Join the UCAS Conservatoires scheme

What is the UCAS Conservatoires scheme?

UCAS Conservatoires is an online admissions service, which processes applications for full and part-time undergraduate and postgraduate music, dance, and drama programmes at nine of the UK conservatoires. The scheme also includes some foundation year courses at pre-undergraduate level, and a limited number 

of research programmes, as well as a number of specialised study programmes.

UCAS Conservatoires enables applicants to create a single electronic application that can be submitted simultaneously to up to six conservatoires. The participating conservatoires are:

• Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
• LAMDA (London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art)
• Leeds Conservatoire
• Royal Academy of Music
• Royal College of Music
• Royal Northern College of Music
• Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
• Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
• Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

We pride ourselves in putting our customers at the centre of everything we do. We ensure:

• conservatoires can easily manage their applications
• applicants have a smooth admissions process, with access to plenty of information and advice on making the right choices to higher education.

Being a customer of UCAS enables you to be a part of our multi-destination search tool, which allows applicants to search for UCAS Conservatoires courses, alongside UCAS Undergraduate, and UCAS Postgraduate courses, through one destination. Our mobile-first tool allows applicants to filter, sort, and shortlist courses, and create saved searches.  

Joining the UCAS Conservatoires scheme

Benefits of the scheme

Being part of our centralised admissions service allows customers to:

• connect with prospective students
• advertise their courses
• receive and manage applications for admission
• manage interactions with prospective students, schools, colleges, and qualification awarding organisations
• plan and manage their student numbers, accommodation, and student support services
• complete their statutory reporting
• ensure their admissions processes are fair and transparent.

Criteria to joining the scheme

Accessing the UCAS Conservatoires scheme products and services is open to any conservatoire that can demonstrate that:

• it is a member of Conservatoires UK (CUK) 
• it delivers validated or accredited, quality assured teaching and learning for one or more full-time, part-time undergraduate, and postgraduate programme, including certificates and diplomas
• it has undergone a quality assurance review within the last two years, with a satisfactory outcome
• if it recruits international students, it must be listed on the Home Office Tier 4 Sponsor Register (if applicable)
• it's financially stable (a basic credit check will be undertaken as part of the application process).    

When to apply

On average, it takes 12 weeks to join UCAS, from the point of application to set up on systems. We advise contacting us in advance of submitting your application to discuss your needs so we can ensure you benefit from the support through the process, and training on offer to maximise your experience of joining as a customer.

Your obligations as a customer

To take full advantage of the benefits of working with us, there's the expectation UCAS that you will:

• cooperate with us in all matters relating to the services, and participate, wherever possible, in meetings of members and partners
• keep all key contact details up to date
• operate within information security standards ISO/IEC 27001
• make sure course and provider data is complete, accurate and up to date
• ensure data security measures exist in line with ISO 2700 criteria, and employees, contractors and agents comply with the Data Protection Act principles
• adhere to the requirements in the Admissions Guide for the applicable year of entry – including decision-making deadlines
• adhere to the UCAS Applications Recruitment Policy – recruiting exclusively through UCAS for all full and part time undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

As a customer of the scheme, you agree to abide by our Terms of Service including acting in accordance with the UCAS Application and Recruitment Policy
All providers wishing to join the service will also be required to meet UCAS' Data Standards

UCAS Conservatoires fees

Application fee

There is a £1,000 non-refundable application fee payable when we receive your application. This is deducted from the balance of your joining fee if your application is successful.

Joining fee

There is a one-off fee to join UCAS Conservatoires as a customer. This is assessed during the consideration of your application and is based on the predicted number of applicants placed with you in your first admissions cycle as a customer.

The joining fees range from £7,000 to £25,000, plus VAT.

If your application is successful, you will be invoiced for the full amount (minus the application fee paid). Full access to systems and training will be given once the joining fees are paid.

Capitation fee

Customers of UCAS pay an annual capitation fee for our support and services.

The fee is charged per cycle, regardless of when a provider joins UCAS. Fees are charged based on the number of applicants ‘placed’ with a provider by the close of each admissions cycle. The fees are charged per applicant, with a minimum fee applicable where providers have fewer than 107 placed applicants.

The capitation fee is invoiced twice a year – 60% in August, and the remaining 40% in February.

Fees for the 2025 UCAS Conservatoires admissions cycle are:

Per applicant: £35.25 (including VAT)

Minimum charge: £3,755 (including VAT)

Fees for the 2026 UCAS Conservatoire admissions cycle are:

Per applicant: £35.81 (including VAT)

Minimum charge: £3,815.00 (including VAT)
 
The minimum charge translates as 107 or fewer acceptances. 108 or more will be subject to a charge at £35.81 per placed applicant.
 

UCAS legal membership

Once you have been a customer of UCAS Conservatoires for two cycles and meet certain criteria, you could choose to become a legal member of UCAS. Our legal members can attend our Annual General Meetings, and raise and vote on resolutions, which typically relate to receiving our Annual Report and Accounts, and the approval of the appointment of our auditors.

To qualify for legal membership, your conservatoire must:

• provide higher education with a UK source of validation
• have full membership of one of UCAS' recognised sector bodies (CUK, Universities UK, Guild HE, the Association of Colleges, or Universities Scotland)
• use the core UCAS services for undergraduate and postgraduate admissions 
• accept more than 100 undergraduate or postgraduate students per annum (based on a three-year rolling average), or such other acceptance levels as are reasonably agreed by the UCAS Board of Trustees from time to time.