Learning & Teaching Facilities

The Fyfe Lecture Theatre seats up to 70 people and is used for masterclasses, seminars and lectures. The Fyfe was recently upgraded with a new digital suite, with technology available for video conferencing and interactive lectures.

The Fyfe Lecture Theatre is named after Alexander Fyfe, Chairman of our Board of Governors from 1928 to 1936.

Our Modern Ballet students benefit from having their own suite of dance studios and a fitness room, complete with Gyrotonics® equipment.  

Within these studios, the students benefit from physiotherapy sessions, Pilates, TRX classes and massage. All four of the dance studios come with a piano, a playback system and have access to dressing rooms and showers with fully accessible toilets.  

See the dance studios in use, in our interview with graduate Natasha Boon.  

We want to ensure every student has ample access to rehearsal and practice rooms so you get the most out of your learning experience at RCS. We have 20 drama rehearsal rooms available for solo and production rehearsals.

We understand that musicians need places to study and practice their craft. This is why we have more than 90 practice rooms across our campus, all available for student use between 7.30am and 10pm.

In 2017 we finished developing a new Creative Campus, which saw 27 additional music practice rooms opened. This comprehensive suite of music rooms was specially built to be sound-proof and have the best acoustics possible for our students.

The Whittaker Library contains one of the most comprehensive collections of performance materials for music, dance, drama, production and film in the UK and internationally. We offer a mix of print and electronic content and it’s all searchable via our Library Discovery Service.

The Whittaker Library is named after Dr William Gillies Whittaker, the first principal of the Scottish National Academy of Music (now the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland). 

You can find out more about the Whittaker Library on our dedicated page:

The Whittaker Library

IT Suite

The student IT Lab is located on the ground floor of the building in the Alexander Gibson Opera Studio and is equipped with 22 PCs in the Atrium area and 18 iMacs in the lab area. 

The IT facilities also extend to a selection of PCs in the study spaces located in the Library. All student network computers have the following software: 

• Adobe Acrobat DC 
• Adobe Bridge 
• Adobe Digital Editions 
• Adobe Photoshop CC 
• Ardour 
• Audacity 
• Handbrake for video conversion 
• MuseScore 
• Office 365 
• Read and Write 
• Sibelius 
• VLC 
• Various Web Applications, i.e., Windows Media Player 

There are further bookable rooms with PCs and Macs located around the building for composition, editing and production. Opening hours for the Labs vary with the terms, but the core supported hours are 9am-5pm, Monday-Friday. 

All students also have access to the VLE Moodle, which contains information and content relating to courses, as well as support material and social areas. 

Eduroam

The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland participates in the eduroam service which allows users visiting participating institutions to access network resources using the logon credentials from their own institution. 

Software

Microsoft Office

As a student at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, you are entitled to free copies of Microsoft Office during your studies. Each subscription license allows you to run a full copy of Microsoft Office on up to five machines (Mac or PC). You can also run Office Mobile for Android or iPhone on up to 5 mobile devices.

You will be licensed to use the software for the duration of your course(s) as it’s linked to your rcs.ac.uk email address.

OneDrive

OneDrive is Microsoft’s cloud storage service, which comes as part of the Conservatoire’s Office365 subscription. OneDrive allows you to access your files from any computer, tablet or phone that has an internet connection. You can also share your documents securely with other people.