Tuition fee rates

Our policy explains what your annual tuition fees cover, when you have to pay, your responsibilities, and taught postgraduate tuition fee yearly increases.

What do annual tuition fees cover?

Annual tuition fees for your programme or course cover:

  • matriculation (registration)
  • tuition and/or supervision
  • one examination sitting
  • graduation in your final year of study.

This also covers your membership of University unions, and access to other student facilities and amenities such as the library.

If you are a matriculated student who is not required to pay an annual programme or course fee, you should contact the Edinburgh University Students’ Association about associate membership.

Contact the Students' Association 

Tuition fee status and how fee rates are determined 

Your fee status determines how much you will pay in tuition fees. It is based on your nationality and where you are ‘ordinarily resident’. 

Your fee status is not confirmed until after you apply for admission and is assessed based on the information provided in your application. We will then contact you should we require further information. 

Once you start studying, your fee status applies for your entire programme and cannot be changed even if your circumstances change or the fee status criteria change. However, if you change to a different programme of study, we may reassess your fee status.

For postgraduate degrees, fee status is divided into the following categories:

  • Home Fee Rate consisting of four fee rates: 
    • Scotland Fee Rate 
    • England, Wales and Northern Ireland Fee Rate (Rest of the UK)
    • Republic of Ireland Fee Rate (ROI)
    • EU-EEA Pre/Settled Scotland Fee Rate
  • International Fee Rate consisting of two fee rates: 
    • EU-EEA Overseas
    • Overseas/International
  • Online Learning Fee Rate

Some online study programmes have the same tuition fee rate for Home Fee Rate and International Fee Rate. Others have different tuition fee rates for Home Fee Rate and International Fee Rate.

The tuition fees for your programme of study for your fee status are advertised on the degree finder entry for your programme and in the table of fees.

Degree finder 

Postgraduate tuition fees

Taught postgraduate fees are not regulated in the UK and, for the majority of programmes of study, are set independently by universities. Where there are exceptions, these are detailed in relation to the individual programmes of study affected.

Fee arrangements will be different depending on your length of study and whether you are studying full or part-time.

Fee arrangements for full-time masters

Fee arrangements for part-time masters

Annual tuition fee increase

Our policy is that tuition fee rates increase every year. If you intend to study over more than one year, you should take this annual tuition fee rate increase into consideration.

The fee will increase for continuing students unless exemptions apply. If you joined before August 2023, the fee you pay will increase annually.

For fees that increase annually, we review our tuition fee rates each year, with tuition fee rates for the next year of study being published around the start of Semester 1 in the year before students can enrol as new students. In reviewing what tuition fee rates should be for the next academic year, we look at factors including rates of inflation and costs to the University. The annual tuition fee rate will increase for entrants in each year.

Fee rates will increase by no higher than 5 percentage points more than the current or forecast Retail Price Index measure of inflation (whichever is higher) for continuing students. Where we change the structure of fees for a programme, the fee rate for a programme may increase by higher than this amount for new students. 

Exemptions to fee increases

We currently have exemptions to fee increases in place for some fee status groups.

These exemptions currently apply to students who are:

  • home or overseas fee status
  • who started studying on their programme in or after August 2023
  • on either on campus or online taught postgraduate programmes
  • who are studying for a degree or qualification that will take more than one year to complete.

For these students, fees are currently fixed for the duration of the programme of study at the level of the annual tuition fee charged in the first year of study.

When are tuition fees charged?

Tuition fee rates apply for a full academic session beginning 1 August to 31 July in the following year and are:

  • charged at the start of each year of study, and
  • due in full at the start of Semester 1

Paying your fees

Whose responsibility is it to pay?

The payment of fees is your responsibility as a student. If you have a sponsor who fails to pay, you remain responsible for payment.

The tuition fee policy as it applies to self-funded students applies to the majority of students, including those whose fees are being paid by a sponsor. Where exceptions for specific sponsors or funders apply, these are detailed below.

Student Awards Agency for Scotland arrangements

Specific arrangements apply where tuition fees are paid by the Student Award Agency for Scotland (SAAS). This is because of the way in which SAAS pay tuition fees to the University.

For students who are eligible to receive support from SAAS towards the cost of full-time postgraduate study at masters or postgraduate diploma level, a tuition fee loan of up to £7,000 is available for full-time programmes to help pay for all or some of your tuition fees. 

If your full-time programme of study is over more than one year, SAAS will only pay a total tuition fee loan of £7,000 in total across the total length of your programme of study. In most cases the full annual tuition fee is higher than £7,000. You will need to pay the difference between the amount that SAAS will pay and the total tuition fee. For example, if the full annual tuition fee is £28,800, SAAS will pay up to £7,000 and you would have to pay £21,800.

The figure of £7,000 is correct as of April 2026. Students can also apply to SAAS for an element of loan support which is for living costs.

SAAS postgraduate funding

SAAS will pay the tuition fee loan directly to the University if you are eligible and attending your programme on specific cut off dates. SAAS pay these fees to the University only after we have confirmed that you are studying with us on these cut off dates. They will not pay your tuition fees if you withdraw from the programme of study before the tuition fee cut-off date. 

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