A Guide to Royal Academy of Music Undergraduate Admissions

Written By Tim Agent

Inchwise Research · Conservatoire Admissions Unit

Data current to 24 September 2026. Applies to entry in September 2027.

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In brief

The Royal Academy of Music (RAM), in Marylebone, London, was founded in 1822 and is the oldest conservatoire in Britain. The undergraduate degree is a four-year BMus.

Three features distinguish RAM from the other three conservatoires for applicants based in China. Every overseas centre is gated by a video pre-screening round — registering does not secure a live audition. The mainland China centre is Qingdao only, with Hong Kong as the other regional option; there is no Beijing or Shanghai audition. And scholarships are assessed automatically at audition, with the Bicentenary Scholarship covering full tuition plus a maintenance grant and carrying no Home fee status restriction.

One cost to note: RAM charges a £100 assessment fee on top of the UCAS fee, making it the most expensive of the four to apply to.

International tuition for 2027/28 is £30,850 per year.

01 About the Academy

RAM is in Marylebone, next to Regent's Park, and was founded in 1822.

The Academy publishes two different figures for its size. One states eight hundred students from over fifty countries, scoped to undergraduate, postgraduate and research programmes. Another states that students come from more than sixty countries, from pre-school to post-doctorate — a figure that includes Junior Academy, which has 250 young musicians aged 5 to 18. The two are not reconciled on the site; quotations should specify which scope is meant.

On rankings, RAM's published wording is that it is consistently ranked among the top three performing arts institutions in global rankings. The statement names no ranking body edition, year or table, and no ranking claim appears elsewhere on the site. Unlike RCM, which cites specific QS positions by year, RAM's claim cannot be traced to a specific published position.

02 Degree Length and Age

The degree is the BMus (Hons), four years full-time.

Minimum age: applicants must be 18 by 1 September of the year of entry — so by 1 September 2027 for September 2027 entry.

This is a firm rule. Of the four conservatoires, RCM sets no minimum age and may exceptionally admit applicants under 18; RNCM requires 18 by 31 December of the year of entry; RAM's cut-off is the earliest. Applicants who have accelerated through school, or who will finish school young, need to plan backwards from this date.

03 Academic Requirements

England, Wales and Northern Ireland: two GCE A-levels (A2). No grades are specified on the entry requirements page.

Other accepted qualifications:

  • BTEC / UAL / RSL Level 3 National or Extended Diploma: PPP

  • T-Level: Pass

  • Scottish Highers: three at grade D or above

  • International Baccalaureate Diploma at 24 points; IBCP at 12 points

  • United States: high school graduation diploma, GED/HSE, or Advanced Placement in two to four subjects at grade 3 or above

  • French Baccalauréat, German Abitur and others are also listed

No Chinese qualification (the Gaokao) is listed. Applicants presenting a Gaokao result should confirm the position directly with admissions@ram.ac.uk rather than inferring it from another country's equivalence.

Graded music examinations are not accepted as academic equivalence. Grades evidence musical standard; the academic requirement is assessed separately and cannot be met by a graded exam certificate.

04 Standard of Playing

RAM is the only one of the four to publish an explicit benchmark: successful performance candidates will usually be at a level equivalent to at least distinction at Grade 8.

Two further recommendations, not requirements, appear on the same page:

  • Music theory: Grade 6 (ABRSM or Trinity College London or equivalent) is recommended

  • Piano, for students whose principal study is not keyboard: Grade 5 or above is described as desirable

"Distinction at Grade 8" describes a floor, not a competitive standard. Successful applicants are generally well above it.

05 Overseas Auditions and Pre-Screening

RAM's overseas process differs from the other three: every international centre is gated by a video pre-screening round. The published wording is that the initial round for all international centres is by video pre-screening. Only candidates selected from video are invited to play in person at an overseas centre, and they must present the same repertoire items uploaded to their Acceptd profile.

Centres and dates for 2027 entry:

  • Qingdao — 2, 3 and 4 November 2026

  • Hong Kong — 5 and 6 November 2026

  • Brisbane — 9 and 10 November 2026

  • Sydney — 12 and 13 November 2026

  • Melbourne — to be confirmed

  • New York — early March 2027

Qingdao is the only mainland China centre; there is no Beijing or Shanghai audition. By comparison RCM auditions in Shanghai and Beijing, and RNCM in Beijing, Qingdao, Shanghai and Shenzhen. RAM has the narrowest mainland coverage of the four.

Pre-screening deadlines: Asia and Australia centres, 1 October 2026 at 18:00 UK time — the same day as the main UCAS deadline. New York, 13 January 2027 at 18:00 UK time.

Disciplines not available at overseas centres, at undergraduate level: jazz and composition. Both must be auditioned in London or by video. The full published exclusion list also covers the Advanced Opera Diploma, Advanced Artist Diploma, Continuing Professional Development Diploma, research degrees, conducting, choral conducting, répétiteur, and musical direction and coaching — all postgraduate or diploma programmes not relevant to undergraduate entry.

Four disciplines must check instrument availability first. Harp, timpani and percussion, organ, and historical performance candidates are instructed to email admissions@ram.ac.uk to ask whether the chosen international venue has instruments available. RAM does not publish which centre holds which instruments. This step has to be completed before travel is booked.

Recordings are submitted through Acceptd. Links to YouTube, Dropbox and other platforms are not accepted, and a spoken introduction of 3 to 5 minutes in English is required.

06 The Audition

Length. Piano undergraduate auditions are published as 30 minutes; guitar as around 30 minutes. Other departments publish their own.

Repertoire structure, piano. A minimum of two solo piano works, no concertos, demonstrating wide diversity of character and style. The suggested shape is a classical or Baroque work, a romantic work, and a twentieth-century or contemporary work. Movements of larger works are acceptable. Pieces are played from memory, though complex contemporary music may be played from the score. Video candidates upload one unedited recording of the complete programme.

Guitar. A contrasted solo programme of three pieces drawn from five categories: a contrapuntal work c.1500–1750; a nineteenth- or twentieth-century sonata-form work; a theme with variations; a late twentieth- or twenty-first-century work; and a dance movement. Live auditions include sight-reading. The panel may stop a candidate mid-piece for time.

Aural. Candidates may sit a Programme Assessment interview including aural skills: a sight-singing test, and some of identifying the middle notes in a chord, interval recognition, rhythm sight-reading, and reading two simultaneous different rhythms.

Composition. Submit four pieces considered the applicant's best and most recent work, each as a PDF score with a recording where possible. There are no style constraints. A short programme note is optional, and a spoken English introduction is uploaded alongside. Round two interviews take place live or online during the main London audition period in December. Interview length is not published.

07 English Language Requirements

Undergraduate (BMus, year one entry):

  • IELTS Academic: 5.5 overall, with at least 5.5 in reading, writing, listening and speaking

  • PTE Academic: 59 overall, at least 59 in each component

  • TOEFL iBT taken before 21 January 2026: 72 overall — Reading 18, Listening 17, Speaking 20, Writing 17

  • TOEFL iBT taken from 21 January 2026: 4.0 overall, with at least 4.0 in each skill

  • Cambridge C1 Advanced: 162 overall, at least 162 in each component

The requirement must be met by 1 May before the course begins — 1 May 2027 for September 2027 entry. This is easily missed: the deadline is four months before term, not at enrolment.

Postgraduate, for comparison (MMus, MPhil, PhD): IELTS 7.0 overall with at least 5.5 in each component; PTE 76 overall with 59 in each; TOEFL iBT 95 overall on the pre-2026 scale; C1 Advanced 188 overall with 162 in each.

The gap between the undergraduate 5.5 and the postgraduate 7.0 mirrors the position at RCM. The component minimum is 5.5 at both levels; it is the overall score that changes.

08 Deadlines

  • 1 October 2026, 18:00 UK time — the UCAS Conservatoires deadline, and also the pre-screening video deadline for the Qingdao, Hong Kong, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne centres.

  • 13 January 2027, 18:00 UK time — the New York deadline.

  • 7 to 18 December 2026 — the main London audition period.

The UCAS Conservatoires final submission date for 2027 entry is 23 September 2027 at 18:00 UK time, a late route subject to availability.

RAM's own wording is that for most courses the application deadline is 1 October 2026, although some have later deadlines.

09 Application Fees

RAM charges two, making it the most expensive of the four to apply to:

  • RAM assessment fee: £100, paid via UCAS Conservatoires

  • UCAS Conservatoires application fee: £34.50 for the 2027 cycle, covering up to six choices

Total £134.50, paid online at submission.

RAM refers to fee waivers for applicants under 27 or 28 on certain support schemes, but does not publish the full waiver criteria.

10 Tuition Fees

RAM publishes a three-year table:

  • 2025/26 — Home：£9,535 — International：£29,050

  • 2026/27 — Home：£9,790 — International：£29,900

  • 2027/28 — Home：£10,050 — International：£30,850

A student entering in September 2027 begins in 2027/28 and pays £30,850, not the widely quoted £29,900, which is the 2026/27 rate.

RAM does not publish a fixed annual escalator. The published wording is that the fees stated are for one academic year and are subject to an annual increase; course pages state that fees are per academic year and may increase during the course. A four-year total therefore cannot be calculated precisely from published figures, and planning should allow for annual increases above the £30,850 base.

Payment schedule (payment facts only). A deposit of 10% of the tuition fee is invoiced in May or June of the year of entry, with the remainder due by 1 September. Where a scholarship is held, the scholarship amount is deducted from the second payment due on 1 September. These are the arrangements RAM has published for 2026/27 entry; the equivalent 2027/28 dates are not yet published.

All of the above is tuition only, excluding living costs. London sits in the highest band for living costs in the UK and should be budgeted separately.

11 Scholarships

Mechanism: automatic, with no separate application. Every student who auditions for a degree or diploma is automatically considered for a merit-based award, decided on audition performance or, for composers, on the portfolio. Awards range from modest contributions to full tuition fees. Gap Year and Organ Foundation students are excluded. Awards are reviewed annually against satisfactory progression.

One structural difference worth noting

Entrance scholarships are open to international undergraduates, but the form of the award depends on fee status. Home and eligible EU BMus students receive their scholarship as a maintenance award towards living costs. Other students, including international students, receive it as tuition fee support.

For an international undergraduate, then, a scholarship reduces the fee bill rather than producing spendable living money. In a family budget it belongs in the tuition column, not the living-costs column.

The Bicentenary Scholarship

Open to applicants in all disciplines judged to have exceptional professional potential, and worth full tuition plus a significant maintenance grant. It is awarded by automatic consideration at audition, with no separate application. No Home fee status restriction is published, so international undergraduates are eligible.

This is the most substantial full award open to an international undergraduate at any of the four, and unlike RCM's ABRSM scholarship it carries no requirement to audition in London.

Academy Bursaries (application required)

Published as open to most international students and Home postgraduate students. Home undergraduates are directed to UK Student Finance instead.

Process: the application form is emailed to offer-holders. Applications typically open in January and close in late May, with rolling decisions from mid-June. Continuing students must reapply each January. Amounts are set out in the form issued to applicants and are not published on the website.

Awards not open to students from China

  • Income Bursaries — restricted to BMus students who are UK citizens, or EU citizens eligible for UK Student Finance. £3,000 where household income is £25,000 or below; £2,000 where it is £25,001 to £33,500. Paid in three termly instalments.

  • UK/EU and US student loans — restricted by nationality and domicile.

  • The maintenance form of the entrance scholarship — Home and eligible EU students only; international students receive fee remission instead.

Other named awards: the Disney Theatrical Productions Scholarships are for MA Musical Theatre only and not open to undergraduates; the Snowdon Trust Masters Scholarship, up to £15,000, is at masters level only. The Julian Bream Trust supports classical guitarists and lutenists, covering tuition and living costs, and candidates are identified through the standard audition.

Institution-wide figure: RAM states that 83% of its students receive financial support, with over £5 million awarded annually. This is a whole-institution figure, not disaggregated by fee status.

12 Three Commonly Misread Requirements

1. An overseas centre is not secured by registering for it.

Every RAM international centre runs a video pre-screening round first, and only selected candidates are invited to play live. The pre-screening deadline is 1 October 2026 — the same day as the main UCAS deadline. There is no interval in which to record after applying; the recording has to be ready at the point of application.

2. £29,900 is not the 2027 entrant's fee.

That is the 2026/27 rate. September 2027 entry falls in 2027/28, where the international BMus fee is £30,850, rising annually thereafter. Older figures circulate widely in agency material.

3. Four disciplines must confirm instruments before booking travel.

Harp, timpani and percussion, organ, and historical performance candidates must ask admissions whether their chosen overseas centre has the instrument available. RAM publishes no instrument list by centre, so this can only be settled by email.

13 Points to Confirm Before Applying

  1. The pre-screening recording timetable. Working back from 1 October 2026, the recording must be finished at the same time as the application.

  2. Whether the discipline is available overseas (jazz and composition are not), and whether the instrument is available at that centre (harp, percussion, organ, historical performance).

  3. Age eligibility: 18 by 1 September 2027.

  4. The English language deadline: 1 May 2027, not the start of term.

  5. A tuition estimate starting at £30,850 and rising annually, with London living costs estimated separately.

Sources

Tim Agent
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