Birkbeck, University of London: Courses, Fees & Rankings

University profile

About Birkbeck, University of London

Birkbeck, University of London is a research and teaching college in Bloomsbury, central London, founded in 1823 as the London Mechanics' Institute to educate working people. It remains built around that mission: most courses are taught in the evening, between 6pm and 9pm, and most undergraduate, postgraduate and MPhil/PhD programmes can be taken full-time or part-time, on campus, online or in a mixed HyFlex format. Degrees are awarded by the University of London, of which Birkbeck has been part since 1920, and the College received its Royal Charter in 1926.

The campus runs along Torrington Square and Malet Street, with the Malet Street main building (library, student bar, roof terrace, cafés and seminar rooms) at its centre and further buildings on Gower Street, Gordon Square, Russell Square, Tavistock Square and 373 Euston Road, home to the College's largest lecture theatres. Students also use Senate House Library as members of the University of London.

Teaching is organised in three faculties: the Faculty of Business and Law (Birkbeck Business School, Birkbeck Law School); the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (Creative Arts, Culture and Communication; Historical Studies; Social Sciences; the Birkbeck School of Counselling and Psychotherapy); and the Faculty of Science (Computing and Mathematical Sciences; Natural Sciences; Psychological Sciences). Psychology has been taught since 1939, and research degrees are offered in over 40 subject areas.

Specialist facilities include the Babylab and ToddlerLab on Torrington Square, the latter the world's first purpose-built centre for studying brain development in toddlers in a natural environment, the Peltz Gallery, and institutes such as the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities and the Birkbeck Institute for Data Analytics. In REF 2021, 83% of Birkbeck's research was rated world-leading or internationally excellent.

Student life centres on Birkbeck Central and the Students' Union, which runs networks, societies, sports clubs and events. Birkbeck does not run its own halls: full-time first-year students can apply for rooms in University of London Intercollegiate Halls (College Hall, Connaught Hall, Garden Halls, Handel Mansions and International Hall) through the College quota, with priority for international students new to the UK and home undergraduates from outside London, and University of London Housing Services helps with private renting.

The College has more than 4,000 undergraduates, more than 3,000 postgraduates and more than 1,000 international students from over 100 countries. It is registered with the Office for Students and is an exempt charity under the Charities Act 2011. The Compass Project supports forced migrants and people seeking asylum into university study.

University information

Tuition fees

Fees are set per course and shown on each course page, with different rates for Home and international students; no VAT is charged. Fees may rise annually in line with inflation under the College fees policy, and instalment plans spread payments across the year at no extra cost. Tuition fees

Undergraduate support (Home students)

Government loans: most full-time and part-time undergraduates can use tuition fee loans, and maintenance loans are available.
Birkbeck Cash Bursary: for eligible Home students on foundation years, part-time CertHEs or part-time foundation degrees; with household income under £25,000, £200 per 30 credits up to £800; part-time students with income of £25,000-£39,999 receive £150 per 30 credits up to £450. Assessed during online enrolment. Cash bursary
Goldman Sachs and Birkbeck Diversity Scholarship: ten £5,000-a-year cash bursaries for Black Home undergraduates on listed finance, business, computing, law, science and psychology degrees.
Subject awards include the Birkbeck Mimizuku Award in Japanese Studies (£5,000), the Sir Terence Etherton Scholarship for final-year law students (£3,500), the Greta Dexter Exhibition Bursary for French (£1,000) and the Emily Paige Short Fund for earth and planetary sciences (up to £1,000).
Further support includes the Foundation Year Success Bursary, the Access to Digital Learning Fund, the Hardship Fund, childcare support, the Cowrie Foundation Scholarship and the Turing Scheme fund for study abroad.

Postgraduate support

Access to Postgraduate Study Scholarship: a £3,000 grant towards master's fees for Home students with household income under £42,875 who meet criteria such as disability, care-leaver, carer, single parent, refugee status, Black or Black mixed heritage, or first generation in higher education. Details
Cyril Taylor Scholarships: five awards of £15,000 towards tuition fees on certain postgraduate courses.
Other awards include the Economics Postgraduate Scholarship, Peltz studentships for part-time postgraduates, the Women in Sport Scholarship, the Will Vaughan Scholarship (partial fee waiver for MA History of Art), the Sasakawa Japanese Studies studentship and AHRC Landscape Award studentships; government postgraduate loans are available.

International scholarships

Birkbeck International Excellence Scholarship (autumn 2026): £1,000-£5,000 off first-year fees for self-funded overseas fee payers from eligible countries holding an unconditional full-time offer; selection is by a statement of up to 2,000 words, with rounds closing 17 May, 21 June, 19 July and 16 August 2026. Details
Birkbeck International Excellence Scholarship (January 2027): £3,000 for international students starting a postgraduate programme in January 2027.
Vice-Chancellor's International Scholarship: for students domiciled in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Vietnam; £1,000 per year for up to three years on full-time undergraduate degrees, or £3,000 off the first year of a full-time taught master's. Applied automatically at enrolment. Details
Birkbeck Global Future Scholarship: reduces first-year fees for a full-time master's to the Home rate for self-funded students from EU countries, Australia, Brazil and Canada. Applied automatically.
GREAT - Birkbeck Scholarship - Indonesia 2026: £10,000 towards tuition for a one-year taught master's in 2026-27.
Also listed: the Birkbeck-OnCampus Progression Scholarship, Chevening and Commonwealth scholarships, accommodation scholarships, and US and Canadian student loans administered by Birkbeck.

Other schemes

The Lifelong Learning Guarantee gives Birkbeck graduates (CertHE or above) 10% off most future courses and 20% off master's degrees and Graduate Diplomas. A fee reduction scheme lets three students with discretionary or limited leave to remain or asylum seeker status pay Home fees, and the Compass Project Sanctuary Scholarship supports ten forced migrants not eligible for student finance. Financial support

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Undergraduate entry

Birkbeck welcomes applicants without traditional qualifications and assesses knowledge, skills and work experience as well as prior study; formal entry requirements may be waived on the basis of academic potential. Applicants must be at least 18. The usual requirement for undergraduate degrees is 96-128 UCAS points (A-levels CCC-ABB), and 48 UCAS points for degrees with a foundation year. Access to Higher Education Diplomas are welcomed, and the UCAS tariff does not apply where Level 3 qualifications were taken more than three years ago. Applicants from partner colleges under the Institutional Partnership Agreement are guaranteed an offer. Applicants not yet ready for degree study may be advised to take a Certificate of Higher Education.

How to apply

Full-time undergraduate degrees (BA, BSc, LLB, degrees with foundation year, foundation degrees and CertHEs) are applied for through UCAS; Birkbeck's UCAS code is B24. For 2027 entry, the first UCAS deadline is 13 January 2027; applicants by that date hear by early May, later applicants by July, and 30 June is the final UCAS deadline before Clearing. Part-time undergraduate degrees (four- or six-year) and part-time foundation degrees are applied for directly to Birkbeck through its applicant portal, opening around September for the following autumn. Modular Certificates of Higher Education and most short courses have no application process and are joined by direct enrolment.

International applicants

International students apply for full-time undergraduate courses through UCAS and for postgraduate courses directly to Birkbeck; agents use the StudyLink agent portal. Qualification equivalences are given country by country for over 120 countries. For the January 2027 intake, the main application deadline for Student visa applicants is 9 November 2026 (26 October 2026 for nationals who must submit financial documents and attend a credibility interview before CAS), with final CAS on 14 December 2026. Applicants not needing a visa face deadlines of 23 September for full-time undergraduate programmes and 29 September for part-time undergraduate and full-time postgraduate programmes. A combined eight-week Pre-Sessional and In-Sessional English Programme is available.

English language

The standard requirement for taught programmes is IELTS Academic 6.5 overall with 6.0 in each sub-test (individual courses may set higher scores, such as 7.0 for some research degrees). Accepted equivalents include PTE Academic 62 with 60 in each sub-test; TOEFL iBT 79 (reading 18, listening 19, speaking 19, writing 23) under the pre-2026 scale or 4.5 under the new scale; Cambridge C1 Advanced or C2 Proficiency 176 with 169 in each sub-test; and Trinity ISE II with 96 overall and 90 in each skill. IELTS Academic Online, PTE Academic Online and TOEFL iBT Home Edition are not accepted. Nationals of majority English-speaking countries and those with a degree from such a country within the last three years are exempt.

Postgraduate taught and research entry

The University of London minimum for postgraduate study is a second-class honours degree in an appropriate subject from a UK university or an equivalent international qualification; for most master's degrees international applicants need the equivalent of a UK 2:1 or 2:2. Applicants with lower degrees, relevant professional qualifications or substantial work experience may be considered, sometimes after a qualifying programme. Applications are made directly through the Birkbeck applicant portal from around October for the following autumn; some programmes require writing samples, a test or an interview, and decisions usually take three to four weeks. MPhil/PhD applicants generally need the equivalent of a good UK master's degree and should identify a potential supervisor before applying.

Birkbeck teaches on a single central London campus in Bloomsbury, open 9am to 9pm Monday to Friday in term time, with the main building also open at weekends.

Malet Street main building (Torrington Square, WC1E 7JL): the main campus hub, housing Birkbeck Library, the student bar, roof terrace, cafés and seminar rooms.
Birkbeck Central (Malet Street, WC1E 7HY): study spaces and classrooms renovated in 2025, a ground-floor café and the Students' Union office.
Clore Management Centre (Torrington Square): home of Birkbeck Business School, with secure cycle storage and showers.
Babylab (32 Torrington Square) and ToddlerLab (33 Torrington Square): developmental science research facilities.
Gower Street (4 and 10-16 Gower Street, WC1E 6HE): home of Birkbeck Law School and politics students.
39-47 Gordon Square (WC1H 0PN): humanities buildings in the former home of the Bloomsbury Group.
Russell Square: 25-26 Russell Square for archaeology, classics, history and philosophy; 30 Russell Square houses the Birkbeck Centre for Counselling.
32 Tavistock Square (WC1H 9EU) and BMA House (professional services).
373 Euston Road (Cambridge House, NW1 3AR): Birkbeck's largest lecture theatres, classrooms and a co-learning space.
Senate House (University of London): Senate House Library, open to Birkbeck students.

Accommodation is provided through University of London Intercollegiate Halls (College Hall, Connaught Hall, Garden Halls, Handel Mansions, International Hall) for eligible full-time first-year students, plus University of London apartments in Bloomsbury and the University of London Housing Services for private renting. Wheelchair-accessible rooms are available in intercollegiate and independent halls.

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Birkbeck, University of London