Paying your fees

You are required to pay a deposit* when you accept your offer. The deposit should be paid within three weeks of the date of your offer letter. The deposit is non-refundable. Please see below for deposit amounts to be paid per degree programme. Your offer letter will state whether you have been assessed as a Home, Overseas or EU student for fees purposes and the amount of deposit you are required to pay.

Home Students Deposit

• MA, MArch, MDes, MEd, MFA, MRes, MPhil and PhD: £1,000
• Graduate Diploma: £2,000

Overseas and EU Students Deposit

• MA, MArch, MDes, MEd, MFA, MRes, MPhil and PhD: £2,000
• Graduate Diploma: £2,000

When you come to pay your tuition fees, the deposit already paid is deductible from the tuition fee due.

Your deposit is not reflected on your invoice but will be visible in the Student Portal. When making a payment of at least 50% of your fees, please deduct the amount you have already paid as a deposit from this.

*This is not applicable to applicants with a fee status of Home who are applying to study MA Architecture Part 2 and who intend to take out a tuition fee loan from Student Finance.

Graduate Diploma

All Graduate Diploma Art & Design students must pay the full fee in one instalment in advance of enrolment.

January entry: fees must be paid by 1 December
May entry: fees must be paid by 1 April
September entry: fees must be paid by 1 August

Self-funding Master’s, MPhil and PhD students

For MA, MArch, MDes, MEd, MFA, MRes, MPhil and PhD programmes. If your fee status is classed as ‘Home’ and you are self-funding your studies, or your fee status is classed as ‘Overseas’, you can choose to either pay your fees in full by 1 August, or to pay in two instalments, with a minimum of 50% of your tuition fee payable in advance of enrolment and by no later than 1 August. For first-year students, any deposit paid is deductible from the total tuition fees due.

If your invoice is dated 19 August 2024 or later, you will be required to pay upon receipt of the invoice.

Payment in full in advance

Fees can be paid via the student portal (My RCA > My Account > Make Payment), which will link through to the College’s payment provider, Flywire. A variety of options are available within Flywire depending on the country from which you are paying. The options may include payment by a variety of credit or debit cards, bank transfer and e-payment methods. These will be priced in your local currency and include charges. Detailed information for this can be found within the Flywire help information.

Payment by instalments

For MA, MRes, MPhil, MFA, MDes, MArch and PhD programmes we also provide an option for you to pay in two instalments:

• A minimum of 50% of your fees is payable in advance of enrolment and by no later than 1 August.
• The remaining 50% (or the balance if you pay more in the first instalment) will be due by the first day of the January term.
• This option is not available to Graduate Diploma students.

Home students who are taking out a loan from Student Finance

Undergraduate tuition fee loan (MA Architecture students only)

If your fee status is classed by RCA as ‘Home’ and you are taking out the undergraduate tuition fee loan in full from the Student Loans Company (SLC), you will not be required to make any fee payments and can enrol once your loan has been approved, subject to meeting all other conditions of enrolment. If your loan is not approved by 29 August, please email [email protected] confirming on what date you applied for your loan.

Postgraduate Loan or Doctoral Loan

If your fee status is classed by RCA as ‘Home’ and you are taking out a Postgraduate Loan or Doctoral Loan, you can pay your tuition fees in three equal instalments in line with your loan payments (September, January and May). You can enrol once your loan has been approved, subject to meeting all other conditions of enrolment, and we will confirm your enrolment with the SLC in order to trigger the first instalment payment to you.

You must be enrolled a minimum of five working days before the start of term to facilitate SLC paying you your first loan instalment as close to the start of term as possible. If your loan is not approved by this date please email [email protected]. Those enrolling later should allow up to an additional ten working days to receive the first instalment.

Please be aware your Postgraduate/Doctoral Loan may not cover the full cost of your fees and so you may need other funds to make up the shortfall.

If you are relying on your loan to pay your tuition fees and your loan is not approved by Thursday 22 August, please email [email protected], explaining that you are unable to enrol and confirming on what date you applied for your loan. We will then look into this and get back to you.

You will need to pay your invoice through the Student Portal, which links with our payment provider, Flywire. The Flywire payment portal defaults to the currency in your location and provides a number of payment options. These may include a combination of bank transfer, various types of card payment and local online payment methods depending on the location from which you are paying. All of these payment options will include currency conversion and bank charges so the RCA receives the right amount in British Pounds. There are no hidden charges from the College or Flywire.

Flywire provides a best-price guarantee for bank transfers. If you find a cheaper price for making the same bank transfer within two hours then Flywire will match it. Follow the Best Price Guarantee link within Flywire for more information.

There is the additional option, at the bottom of the screen, to pay in alternative currencies (i.e. currencies other than your local currency). Depending on the country from which you are paying this may include paying in British Pounds, Euros or US Dollars. These payments are expressed in British Pounds. If you use one of these options and make the payment from a bank that is denominated in a different currency (eg you choose to pay using the British Pounds option from a Japanese Yen credit card or bank) your own bank will convert your currency into British Pounds, add on their own credit card fees – for credit card payments – and international payment processing charges. The cost of transferring this way is therefore uncertain at the point of payment.

If you would like help making payment or have any questions, please use the Help links on the Flywire payment pages. In the bottom right-hand corner of the screen there is a chatbot that provides some useful information and allows you to ask questions. There is a Help option top right that takes you to the more detailed help pages which include contact details to either email, chat (with a person) or call Flywire for help. They are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and can help you in your preferred language.

As part of the student visa application process, you must show you have enough funds to cover your tuition fees and living expenses. If you have already submitted your visa application and are waiting for a decision, we recommend any funds from the bank account you are using as evidence for your visa application be maintained in the account.

If you are worried about paying your tuition while waiting for your visa decision, you can wait until your visa has been granted before paying your fees, until 19 August at the latest.

If you have any other questions related to your invoice please raise a query viia the Applicant Portal.

• RCA scholarships will be reflected on the portal as soon as possible. Until the portal is updated, please deduct the awarded amount from the total tuition fee amount owing when making your payment.
• If you have any queries regarding making the fee payment itself, please contact Flywire via the Student Portal
• If you have any concerns or questions about your fees or invoice amount, please raise a query via the Applicant Portal.
• If an External Sponsor has agreed to pay your fees, please contact [email protected] for further details regarding the process.

We offer a discount on fees if you progress from one RCA programme to another, with no time constraint on the date of award of your previous degree.

For 2025/26 entry:

• Students progressing to an MA from Graduate Diploma: a £1,000 fee reduction (£1,000 fee reduction per year for two-year full-time MA programmes and £500 per year for part-time study).
• Students progressing to an MArch, MFA, MDes, MEd or MRes from an MA or MA/MSc: a £2,000 fee reduction (£1,000 per year for part-time study).
• Students progressing to Postgraduate Research (PhD or MPhil) from MA, MA/MSc, MArch, MFA, MDes, MRes or MEd: a £1,000 fee reduction per year (£500 per year for part-time study).
• For Postgraduate Research, if you change from full-time registration to part-time (or vice versa), then the fee reduction will be re-calculated and the maximum discount period is six years (excluding authorised leave of absence).

For Postgraduate Research, if you change from full-time registration to part-time (or vice versa), then the fee reduction will be re-calculated and the maximum discount period is six years (excluding authorised leave of absence).