Fees & Scholarships

Provisional Tuition Fees (subject to Scottish Parliament approval) for undergraduate students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland (Rest of UK (RUK) students)          

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland announces tuition fees for undergraduate students from England, Wales & Northern Ireland

The Board of Governors of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland has proposed that the annual undergraduate tuition fee for students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 2012/13 will be £9000.  That level of fee is exactly the same as charged by comparator conservatoires in England offering four year undergraduate degree courses in music and three year undergraduate degree courses in drama and dance. This means that students from the rest of the UK will not pay any more to study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland than they would at a similar institution in England. The proposed fee reflects the exceptionally high cost of programme delivery in Conservatoires, which substantially exceeds the £9000 fee. 

Principal John Wallace CBE said: “We will continue to welcome students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland to our Conservatoire, to our city and to Scotland.  We are committed to ensuring that the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland remains an attractive and viable option for those students, who greatly enrich our academic and artistic community.  I am delighted, therefore, to announce that our scholarship scheme for new entrants in 2012/13 from England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be the most generous in the UK conservatoire sector.  This is confirmation of the Royal Conservatoire’s commitment to nurturing talent and potential, irrespective of background.”

Key Facts for 2012/13
 

• The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's undergraduate tuition fee for students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland (RUK students) for 2012/13 has been set at £9,000 for all undergraduate programmes.

• RUK students will not have to pay anything upfront for their tuition with the costs being covered by a non-means tested government loan.

• Loan repayments will only start after you have graduated and are earning over £21,000 per year.
• The £9,000 annual tuition fee is the same charged by comparator conservatoires in England which offer four year undergraduate degree programmes in music and three year undergraduate degree programmes in dance and drama.
• For the avoidance of doubt, existing students will continue under current fee arrangements for the duration of their undergraduate programmes. 

Questions and Answers 
   
Why are you charging higher fees for students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland (RUK students) than those for students from Scotland and the rest of the EU?
 
The situation has come about as a result of the Scottish Government's decision to remove funding for students who usually live in the rest of the UK to study in Scotland and its related decision to allow Scottish higher education institutions in Scotland to raise fees they charge for those students. Those decisions have been driven by changes to England HE funding and tuition fee policy brought forward by the UK Government. What that means is that, in common with every other higher institution in Scotland, we must charge students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland a higher undergraduate tuition fee than that which applies to Scottish and EU (other than RUK) students. In practical terms, we do not have a choice in that.
 
What is your level of fee?
 
We have agreed that our undergraduate tuition fee for RUK students from 2012/13 will be £9,000 per year, for all our undergraduate programmes. This applies only to new entrants in 2012/13 - existing students will continue under current fee arrangements.
 
Why have you charged that level of fee?
 
Our programmes are very expensive to deliver which, of course, is reflected in their quality. The £9,000 annual tuition fee is the same as that charged by comparator conservatoires in England which also offer four year undergraduate degree programmes in music and three year undergradaute degree programmes in dance and drama.
 
What support will be available? 
 
The Royal Conservatoire will introduce additional scholarships for new RUK students to partly offset the introduction of a higher level of tuition fee for that group of students. We will use the residual household income figure as calculated by the Student Loans Company (SLC) when assessing scholarship entitlement. Depending on your residual household income you will be guaranteed to receive the following level of scholarship for each year of your degree programme if you are successful in taking up your offer of admissions to the Conservatoire. You will be able to use your scholarship to either contribute towards your tuition fee or towards your general living costs. Further details will be made available in due course.

If you are from England, Wales and Northern Ireland you will eligible to receive exactly the same support to attend the Conservatoire as you would receive to attend any higher education institution in your home country. Essentially, RUK students (providing that you are otherwise eligible) will be able to apply for a non-means tested loan to cover tuition fees, which will be repayable following graduation and when you are earning over £21,000. RUK students therefore do not have to pay anything upfront for their tuition. Different arrangements apply in each of the 3 RUK countries, details of which are available on the following websites:
 
If you live in England, go to Student Finance England  
 
If you live in Wales, go to Student Finance Wales
 
If you live in Northern Ireland, go to Student Finance Northern Ireland   

Royal Conservatoire Scholarship Funds

RUK scholarships are in addition to other Conservatoire Entrance Schoalrships which are awarded based on merit as assessed through the audition process.

  
Discretionary Funds

Once you are a student at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, you may be eligible to apply for assistance from the Discretionary Funds if you find yourself experiencing financial difficulty. These funds are provided by the Government to help students experiencing financial difficulty which they could not have anticipated at the outset of their programme. Available funds are limited, so students are expected to have exhausted all other possible sources of funding such as the Student Loans Company or bank overdraft before applying for assistance. Depending on circumstance students can receive up to £3,500 within any individual academic session.

Childcare Fund

All eligible full-time undergraduate students can apply for support from the Childcare Fund, which is administered by the Royal Conservatoire. This fund provides assistance with the cost of formal registered childcare expenses for dependent children only.

 
How will the Conservatoire decide whether or not you are liable for RUK fees?
 
We will apply the residency test which will be provided by the Scottish Government. Rest of the UK (RUK) students usually referes to students from England, Wales and Northern Ireland whose normal home address is in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. It is also assumed that RUK students are UK citizens who have been resident in the UK for at least three years preceding commencement of their programme of study. A fuller definition will be provided by the Scottish Government following the passing of legislation which is currently under consideration.
 
What if you do not agree with our decision in respect of RUK fees?
  
There will be a review process. If you disagree with our decision we will be happy to have this reviewed - we want to make sure that we are fair and accurate in our assessment of student fee status. However, we would anticipate that the overwhelming majority of decisions will be straightforward.
 
Further information 
 
If you require any further information in respect of your own funding position, please email studentfinance@rcs.ac.uk.
 
Further fee information for 2012/13 will be available at the end of October 2011.
 
Scottish and non UK EU students will still be able to apply for fee support through SAAS .