Graduate Diploma - Accepting your offer & paying your deposit

Your Offer Letter will contain full details about how to accept your offer and what documentation is required from you.

All offers are conditional. It’s important that you meet the conditions set out in your Offer Letter and upload evidence of having done so to the Graduate Diploma Applicant Portal as soon as possible.

• We will send the Offer Letter by email and you will need to accept your offer and pay your deposit within three weeks of the date of receiving this letter. If you do not do so, your offer may be withdrawn.
• Your RCA Offer Letter will provide you with both the details and conditions of your offer.

Please read your Offer Letter carefully before making your decision.

To get started, go to the Applicant Portal – once you have clicked on this link you will be given two options regarding your offer:

1. Accept the offer
   or:
2. Decline the offer

Please note: if you receive two offers, you will need to decide which offer you would like to accept. Once you accept an offer, the other offer will automatically be declined.

If you have been awarded a scholarship, the scholarship name will be displayed next to the programme that the scholarship applies to.

Once you have accepted your offer, you will receive an email from the College with confirmation that you have accepted your offer and instructions for paying your deposit.

If you have not received either email within 24 hours of accepting your offer, please raise a query in the Applicant Portal.

New students are required to pay a deposit in order to secure their place, within three weeks of being made an offer. The deposit payable is shown in your offer letter. The deposit is non-refundable but is deductible from your tuition fee when you come to pay that.

Deposit amounts to be paid

Your Offer Letter will state whether you have been assessed as a Home, Overseas or EU student for fees purposes.

• Home and Ireland Student Deposits
  Graduate Diploma: £1,000
• Overseas and EU Student Deposits
  Graduate Diploma: £3,000

Please follow the instructions given in the email on how to pay your deposit. You will need to accept your offer and pay your deposit within three weeks of receiving your Offer Letter. If you do not do so, your offer may be withdrawn.

Most international students need a Student Visa to study in the UK. For details on how to apply for a visa, see the Student Visa page.

You need to upload evidence of any qualifications stated in your application and your IELTS certificate (if you have taken an IELTS test) to the Applicant Portal as soon as possible, and no later than before 11 December 2026 for Art & Design Graduate Diploma January 2027 entry, or 11 June 2027 for Art & Design or Architecture & Spatial Practice September entry.

If you need a Student Visa, you will also have to complete the Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) section via the Applicant Portal in order to receive a CAS number.

How will I pay my fees?

If you are an International student, or a Home student, you will need to pay the full fee prior to enrolment. For more information, please see Paying your fees.

Once you've accepted your offer, the next step is to enrol. For instructions on how to enrol, see our Enrolment section which will guide you through the next steps you will need to take to complete your enrolment.

If you receive an offer with an undetermined fee status, the applicant portal will invite you to complete a Fee Status Questionnaire. If you do not submit the questionnaire within five weeks of receiving the invitation, your fee status will be changed to Overseas and you will be charged the Overseas rate of tuition fees.

If you do not believe the fees status listed in your Offer Letter is correct, you must notify the Admissions team within two weeks of the letter to request a fee status questionnaire by raising an enquiry through the Applicant Portal.

If you have any questions about accepting your offer and paying your deposit, please raise an enquiry through the Applicant Portal.

The College is bound by the Education (Fees and Awards) (England) Regulations 2007 when assessing fee status. For more information please see the UK Council for International Student Affairs (UKCISA) England website which explains HE England fee status.