In April 2026 we reached out to all registered students for our three-year BA courses (September 2026 intake) to let them know that we were replacing the government-funded DaDA scheme with a new, internally funded scholarship programme. Following student and applicant feedback, we felt a scholarship model would offer greater flexibility in supporting our students with the greatest financial need.

The DaDA scheme has become increasingly restrictive for our students as, whilst it offered valuable funding towards their training, it did not enable them to access more substantial maintenance funding through the Student Loans Company. Households earning over £30,000 receive no maintenance award at all on the DaDA scheme and, for households earning under £21,000, students were receiving approximately £5,000 per year. Apart from a 3% rise in 2025-26 and a 2.7% rise in 2026-27, this maintenance rate has not increased in over 10 years. We felt it was our responsibility to move to a more sustainable solution for our students and once which

The institutional DaDA allocation was also in a consistent state of uncertainty meaning that we could not offer our students any surety of their funding options earlier in the year. Because of this, we were not in a position to confirm DaDAs for any registered students prior to this change being made.

The ArtsEd scholarship is:

• Means-tested and awarded on a sliding scale.
• Covers approximately 50% annual tuition fees.
• Compatible with Student Finance loans.
• Available to eligible students across our three-year BA programmes.

To meet the increasingly challenging financial climate we have also reduced our headline tuition fees and continue to offer a range of bursary, scholarship and hardship funding opportunities. We remain committed to doing all we can to enable our students to train with us and access essential maintenance funding to support them.

Because our previous DaDA funding was linked to the delivery of the Level 6 Trinity Diploma alongside the BA degree, as of September 2026, ArtsEd will no longer offer the diploma as an additional qualification to students on our three-year BA programmes. Our 2nd and 3rd year students still have access to DaDA funding.

ArtsEd continues to offer the ArtsEd Bursary Scheme which provides further financial assistance to students with household incomes below £70,000. We also continue to benefit from support from major arts philanthropies including the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation Scholarship and the Dame Gillian Lynne Scholarship, supported by the Lynne & Land Foundation.

We also offer a hardship fund which provides small, means-tested emergency grants to students facing unforeseen financial difficulties during their studies, helping them to remain on their course and complete their degree.

Ahead of September, all eligible students have been offered ArtsEd Scholarships which, alongside support from the SLC, will enable them to fund their training at ArtsEd. We have received positive feedback from our applicants and we have ensured that the switch to the new funding model has not disadvantaged any applicants or current students.

ArtsEd Principal, Prof. Louise Jackson, says:

“Increasingly, arts institutions are having to create their own initiatives to meet the gaps left by government-funded programmes that are not fit for purpose. With only small increases in recent years, maintenance funding on the DaDA has remained largely unchanged for over a decade despite the significant rise in living costs, particularly for students studying in London. The introduction of the ArtsEd scholarship is the first of many steps we plan to take over the coming years to meet the critical need for a better infrastructure for arts funding in this country. Thank you to all of our supporters who recognise the value of the performing arts. Our focus will remain on our students and doing the best we can to ensure they can access our training.”