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Scholarships, Bursaries and Financial Awards
Guildhall School Scholarships
Guildhall School Scholarships
The School is deeply committed to equality of opportunity and students are admitted solely on the basis of merit. In light of this, the School does its best to ensure that no student offered a place is prevented from enrolling on the grounds of financial hardship.
The School offers a wide range of scholarships to students regardless of domicile. These scholarships are supported by a variety of generous donors including City Livery companies, grant-making trusts and foundations, businesses and individuals.
A scholarship award may be made to cover either the full or partial costs of tuition fees, and may also include support for maintenance costs. Awards are made to individuals on the basis of their talent, potential and personal financial need. The School allocates in excess of £2million per annum to such eligible students.
All students who accept a place at the School can apply for scholarship support. Further details about eligibility and how to apply will be provided once you have accepted an offer of study.
All scholarships must be applied for on an annual basis and continuing students will need to apply for each year that they are enrolled at the School. For some courses, a scholarship award may be given at the point of offer of a place at the School where outstanding ability is demonstrated at audition.
The School has a range of named scholarship awards, such as those highlighted below, but all scholarship applicants are considered through the aforementioned process and cannot apply directly for specific awards.
There are no cash scholarships available for the PGCert. There are a limited number of partial tuition fee waivers, with priority given to Guildhall School staff (including CYM and partnership Hubs) and those who are assessed as overseas fee level.
Named Scholarships
Named Scholarships
In partnership with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), Guildhall School of Music & Drama is offering two scholarships to students in Japan applying for our postgraduate programme MMus/MPerf in Performance: Orchestral Artistry.
Applications for our MMus/MPerf in Performance: Orchestral Artistry course are made directly to the School through our online applicant portal. Explore the course academic entry and English language entry criteria guidance, to help make sure you are ready to submit before our application deadlines. Applicants holding an offer to study with us in 2025/26 may be considered for the following scholarship:
- £15,000 per year – Students from Japan applying to MMus/MPerf Orchestral Artistry studying Strings and/or Wind/Brass/Percussion.
The scholarships are offered at the discretion of Guildhall School and the LSO to Japanese students and may be awarded for 1 or 2 years of study, subject to attaining sufficient grades throughout the programme. Applications for 2025/26 are currently closed, The application deadline for 2025 entry was 2 October 2024, but it is sometimes possible for candidates to make a late application. Details about the late application process are found here. Please note that applicants should be passport holders of Japan.
The Vanstone Scholarship will support students training on one of the undergraduate Production Arts pathways and who are of African or Caribbean heritage, South Asian, East Asian or South East Asian heritage.
Hugh Vanstone is one of the UK's foremost lighting designers and is funding this scholarship with the aim of addressing the lack of diversity in the creative and cultural sectors, particularly in the area of technical theatre.
Access Bursary & Hardship Fund
Guildhall Access Bursary
Read about the Access Bursary on our Access and Participation page.
School Hardship Fund
The School endeavours to support students who find themselves in financial difficulties. Under normal circumstances students are expected to have arranged sufficient funding prior to the commencement of their programme. However, if a student experiences an unforeseen change of circumstances they may qualify for an award to help them overcome their immediate financial difficulties.
Please note that the Hardship Fund is not able to help with tuition fee debt to the School and all students must be fully enrolled in order to apply.
For more information, please visit the Student Affairs page.