services for an organisation, you confirm that you are authorised to accept these Terms for it.
EduCoast serves learners of different ages. If you are under 18, use account, community and file-upload features with a parent or guardian’s involvement. A parent or guardian who permits use is responsible for supervising that use and providing consent where applicable law requires it.
2. Accounts and security
- Provide accurate information and keep your account details current.
- Keep passwords, sign-in links and download links confidential. Do not share access to an account you do not own.
- Tell us promptly if you suspect unauthorised use or a security problem.
- You are responsible for activity performed through your account unless caused by EduCoast’s failure to use legally required care.
We may verify email addresses, restrict automated activity, require re-authentication, or suspend access when reasonably necessary for security, legal compliance or enforcement of these Terms.
Closing your account
You may schedule deletion through My Account after re-authenticating and entering the required confirmation phrase. A 14-day safety period begins when the request is accepted. You may cancel before the displayed deadline; after processing, account access and private account data cannot be recovered from the live service. Download any information you want to keep before the deadline.
Public Study Coast discussions and comments may remain under “Deleted EduCoast user” so existing conversations, replies and moderation records remain understandable. This does not permit EduCoast to continue displaying your deleted profile name, email address, sign-in identifiers or profile image. Certain restricted records may be retained where required or permitted by law, including security, fraud, dispute and rights-protection records.
3. Educational and application services
EduCoast provides educational news, study resources, courses, APS information, prospectuses, application dates, institution and campus information, community discussions and related tools. Content is provided for general information and planning, not as an official admission decision or a substitute for advice from an institution.
Requirements, dates, fees, campuses and documents can change. You must confirm important information with the relevant university, college, school, department, examination body or other official source before acting.
Personalised ordering and recommendations are based on available signals and do not guarantee admission, suitability, funding or academic outcomes.
4. File uploads and document tools
You retain ownership of files you upload. You give EduCoast a limited, non-exclusive licence to receive, copy, scan, transform, preview, store and transmit the file only as reasonably required to operate the selected feature, enforce these Terms and comply with law.
Your upload responsibilities
- You must own the file or have permission and a lawful basis to upload and process it.
- Do not upload malware, executable attacks, unlawful content, exam leaks, stolen material, confidential information, or content that infringes privacy, copyright or other rights.
- Do not use document tools to remove protections or alter documents for fraud, impersonation or misrepresentation.
- Keep your own copy. EduCoast is not a permanent backup or archival service.
Processing and retention
Files may be processed automatically for conversion, OCR, previews, classification, duplicate checks, moderation, malware or abuse detection. Tool source and output files may expire automatically after the period displayed by the tool. Community attachments may remain with the related contribution. Generated download links may expire and must not be treated as private storage links.
We may reject, quarantine, remove or restrict a file where reasonably necessary for safety, rights protection, system limits or legal compliance. We do not claim ownership of third-party materials merely because they are uploaded or indexed.
5. Study Coast and user contributions
You retain ownership of original contributions. By posting content for public display, you grant EduCoast a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, reproduce, format and display it through the Services, and to make reasonable technical copies. This licence ends when the content is deleted, except for backups, legal retention, copies already shared by others, and anonymised contributions retained to preserve an existing public conversation after account deletion.
You must not post harassment, hate, threats, impersonation, spam, personal data without permission, deliberately false information, assessment cheating material, or content that violates another person’s rights. We may moderate, label, limit, lock or remove contributions and accounts. Moderation does not mean that EduCoast endorses or has verified every contribution.
Report unlawful, unsafe or rights-infringing content through the available reporting tools or our contact page.
6. Acceptable use
You may not:
- Scrape, crawl, mirror, bulk-download or extract the Services except through a search engine’s ordinary indexing or with written permission.
- Bypass login, download, preview, rate, upload, paywall, robots, rate-limit or security controls.
- Probe vulnerabilities, introduce malicious code, overload infrastructure or interfere with another user.
- Use bots to create accounts, inflate views or ratings, post content, or collect personal information.
- Resell, republish or build a competing database from EduCoast content without permission.
- Use the Services for fraud, unlawful surveillance, infringement or any illegal purpose.
7. Intellectual property and third-party material
The EduCoast name, original design, software, editorial content and branding are owned by or licensed to EduCoast and are protected by applicable law. These Terms allow personal, lawful use of the Services; they do not transfer ownership.
Prospectuses, past papers, institutional logos and other third-party materials remain the property of their respective owners. Their availability does not imply sponsorship or endorsement. You may use such material only as permitted by the rights holder and law.
If you believe content infringes your rights, send sufficient detail to identify the work, the disputed material, your authority and your contact information. We may remove material while reviewing a complaint.
8. Third parties, availability and service changes
The Services may link to institutions, government bodies, advertisers and other third parties. EduCoast does not control their content, availability, security or practices.
We may change, limit or discontinue features; correct content; introduce limits; or perform maintenance. We do not promise uninterrupted availability, permanent storage, compatibility with every file, or that every conversion will preserve complex formatting.
We may update these Terms. Material changes will be posted with a revised date and additional notice where required. Continued use after changes take effect constitutes acceptance to the extent permitted by law.
9. Warranties, responsibility and liability
The Services are provided “as is” and “as available.” To the fullest extent permitted by law, EduCoast does not give warranties about completeness, currentness, fitness for a particular purpose, uninterrupted operation or results.
Nothing in these Terms excludes liability or rights that cannot lawfully be excluded, including applicable consumer rights. Subject to that qualification, EduCoast is not responsible for indirect, special or consequential loss, loss caused by reliance on unverified third-party information, missed application dates, institution decisions, user content, or loss of uploaded files.
You are responsible for loss and reasonable costs caused by your unlawful content, infringement or deliberate breach of these Terms. Any indemnity applies only to the extent permitted by law and does not require you to cover loss caused by EduCoast’s own unlawful conduct.
10. Suspension, severability and governing law
We may suspend or terminate access for a material or repeated breach, security threat, unlawful activity or legal requirement. Where appropriate, we may give notice or an opportunity to remedy the issue.
If a provision is unenforceable, it will be limited or removed only to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining provisions continue. A failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver.
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa. Disputes are subject to the jurisdiction of competent South African courts, without limiting a right to approach a regulator, ombud or other forum available under law. Electronic communications are recognised in accordance with the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act 25 of 2002.
11. Contact
Questions, content reports and legal notices can be sent through the channels below.