Incoming exchange and study-abroad

Study Abroad is normally for non-UK students on an undergraduate (Bachelor) music degree programme who wish to benefit from a study placement at the Academy's BMus Year 3 level, as part of their degree programme at their current institution.

The tuition fee for Study Abroad students is published on our Fees page.

Study Abroad students must be enrolled on a programme of study at another institution, it is not available as a 'stand-alone' or 'free-mover' option.

The standard placement length is one academic year, to ensure that you receive credits for the study period.
It can be possible to attend for shorter periods (minimum one academic term [trimester]) but this will restrict the ability to be awarded credits.

Placements usually take place during Bachelor Year 3 (Junior year), or sometimes Bachelor Year 4 (Senior year), or can be part of a Master's degree at your home institution.
Students are encouraged to commence their studies at the beginning of the Academy’s academic year (September); this is because students who commence later in the year are unlikely to be able to join academic classes as these are mostly run on a full-year basis. Jazz placements must commence in September.

If your placement is in the final year of your degree course at your home institution, your final assessment (final recital) must be done at your home institution.

Application: Please see the Application section below for details and a link to the online application form, which must be submitted in consultation with your own education institution's exchange or study abroad office. The application deadline is 15 March. The same application process is used for Study Abroad and for Exchange.

If you join us for a part-year placement and wish to extend your placement period, that must be agreed both by the Academy and by your home institution, and there will be a tuition fee payment required for the additional time.
The fee will be pro-rated, based on the relevant Study Abroad fee for the full academic year. Study Abroad or Exchange students are not eligible for Academy scholarship or bursary support, and are not eligible for UK student loans.
Extending the placement period may also require you to return home to get the correct visa.

Sir Elton John Global Exchange Programme

In the Sir Elton John Global Exchange Programme, placements will normally be short project-specific exchanges, lasting between one week and one month.

Study Abroad and Partner Institution Exchanges

The standard placement length is one academic year, to ensure that you receive credits for the study period.

It can be possible to attend for shorter periods (minimum one academic term [trimester]) but this will restrict the ability to be awarded credits.

If we cannot award credits or issue a transcript, we will write a letter confirming your study period and the course modules that you attended during the placement. Please see Credits for Study below, for more information.

Placements usually take place during Bachelor Year 3 (Junior year), or sometimes Bachelor Year 4 (Senior year), or can be part of a Master's degree at your home institution.

Students are encouraged to commence their studies at the beginning of the Academy’s academic year (September); this is because students who commence later in the year are unlikely to be able to join academic classes as these are mostly run on a full-year basis. Jazz placements must commence in September.

If your placement is in the final year of your degree course at your home institution, your final assessment (final recital) must be done at your home institution.

If you join us for a part-year placement and wish to extend your placement period, that must be agreed both by the Academy and by your home institution, and there will be a tuition fee payment required for the additional time.
The fee will be pro-rated, based on the relevant Study Abroad fee for the full academic year. Study Abroad or Exchange students are not eligible for Academy scholarship or bursary support, and are not eligible for UK student loans.
Extending the placement period may also require you to return home to get the correct visa.

The Academy’s Exchanges with Partner Institutions are normally a reciprocal arrangement. If your application is successful but our exchange balance means we cannot offer an exchange place, you may instead be offered a Study Abroad placement which has a tuition fee.

If your institution is not in our Exchange partner list, you can only apply for a Study Abroad studentship.

Your exchange/study-abroad placement must form part of your degree studies at your home institution, and the application must be approved by your Exchange or Study Abroad office. We are unable to accept individual direct applications.

Please begin by asking your own institution’s Exchange or Study Abroad Officer for further details about applying for a placement at the Academy; they can find additional information by logging into the AEC Members area and visiting the Academy's section, or by contacting admissions@ram.ac.uk.

Placements may require a Memorandum of Understanding or Study Abroad agreement with your institution.

Study Abroad and Exchange students at the Academy are expected to return to their home institution on completion of their placement period here. If they decide to apply to join one of our degree courses as a full student, they must do so separately, within the normal framework for external candidates via UCAS Conservatoires.

Deadlines and requirements are available through on the 'Apply' page and agreement in writing must be provided from their home institution where this would be a transfer from their current studies. All students on exchange programmes will be subject to the Academy’s regulations.

Please note that it is not possible to transfer into Year 4 of our BMus course.

If your placement is in the final year of your degree course at your home institution, your final assessment (final recital) must be done at your home institution.

If you join us for a part-year placement and wish to extend your placement period, that must be agreed both by the Academy and by your home institution, and there will be a tuition fee payment required for the additional time.
The fee will be pro-rated, based on the relevant Study Abroad fee for the full academic year. Study Abroad or Exchange students are not eligible for Academy scholarship or bursary support, and are not eligible for UK student loans.
Extending the placement period may also require you to return home to get the correct visa.

If English is not your first language, we require the following levels for your English language skills:

• Bachelor Year 3 or 4: equivalent to at least IELTS Academic 6.0 / PTE Academic 58 with a minimum score of 5.5/58 in each part of the test
• Master's: equivalent to at least IELTS Academic 5.5 / PTE Academic 58 with a minimum score of 5.5/58 in each part of the test

Other tests we accept are listed in our English Language Entry Requirements section.

A satisfactory test result is a requirement for a UK Student Visa application, please see our Immigration section below.

Information about our course and credit structures is available from the course books on the Academy Handbooks page.

The Autumn term begins in September and the Spring term begins in January. You can find our academic year and term dates here.

Please note that our summer term (third trimester) is mainly for examinations.

Postgraduate

Postgraduate (Master’s-level) placements must be for our full academic year to gain credits.
Part-year placements, we regret, cannot gain formal credits, though we can confirm the content of your study profile to your home institution. The maximum number of credits available for a full academic year is 90 Academy credits (45 ECTS).

Undergraduate

Undergraduate (Bachelor-level) placements must be for our full academic year to guarantee that you gain credits for the study period.
There will be restrictions on the credits we can assign if your placement is less than one academic year; your attendance period will affect the number of credits you gain because credits are primarily gained from submission of assessments. If your placement finishes before the assessment point for the module you are studying, we cannot award credits.

If your placement is in the final year of your degree, your final recital assessment will be in your home institution and will not form part of your credit calculation.

Please consult our course books on the Academy Handbooks web page for details about our credit structures. Exchange and Study Abroad students usually follow the curriculum structure for their study level (for example, Year 3 BMus).

If you accept a place, our Assistant Registrar will contact you before enrolment to discuss your study profile at the Academy.

Transcripts

Official transcripts are issued in July, after the final Examination Board of the academic year.
If your placement period at the Academy finishes earlier in the year and you need confirmation of your Academy studies for your home institution, we will be able to write a letter confirming your study period dates and the course modules that you attended during the placement.

If we cannot award credits or issue a transcript because of your placement dates, we will write a letter confirming your study period and the course modules that you attended during the placement. Your home institution can then decide how to incorporate your placement into your study profile for your degree.

The deadline for receipt of exchange or study-abroad applications in the Acceptd portal is 15 March for the following academic year.

We aim to respond with a decision during May.

For Exchange applications from our Partner Institutions or Study Abroad applications, the following items must be uploaded into our Acceptd portal by the application deadline.

Candidate Guide to Acceptd

Please choose the Program Group 'Exchange or Study Abroad applications'.

• We do not use AEC Mobility Online, UCAS Conservatoires or EASY/Dreamapply for exchange or study abroad applications. All applications must be received in the Acceptd portal.
  
• Applications for the Sir Elton John Global Exchange Programme are not submitted in Acceptd, please speak to your institution's exchange coordinator.

Application recording or portfolio

Performers

Video recording: around 20 minutes of current repertoire, verified as being an authentic recording of your performance.

All recordings must be recent/current and you should present a minimum of two contrasting works.

All accompanied works should have the appropriate accompaniment in your recording. This can be a 'minus one' track, you do not need to hire an accompanist for your audition recording.

Please upload:

• a video file, not links to YouTube or other storage portals.
• a spoken introduction in English: identify yourself by your name, and then say something about your musical background and the training you have had, your musical ambitions and your reasons for applying to the Academy
• Timpani and Percussion candidates must record every item in the relevant repertoire list on the Percussion audition page.
• Jazz candidates should upload up to 20 minutes of current repertoire, preferably one medium-to-up-tempo standard, one ballad tempo standard, and an own arrangement or own composition with a PDF concert pitch score. 'Stage 1 – video audition' on our Jazz audition page can be used as a guide.

Composers

Composition candidates should upload:

• a portfolio of three or four recent scores in PDF format, plus recordings if available (please upload audio files, not links to YouTube or other storage portals).
• a spoken introduction in English: identify yourself by your name, and then say something about your musical background and the training you have had, your musical ambitions and your reasons for applying to the Academy.

Recommendation and Confirmation

• Reference (recommendation) from your teacher - please ask them to include verification of your recording or portfolio in the reference. Please input the teacher's email address in Acceptd, the system will send an electronic request for them to type, paste or upload the reference.
• Confirmation from your Study Abroad / Exchange coordinator: please input their email address in Acceptd, the system will send an electronic request for them to type, paste or upload the confirmation.

Documents

In the 'Media' section of your Acceptd application profile:

• Letter of motivation to explain why you have chosen to apply to us
  
• Curriculum vitae
• Academic transcript from your current study course

You can also include a recent IELTS Academic, TOEFL, Pearson or Cambridge language test certificate if you have one, though this is not a requirement within the application.

Submitting your application

Your video recordings or composition items, verified by your own institution, and all your completed application documents as listed above should be uploaded to our Acceptd portal.
Please select the Program Group 'Exchange or Study Abroad applications'. You may need to type in the name of your current place of study.

You will be asked to input the email address of your exchange or study abroad co-ordinator, then they will be mailed by Acceptd to confirm your application has been approved.

You will also be asked to input the email address of your teacher, then they will be mailed by Acceptd to write or upload their recommendation which must include verification of your recordings or portfolio.

Study-abroad and exchange placements are only available at Bachelor’s degree Year 3 or higher.

To help us place you correctly in our own course structures, your current study year and academic programme [for example, Bachelor’s degree Year 2] must be clear in your application form.
We also ask you to state the academic level of your proposed study placement at the Academy so we know, for example, if you are planning to come to us in your final Bachelor year or as a Master’s degree student.

If you are currently in your final Bachelor year and will be joining a Master’s degree next year, the institution providing the Master’s course must confirm that you hold the place, because the placement must form part of degree studies at your home institution.

Acceptd portal

You are welcome to indicate a preference for studying with a particular professor at the Academy, but the final decision about allocating students to professors is made by your Head of Department at the Academy during the summer vacation. It might not be possible for you to study with the professor you have requested.

This information is for study abroad and exchange students who do not hold a UK passport or UK Settled/Pre-Settled Status.

Student Visa

If you will be in the UK for six months or more, you will need to apply for a Student Visa (see our 'Visas and Immigration' page) and we will require a suitable language test result (see the 'Entry Requirements' page) before we can sponsor your visa application, unless you are in one of UKVI's exempt categories.

You have to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge as part of the visa application costs. Work is permitted with certain restrictions, and it can be possible to extend the visa though you have to return home to do so.

Standard Visitor Visa

If your study placement means you will be in the UK for less than six months, you can come to the UK with a Standard Visitor Visa.

That means you do not need to get a full Student Route visa and you do not have to pay the Immigration Health Surcharge.
The Standard Visitor Visa cannot be extended. and work is not permitted under this visa – this ban includes performances outside the Academy, and being self-employed (for example, private teaching or composition commissions).

If you are from a visa-national country (see the Visa National list published by UKVI), you must have the Standard Visitor visa before you travel.

If you use the Standard Visitor Visa, you must not use the e-gates on arrival in the UK (unless you are a citizen of Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea or the USA). Instead you must tell an immigration officer at the airport that you are joining a short course and show them your confirmation from the Academy to prove that your placement will be finished within six months of your arrival date in the UK. The Academy will need proof of your UK arrival date when we enrol you.

Short placement: Standard Visitor visa for 'Visa Nationals'

Visa nationals must have a visa before travelling, even if coming to the UK for six months or less. You must apply for the Standard Visitor entry clearance before you leave home. A list of visa national countries can be found in Appendix 2 on this web link.

Short placement: Standard Visitor visa for 'Non-Visa Nationals'

We strongly advise that you apply for Standard Visitor entry clearance (visa) before you leave home, even if you are not on the visa national list. It is possible to get this visa from immigration officials at the airport/port of entry, but there may be problems if you request this visa on arrival. We advise against entering the UK without entry clearance.

Following the June 2016 vote for the UK to leave the EU, we are no longer part of the Erasmus+ scheme and we are not participating as a Third Country under the current scheme.

However, we are pleased to confirm that we remain a member of AEC (Association of European Conservatoires).

The Academy was awarded an Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE) and was a founding member of the Erasmus movement. Our ERASMUS institution code was UK LONDON023 and our PIC was 946054581.

We do not use AEC Mobility Online or EASY/Dreamapply for exchange or study abroad applications.