Investing in your education is a wise decision and it's important to understand the student finance support available. From tuition fees to maintenance loans and bursaries to cash scholarships — we're here to help you plan your finances.
For new students joining us in the academic cycle 2023/24, fees for our BA (Hons) and Extended BA (Hons) degrees for UK students are £9,250 per year. The fees for part-time undergraduate programmes are half those shown per year.
For EU and International students joining the university in 2023/24, fees for our BA (Hons) degrees are £16,500 per year. Scholarships of up to £2,000 per year may be available for international students, subject to eligibility and availability.
Please note, if you are joining one of our January 2023-start degrees beginning in the Spring term, you will pay the tuition fees advertised for the academic cycle 2023/24. For new UK students, this will be £9,250 per year. Due to this study route's accelerated first-year, Jan-start degrees are only available as a full-time programme. For more information on how our January-start degrees work and which courses are available, please click here.
Fees outlined are correct at time of publishing and provide an indication of current costs. For more information please email admissions@aup.ac.uk.
We offer a range of awards and discounts to applicants who have previously studied at Arts University Plymouth:
- Pre-Degree Progression Award — A £300 bursary which doesn't have to be paid back, given to any Arts University Plymouth pre-degree student who progresses onto undergraduate study at the university.
- Alumni Progression Award — 15% discount on MA or MFA fees for Undergraduate, Pre-Degree and Foundation Diploma in Art & Design graduates, who go on to postgraduate study with us.
- Short Course Progression Award — 10% discount on MA or MFA fees for anyone who has completed a Short Course with us.
- Alumni Discount on Short Courses — Up to 25% discount for UG, Pre-Degree and FAD graduates on our range of Short Courses. Please note, discounted Short Course places are limited. The discount of up to 25% off Short Course fees only applies to those who graduated from BA/MA/Pre-Degree and Foundation courses or programmes no more than 10 years ago. Contact shortcourses@aup.ac.uk to see if there are any discounted places available on the course you would like to do before booking.
*To be eligible students must achieve a Merit or Distinction in their pre-degree study, or those with a Pass must have been awarded a Green Traffic Light for their final Academic and Character progress checks. Students must achieve 80% attendance or higher in their first and second semester to be awarded the £300 scholarship.
£9,250 per year (including January 2023-start degrees)
£16,500 per year
If applying to a January 2023-start degrees, discounts and scholarships may apply
£9,250 per year
£16,500 per year
Student Loans for tuition fees and maintenance costs are available to eligible* full-time and part-time students in the UK.
Students will be able to apply for an increased maintenance loan to cover living costs and eligibility to receive the full amount will be means-tested. Undergraduate students who began their courses before 2016/17 and are already receiving maintenance grants will continue to have access to this service.
For more information visit the Student Finance England website or call their helpline on 0300 100 0607. Please ensure you thoroughly read the guidance in relation to loan repayments which only start when you earn more than £25,000 (from 6 April 2018). This has been increased from the previous threshold of £21,000.
Degree students will need to consider two types of costs:
- Tuition fees
- Living expenses (e.g accommodation, food, transport, materials)
*Please note that students are not eligible for maintenance loans during their first year when under our distance learning programme.
January Start Degrees
For UK based students considering applying for this course, there are some important student finance implications to note.
Student Finance England will consider applications for tuition fee loans only for the first year of study (distance learning courses are not eligible for maintenance loans). For years 2 and 3 of the course, students will be able to apply for both a tuition fee and maintenance loan, however payments will be made on a January to December basis, meaning that there will be a delay in receipt of the maintenance payments.
Please consider these implications carefully before making your decision on accepting a place on one of our January Start degrees. If you have any specific questions please email studentfinance@aup.ac.uk.
Additional costs throughout your degree will vary depending on the course you are doing, the materials you use, or the visits you go on. Below we have put together some typical costs for a three-year undergraduate degree.
- Materials & equipment
Materials and equipment needs vary between courses - for example, painting/drawing/sculpture materials (Art), fabrics and dyes (Fashion & Textiles), external hard drive (Media). The indicative cost range per year is £50-200 for Year 1, £50-300 for Year 2, £50-400 for Year 3. A typical student cost is estimated at £150 for Year 1, £200 for Year 2 and £300 for Year 3. - Printing & Photocopying
Rates/average costs:
Black & white - 2p A4, 3p A3.
Colour - 5p A4, 10p A3.
Not subsidised but provided at cost. The range of annual student spend is £1-£125, with an average spend per student of £11 per year. - Educational visits
Educational visits are optional and are subsidised by Arts University Plymouth, and the range of costs per year are as follows: In general, the highest cost applies for the most expensive single overseas trip offered, and the lower part of the range represents costs for a number of different visits offered across each year of a programme and generally but not always within the UK. Cost range per year: £50-350 in Year 1, £50-400 in Year 2, £50-400 in Year 3. A typical student cost excluding subsistence is estimated at £100 in Year 1, £200 in Year 2 and £300 in Year 3.
The BA Final Year Bursary will be available to all of our new eligible home (UK) undergraduate students starting study in the academic year 2022/23.
The bursary is money given to students from the university which does not need to be paid back. The bursary is £300 and is paid in your final year. It is a contribution to help students with course-related costs, for example, materials that may be required for a project or the cost of an educational trip.
Please note that part-time students will receive half of the amount stated in the final two years of their degree (for example, £150 in year 5 and £150 in year 6).
If you have any questions please email registry@aup.ac.uk.
We want to retain the best creative talent that we can in Plymouth and know that creative study at pre-degree level at Arts University Plymouth offers an excellent preparation to succeed at one of our undergraduate degrees.
That’s why we’re now offering a one-off £300 cash scholarship to students who progress directly from one of our UAL Extended Diplomas or a UAL Foundation Diploma in Art & Design onto a three or four-year undergraduate degree in Autumn 2022 at Arts University Plymouth.
There is no application process for this scholarship and it is not based on home income. Eligibility will be checked by our Admissions team, provided that you meet minimum expectations for attendance when you start your degree and attainment at Pre-Degree level study. The scholarship will be paid automatically to all qualifying students in one instalment in your second semester of study, in early March 2023.
To be eligible you must achieve a Merit or Distinction in your pre-degree study, or if you achieve a Pass then you must have been awarded a Green Traffic Light for your final Academic and Character progress checks. You must also achieve the minimum attendance requirement in your first and second semester 2022/23 to be awarded the £300 scholarship.
You don’t need to pay for your tuition in advance, providing you’re eligible for a student loan. You will be able to get a loan from the Student Loans Company and this will cover the full amount of your tuition fees, which are paid directly to the university each year.
You can apply for a tuition fee loan regardless of household income. You will need to repay the loan after you graduate and only when you are earning over a certain amount per year. You should apply for student finance as early as possible. Eligible UK full-time students can also get help from the government to cover living costs through a maintenance loan.*
The Student Loans Company will assess your household income and tell you how much financial help you can expect to receive towards your living expenses.
*Please note that students are not eligible for maintenance loans during their first year when under our distance learning programme.
Students from the EU (non-UK) may be entitled to loans for tuition fees from the Student Loans Company.
Students from the EU may also be entitled to support for living costs if, on the first day of the academic year of the course, they have been ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK and Islands throughout the five-year period immediately prior to this date.
For existing students from the EU and those who submitted their application for student finance before 25 March 2016, the residency in the UK is only three years.
Applicants will be asked to submit evidence to Student Finance England to prove their five (or three) year residency. Evidence required would include proof of all addresses you have lived at in the past 5 years, bank statements, evidence of any work or education etc.
Find out if you're eligible on the Student Finance website.
We also welcome applicants who are resident outside the EU, however, you will need to meet the costs of your tuition fees and living costs yourself as you will not usually be entitled to student finance.
For more information for current and new students, visit the Student Finance England web page for EU nationals.
If you're a care leaver entering higher education on or after 1 September 2008, and you're starting a course before your 25th birthday, you may be entitled to a non-taxable £2,000 bursary from your local authority.
In England, local authorities have a duty to pay the bursary if you're a care leaver pursuing a course of higher education according to your pathway plan. The study can be either full or part-time.
You're entitled to this support if you're a care leaver up to the age of 21. If you're over 21 but under 25 you could also be entitled, if on reaching the age of 21, you're still being helped by your local authority with an agreed programme of education or training.
This is not part of the student finance package provided by Student Finance England and it's disregarded when calculating entitlement to student grants and loans. Any care leaver bursaries available from universities are in addition to local authority support.
To apply, you should contact your pathway planner at your local authority. You should ask about the bursary and also whether there is any additional support for care leavers from your local authority. If you're eligible, make sure you have this agreed in writing as soon as possible. We can help if you need support with this.
For more information about care leavers progressing to higher education take a look at The Complete University Guide and this flowchart from the National Care Leavers Association is useful to check whether you are eligible.
Arts University Plymouth has been accepted onto the OfS Register of English higher education providers. That means we meet the OfS conditions of registration for course quality, academic standards, student support, student protection and more. For more information visit www.officeforstudents.org.uk/the-register.
Click here to read about our Access Participation Plan with the OfS.
Additional support can be available for students with learning difficulties or disabilities, including mental health conditions. For further information, take a look at the Disabled Students’ Allowance web page. Contact our Student Support team for assistance.
There is also additional support available for students with children or dependent adults. Find out more about extra financial help on the Student Finance England website.