- University Homepage
- Studying
- Fees made simple
- Who pays and how much?
Who pays and how much?
From September 2012 if your normal home address is in England, Wales or Northern Ireland you will have to pay to study at Edinburgh.
This is what it means when you are referred to as a RUK - Rest of UK - student.
- So what now?
- You DO NOT pay tuition fees upfront.
- Financial support is available to help you fund your education.
- Fees are set at £9,000 per year (subject to approval by the Scottish Parliament).
- Our annual fees are the same as other top universities.
- You only start paying back your fees after you graduate and earn more than £21,000 - unless you are from Northern Ireland where the figure is £15,795.
The fine print
The tuition fee is applicable for all full-time undergraduate degree programmes except for graduate entry to the BVM&S Veterinary Medicine and graduate entry to the LLB Law programmes.
The £9,000 annual tuition fee applies only to RUK domiciled students. If you are unsure of your 'domicile status', please check our information on definitions.
If you are a Scottish domiciled student or a Non-UK European Union student, you do not have to pay the higher £9,000 annual tuition fee. Please see our advice pages on tuition fees and financial support for your status.
If you are an international student please see our general advice on tuition fees and funding for details of the fees you will pay and the support available to you.
Living costs
This is your main cost during University. You are best to plan a budget to include accommodation, food, books, clothes, entertainment, travel and bills like electricity and gas.
We have estimated that it will cost you approximately £7,000 a year to live and study as an undergraduate at Edinburgh.
Depending on your lifestyle it could be higher. Whether you choose to live in catered or self-catered halls of residence or a flat will also have an impact on how much you spend.
Financial support
If you are an RUK domiciled student - if your normal home address is in England, Wales or Northern Ireland - there is money available to help fund your tuition fees and living costs.
Why are you paying fees?
In 2010, the UK Coalition Government introduced major changes to the way it funded Higher Education in England.
One of these changes was to remove the cap on tuition fee. This allowed universities in England to charge anything up to £9,000.
Following this change the Scottish Government decided to remove funding it had been previously provided to Scottish universities for offering places to RUK students.
This presented us - and other universities in Scotland - with a reduction in revenue. To fill this funding gap and continue providing excellent teaching and research opportunities we need to charge fees.
Why don’t we charge Scottish and European students?
In Scotland education is a devolved matter. This means the Scottish Government sets policy on Higher Education funding, rather than Westminster.
We don’t charge Scottish or European Union students because the Scottish Government ‘pays’ for them to study at Scottish universities.
Martin Lewis, the Head of the Independent Taskforce on Student Finance Information, explains the changes to student finance from 2012.
How long will my degree take?
A typical degree at Edinburgh will take you four years to complete. It will cost you, as a RUK student, £9,000 in fees for every year that you attend.
Second year entry is currently possible in the College of Science and Engineering. This option may be offered by other colleges in due course.
The four-year degree is a defining feature of Scottish Higher Education. But it is by no means unique. Universities in the rest of the UK and around the world also have this structure.
Our degrees allow you try a range of subjects before specialising. If you know exactly what you want to do, you can study other subjects and add depth to your education.
This article was published on Nov 22, 2011