OCA Fees 2025/26
We are announcing today the fees which will apply in the next academic year (from 01 August 2025 to 31 July 2026). OCA is committed to providing value for money whilst ensuring the sustainability and financial health of the organisation.
We are conscious that fees increased significantly last year to cover a range of factors and costs that the College is now bearing. The Higher Education sector faces financial instability, and OCA faces those same pressures. The increase to national insurance contributions is a significant factor for these fee increases, as are the investments that OCA is making in the services we provide.
Tuition fees make up the vast majority of OCA’s income. Increasing those fees is how we are able to cover increased costs. Our fees are therefore increasing by 3% on all provision, except undergraduate where the increase is 10%.
The fees for undergraduate provision reflect the cost and complexity that institutions face teaching undergraduate provision in the UK, with the requirements to align practices with the QAA Quality Code. The College became a full member of QAA from 2024/5 in order to ensure the institution adopts sector best practice.
Why is this happening?
The uplift is required for the following reasons:
- Increases in employers national insurance contributions
- Changes to our Virtual Learning Environment – an increased cost in hosting suppliers to make the services better, more robust and accessible to a greater number of students.
- Operational costs to OCA rising either with or above inflation for staffing and resources (library content etc.), which are particularly challenging for smaller providers.
- International student fees remain higher than those of our UK based students as there are greater operational costs to deliver and resource courses, we are doing our best to keep the increases as fair as possible. New directives introduced from January 2025 change how education is treated for VAT purposes in Europe, previously education was exempt from VAT but now may be chargeable on educational fees unless individual exemptions can be established. This is not just limited to the EU, we are working closely with the OU to minimise the impact on our international students. In 2025/26 we will absorb these emerging costs in order to ensure that we continue our mission to be open and provide services globally.
Student fees at the Open College of the Arts remain lower than other UK accredited Higher Education providers offering Creative Arts subjects via distance learning and around 30% lower than a UK degree at a traditional university, they continue to represent excellent value for money. If you are concerned about cost to study then there are many options for financial assistance for study including student finance, bursaries, payment plans and subsidies, for further information visit the funding FAQs section of the OCA website.
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Since I started as an international student in March 2023 the fees have gone from £1770 in 2022/2023 to £1890 2023/24 to £2362 in 2024/25 and now to £2598 – a 47% increase.
Given the shambles that the UK and the UK higher education system is in since you chose to leave the EU I can understand how an independent institution like OCA is struggling. But please don’t offer disingenous drivel as one of your excuses – ‘International student fees remain higher than those of our UK based students as there are greater operational costs to deliver and resource courses, we are doing our best to keep the increases as fair as possible’ – from your own website. As an international student I, arguably, receive a poorer service than UK based students; I can expound on this if you wish.
Not good enough.
I agree Richard. As a fellow international student I would like OCA to explain what these greater operational costs are. How is a foreigner accessing a course via the internet different from a student in the UK doing the same?
HI Sophie, the principal cost difference is in provision of material, library resources, ebooks etc as the cost charged to OCA is higher, plus the need to find content for certain territories which brings its own cost. There are other costs, like VAT for this year, but resourcing is the main one.
What do you mean by provision of material? If you mean sending physical copies, wouldn’t it be more prudent to have a postage fee instead of baking it into our tuition? I can’t think of another way that “provision of material” would be more expensive for international students.
You have cited the individual items that are apparently the result of higher fees, but I am interested in why. What makes these things more expensive for international students? Is it a Brexit problem, for example, in the case of EU students? What barrier makes providing an online course outside of the UK more expensive? Is the content not the same for all territories?
I’m afraid you haven’t been very clear, Craig.
As a fellow International student: Here! Here! For example, attending in-person OCA student UK meet-ups from Canada is a major expense that I personally incur if I wish to attend, in addition to my student fees.
HI Mary, whilst there are in person meetups organised by OCASA (which is not part of the course), they also routinely put on online events which are open to anyone, plus of course the events that happen within department spaces.
FA student here. I’d like to know what course events within departments spaces you refer to. We’ve had very little to nothing over the past two years. Course fees going up events provisions disappearing. Doesn’t seem value for money and it certainly isn’t fair. We’re getting less and less for more and more money.
HI Richard, I’m sorry to hear you feel you receive a poorer experience as an international student. It does cost OCA more to provide courses to students overseas. The main reason for this is content licensing (library resources, ebooks etc) which OCA pays more for. There are however other costs, including this year changes in VAT.
Dear Craig,
Thank you for attempting an explanation. Re the poorer experience see Mary’s comments. I tried to set up a group in Ireland and the only support I got was a reluctant agreement to pass an email to Irish students. I relation to having pay extra for digital library materials. I presume you are saying overseas students attract extra costs. Since the only digital materials I have access to are OU Library materials I find it very hard to believe that this international institution discriminates between the students it registers in the UK and those overseas. I could go a lot further in my analysis of this matter but life is too short. I will finish my current module and see then; I resent being take for either a cash cow or a fool.
Richard
Hi Craig,
This is a very vague answer – maybe you could give actual figures so it doesn’t seem like you have added a few hundred quid to the overseas student fees just for the Hell of it.
My fees have gone up by 18% since last year – Why?
Hi Craig, I take advantage of online events, but my point is that, although UK students would have to incur costs to attend in-person events, these costs are considerably higher for me coming from Canada. In-person events are a valuable part of the experience. It rankles that I must pay not only higher tuition fees but also incur high costs to attend in-person events, thereby decreasing my opportunities to attend these events. Falmouth University has the same tuition for online study for both domestic and international students. Thank you, Mary
As Richard rightly pointed out, a 47% increase in tuition fees over just two years is excessive and troubling, especially for a school that positions itself as a non-profit organization committed to accessible education. As an international student, I am impacted by the financial burden from this substantial fee hike. International students already pay significantly higher tuition than domestic students. As Mary noted, despite these higher costs, we often receive fewer services and less support than our domestic peers. The justification for such steep fee increases is unclear and, frankly, disheartening. It sends a message that OCA is not prioritizing student welfare, diversity, and inclusion. This runs counter to the mission that OCA publicly upholds: to provide accessible, high-quality education for all. For many of us, these rising costs are not just inconvenient, they’re unsustainable. Perhaps, the administration can reconsider this tuition policy, or at the very least, to offer greater transparency and justification for these hikes. Thank you. Shirry
Even more disheartening is that beyond the initial response, our questions and comments are now going unanswered.
Thank you for continuing the discussion Shirry.
This news is extremely disappointing especially off the back of last year’s increases which were a lot to stomach. These are such huge increases – the message that has been sent to students doesn’t seem to acknowledge the magnitude of the cumulative increase. For many the cost of their studies (I’m talking UK students here) has increased almost 70% in 4 years (from £1350 – £2268 per 40 credits) and so this news amounts to shattered dreams because such increases are just personally unsustainable.
OCA was appealing because of its accessibilty, flexibility and affordability – and this I understand is at the heart of its charitable mission. These moves seem to contradict this. When embarking on the committment there is no way I would have anticipated a such a staggering increase of fees in 4 years. I would have made a different decision then, and the time has come now sadly to relook at options.
It’s difficult to see how the college can justify such increases. Please could we see more evidence around this – how were these numbers arrived at, what decision making processes have been gone through? I understand that costs are rising, the climate is difficult and there have been increased costs such as NI – and we all want our tutors paid well and fairly as they are the absolute best thing that OCA offers – but 70% increase cannot account for this. Also, critically – what is the long term vision here? How much has OCA factored in a loss of students? How many students can it realistically expect will actually graduate from its courses? Without graduates you cannot build a reputation, which might arguably be a way to build any kind of justification for any longer term increases.
As a (in the process of becoming) Student Rep in Fine Art I would like echo many of the voices I have been hearing this last year that the change to the new 3×3 courses has been a struggle. We have been guinea pigs, road testing new courses that many of us feel need adapting to make them more fit for purpose. Alongside this, in Fine Art we have seen a notable drop in the number of events offered to us. There are no regular crits organised and very few departmental events. And because we are now are siloed into Fine Art we have less exposure to other departments such as Drawing and Painting. So the fee increase does not seem in any way reflected in what we have received – if anything the substance of the offer has been reduced.
It is also of great concern that the message from Will provided no reassurance that there will not be any further significant increases in the next few years. It is hard not to assume that the plan is to keep on increasing, so that by the time I would be on Level 3 the cost will be as it is in a bricks and mortar university. In which case it really is, very sadly, time to look at other options. I do love being part of OCA but this is unstainable.
I really believe the college need to relook at this move, on the basis that it doesn’t align with its mission to be accessible and it may well be writing itself out of having any graduating students to speak of. Please can students have the opportunity to hear more about these proposed increases in a face to face meeting with leadership? Can we have the chance to understand their calculations and longer term vision? Can we have a space for the leadership to understand what impact these fee increases are going to have on its student base?
Thank you
Katy
(Fine Art, Level 2.1, UK based)
When I first enrolled on the degree at the end of 2020, my first 40 credit module cost £1350. Now, just over 4 years later, if I continue to the next 40 credit module later this year, I will be looking at £2268: that’s a 68% increase in the cost of 40-credit modules over the course of 4 years! So, a degree that was originally marketed to me as costing around £9000, will cost at least £18,000 by completion.
Yearly, inflation-matching increases are to be expected with any study/ service provider, but I find it hard to accept a rise as large as this over such a short period, more so as the vast bulk of my learning is self-directed!
Can the OCA realistically describe their degree courses as affordable or value for money now? For an organisation whose stated mission is to widen participation in arts education, there will now be a large segment of their target audience – those on lower incomes and those who cannot study full-time – who cannot now consider studying. There will also be those current students who will now be unable to complete their courses. Yes, there is support available, but many forms (student loans) still result in accrual of debt in the long term, and those that don’t, are limited in the dent they make in costs. And yes, the degrees may be around 30% lower than at a traditional Uni, but the OCA are not providing me studio space or specialist equipment (all of which I myself fund to enable study on this course) or as much tutor contact time.
The changes that have occurred since transition to the OU currently don’t match the expectations built by the communications in the run up. The structure and content of my degree has significantly changed – something that wouldn’t happen in a bricks and mortar environment whilst there are active students on a course. Elective units have been replaced with mandatory ones, and more are now required to complete HE5 and HE6 – incurring more cost! There is an increased workload, whilst creative practice seems to have been reduced, in favour of an increased focus on theory and academic writing (at least in my current Unit). There have been less extra-curricular events and regular crits than in previous years.
There were no detailed communications about what the changes would actually mean at a granular level and how they would impact students, in terms of course content and study effort, until well after the transition had occurred and fees had been paid (and not refundable). The continuing excellent tutor support aside, my experience this year has been ‘less positive than’ previous years – and I echo Katie’s comments on this – I feel we have been guinea pigs for a new Unit that is still a work in progress. And going forward, I will be expected to pay more for a study experience that is not currently matching my experiences of the previous years.
With all of these structural changes, rises in fees and ongoing rises in the cost of living, I too will potentially have to consider alternate options.
I ask that OCA engage fully and face-to-face with the students on this subject rather than hide behind a digital wall. Organise a digital town hall and have an open discussion where all parties can be fully heard, and both sides of the human-impact of this decision can be understood and appreciated.
This is my 5th year with OCA and I whole heartedly agree with the comments and concerns raised regarding the enormous hike in fees while experiencing a reduction/absence of any learning events/input.
After two units at Level 5, I am unlikely to be able to complete the third unit and gain a level 5 qualification or my degree because the increase in fees have made it unaffordable and, given the lack of any learning input, not value for money. This leaves me with an incomplete qualification and what feels like two wasted, expensive, years of exhausting, time consuming study.
Until I hear otherwise I don’t believe OCA’s leadership team/decision makers have fully considered the impact these course fee rises will have on their students and the college’s reputation.
Please answer us, or at least keep us in the loop. Are you curating a comprehensive response that breaks down the pricing and its reasons?
Another blog post with greater transparency would go a long way. A comment saying that you see us and an answer is coming would help too.
I’m not normally one to comment on these things but I think this is bad business for the college. Many of us are mature students making an entirely voluntary decision to commit unit by unit and the level of fees is likely to be a factor in signing up for the next one. No business can keep on pushing up fees at this level without eventually seeing some drop off in revenue.
We do take on board the feedback from students through the student association and I would really encourage any of you that feel strongly on this issue to consider joining OCASA and contributing to the discussions at our Board. I appreciate that this news is unwelcome and I’d ask that all OCA students do two things: Firstly check what all other providers charge for an undergraduate degree accredited by a UK institution. In particular if you can find any that are lower than OCA’s. Secondly I urge you to look at OCA’s finances which are publicly available as these show how your money has been spent. There are valid reasons why there are not a number of other providers charging lower fees to ours, in particular that Colleges and Universities charge what it costs to teach a degree at HE level at a UK institution. Our fees continue to be lower than the government fee cap which is applied by other institutions. We constantly monitor this to keep fees affordable and offer bursaries to those on low income. We do this because we understand it’s costly to study and adult learners are twice as likely to struggle financially during your studies. We are always looking for ways to offset fees and are currently exploring donations and alternative income generation to help keep the fees affordable, again if you wish to contribute to that please do so through OCASA – we would love to hear you ideas. Finally I urge you to look at what we charge compared to what all other UK accredited providers charge and use that as the basis for deciding if what we charge is fair. We are a registered charity and don’t make profit so all our income goes back to you in services provided and what I cannot see in your comments is a counter argument/example so if there is one I’d like to know it. If you can help us achieve that then please join OCASA and get involved.