For most courses, the closing date for submitting your application in UCAS Conservatoires is 2 October 2023, 18:00 (UK time). There are exceptions to this, all the Academy deadlines are shown in the table below.

For Academy deadlines after 2 October, please disregard the default 2 October UCAS deadline seen in UCAS Conservatoires.

Please note - these details are for students applying to start their studies at the Academy in September 2024.

Applications for 2025 entry will be open in UCAS Conservatoires from 10 July 2024, with similar deadlines to those listed here.

International candidates are welcome to audition either in London or by video. We also offer in-person auditions for most principal studies/specialisms in New York. Please see the section above for application deadlines.

For more information about New York auditions, see the International Auditions section of our Auditions page.

If you have missed the deadline specified for your course, please contact our admissions team before submitting a late application.

There is no separate application process for entrance scholarships. These are awarded on merit, after audition (or composition interview).

For more details, see Fees, Scholarships and Bursaries.

Payment

• The Academy assessment fee payable directly to UCAS Conservatoires is £100 and you also will need to pay the £27.50 UCAS Conservatoires registration fee. Payment is made online to UCAS when you submit the application.
• Assessment fees do not apply to Répétiteur candidates
• Fees are payable by credit/debit card in the UCAS Conservatoires online payment system when submitting your application.
• If you experience problems with the payment system please contact UCAS directly for assistance and guidance about other possible payment methods.

Refunds

• If you withdraw your Academy application before your entrance assessment, you won’t be entitled to a refund of the Academy fee unless you withdraw within 14 days of submitting the application to UCAS; the Academy will notify UCAS and you should receive the Academy fee from UCAS Conservatoires.
• If you completely withdraw your whole UCAS Conservatoires application within 14 days of submitting it, UCAS Conservatoires will refund your payment directly to you, including the UCAS registration fee.

Please note, the UCAS Conservatoires £27.50 registration fee cannot be waived.

Application fee waivers may be granted for candidates (or their parent or legal guardian if the candidate is under 28) in receipt of the following UK government benefits:

• 16-19 Bursary Fund
• EMA
• Disabled Students Allowance
• Universal Credit
• Income Support
• Job Seeker’s Allowance
• Tax Credits

Please submit up-to-date documentary evidence of the benefit (scanned and attached to an email) to admissions@ram.ac.uk, quoting your UCAS Conservatoires personal ID number. If the benefit recipient is your parent or legal guardian, please also send a document confirming their relationship to you (e.g. a scan of your longform birth certificate including parent names). If the documentation is not in English, we must also receive an English translation certified by an official translator.
Please do not send bank statements, tax documents, or wage slips.

You will need to start your UCAS Conservatoires application in order to generate your ID number and you will need to pay the UCAS application charge, but do not pay the Academy fee.

More information about submitting your application and only paying the UCAS application charge can be found on the UCAS website here.

Please allow at least five working days for your request to be processed. We regret that assessments for our application fee waivers cannot be made after the panel assessment has taken place.

Travel Costs

The Academy will be pleased to support audition travel costs for students receiving the application fee waiver. This is available for UK domiciled students under 27 years old up to the cost of £100 for one person’s standard-class public transport return travel, from their home to the Academy.

Guidelines for new candidates

• Put your referee details (including their email address) into your Acceptd profile application. Acceptd will contact them directly when you submit the application; then they can upload a reference document, or they can type the reference directly into the Acceptd system.
  We ask that the referee responses for video applications and our December auditions are in Acceptd by the end of November.
• You will need two references, each from a separate referee
• Referees cannot be family, relatives or close friends
• Referees should not send references by email or post to the Academy (please only use the Acceptd portal)
• See the UCAS Conservatoires guidance for information on suitable referees, and the contents of a reference. There is also UCAS guidance for mature students.
• Because we use Acceptd for your references, you do not need to have the references in your UCAS Conservatoires application.
  In the UCAS Conservatoires application you can tick the box to say that the references are being sent separately. You will just need to put names into the referee details boxes, but UCAS will not contact them and you will be able to submit your application.
• If your referees have already put references into UCAS Conservatoires, or are doing so because you are also applying to other conservatoires in UCAS, when they get the Acceptd request they only need to write "In UCAS".

Guidelines for existing Academy students (excluding exchange and study abroad students)

If you are currently enrolled at the Academy and are applying for a new course with the same principal study (specialism):

• You will need one academic reference from either your current academic tutor (postgraduates) or Head of Year (undergraduates) - please refer to your course handbook. The referee should not be your Head of Department.
• Input your academic referee's details into both of the fields in Acceptd.
• You do not need a practical reference from your Principal Study teacher,

• We ask that the referee responses are in Acceptd by the end of November (for video applications and our December auditions).

• If you are a Postgraduate Vocal Studies student at the Academy applying for Royal Academy Opera we do not require a reference.

We expect to publish audition and interview date notifications by email at the following times, please check your junk mailbox in case the message is caught in your spam filter:

Results will be issued through your UCAS Conservatoires Hub after the Academy’s Selection Board has finalised their decision. For most studies, this is usually before Christmas in December.

Results for Exchange/Study Abroad applications are usually issued in May via your coordinator.

Read What happens next for more information.