Board of Graduate Studies

An Explanation of the Costs You Will Incur

When you are made an offer as an admission or continuing student it will include a financial condition. In order to proceed with your application we require evidence that you are able to pay both mandatory fees and to support the day to day living costs of yourself and any dependants for the duration of the course. For example, a student who is beginning a year PhD programme must provide evidence of available capital for the entire three years of the course.

Your financial condition will include the following:

University Composition Fee

This is the fee levied by the University for the teaching and supervision you will receive from your Department or Faculty. It is payable for the duration of your course, i.e. three terms for courses up to one year and nine terms for three year programmes. The University Composition Fee is collected by your College. Once payment of fees for these mandatory periods is completed, you may apply to be exempted from the University Composition Fee. You may also be eligible for exemption from the University Composition Fee if you are granted leave to work away from Cambridge for the purposes of research (e.g. fieldwork) or if you intermit your studies (e.g. through maternity leave, ill health etc).

College Fee

The College Fee is mandatory and covers the cost to your College of providing a range of domestic and pastoral services. It is set by the College and varies between Colleges.

Maintenance

This is an absolute minimum estimate of your likely basic living costs and personal expenses, including accommodation. Your maintenance sum should be budgeted to cover food, domestic bills and travel around Cambridge, personal computer equipment and fieldwork costs for some courses. We require evidence of a minimum maintenance sum since the cost of living is expensive in Cambridge and we are keen to prevent students falling into financial difficulty should they lack the funds to support themselves throughout the duration of the course. Many research students continue their course into a fourth year and we would recommend that your budget reflects this possibility although you will not be required to provide financial evidence should you overrun. The maintenance sum required in your offer does not include travel to and from Cambridge.

Non-UK settling-in figure

This is a one-off figure that we recommend to cover the initial costs that EU and overseas students may experience when they first move to the UK e.g. purchase of warm clothes.

Dependants

You must meet the costs of supporting any dependants who accompany you to Cambridge and this will be reflected in the financial offer that is made to you.

The cost of childcare in Cambridge is extremely high. Full-time nursery care for pre-school children costs up to £10,000 per child annually and after-school clubs for children of school age cost up to £2,000 per child per annum. These costs are in addition to the figures requested for your financial guarantee.

Other costs

Certain courses involve abnormally expensive laboratory materials and you may be expected to contribute towards the cost of your research (in addition to the University Composition and College Fees). The Board of Graduate Studies will inform of this when an offer is made.

Some courses may involve extra costs for special elements e.g. conference visits or fieldwork. Please check the course application information and website to find out if you will need to make additional provision for this.