University of Buckingham

By ALASTAIR MCCALL, DAILY MAIL UNIVERSITY GUIDE EDITOR Published: 13:07, 12 August 2026 | Updated: 13:07, 12 August 2026 Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes. Degrees are cheaper at Buckingham. The university has a long-held advantage from pioneering work in delivering degrees in two years rather than three, saving living costs. And to mark its 50th anniversary this year, the private University of Buckingham is pushing its financial edge further by cutting the annual price of degrees in English literature with creative writing, business management and leadership, business management and marketing and business entrepreneurship from £13,875 to £7,830. With total tuition fees for two-year degrees of £15,660 and annual fees for three-year degrees in the state sector nearing £10,000, Buckingham's will cost around half the price charged elsewhere. Students are on a riverside campus in the pretty town of Buckingham, where teaching is modelled on that in nearby Oxford with small classes and an intensity from the two-year compression. The university has been celebrating its birthday with campus upgrades, notably to student accommodation. With the Crewe medical campus closed this year, the Chandos Road medical school in Buckingham has been upgraded to include GP surgery and home visit simulation rooms with virtual reality headsets, and an outdoor social space. Hunter Street library study rooms have been refurbished and the Tanlaw Mill is now a lively venue by night and a relaxed cafe-style study zone by day. A recent You Said, We Did campaign highlights student feedback being acted upon. This is in response to poor scores in recent National Student Surveys which left a university that topped satisfaction rankings ten years ago propping up national rankings on some satisfaction measures. Much stronger graduate employment performance is behind this year's substantial rise in our ranking. A small university of about 3,000 students, Buckingham offers a compact portfolio of courses with a strong presence in business, computing, law and teacher training plus a thriving medical school. Your browser does not support iframes. For the cost-conscious student, Buckingham makes a lot of sense. Its two-year degrees mean students graduate with significantly less debt than those in the state sector. Tuition cost is broadly similar to the state sector - £27,750 paid out over two years at £13,875 per year, compared to about £30,000 (for students beginning courses in September 2026) over three years. The key saving, which makes Buckingham degrees cost about 20% less (£13,000) than other universities, comes from the living costs saved from completing studies in two rather than three years. There is a limited amount of financial support available, most notably via High Achiever scholarships worth £2,000 in the first year. These are paid to students from the UK and Ireland who make Buckingham their firm choice through UCAS or who accept a direct offer of a place and go on to achieve AAB or better in their A-levels. The four payments of £500 act as discounts on termly tuition fees across Buckingham's four-term academic year. A similar award, worth £2,500, is available for international students. These are not open to medical students. A small number of subject-specific scholarship and bursary awards are available, offering partial remission of fees if the student progresses through their studies. A hardship fund supports students in unexpected financial difficulty with payments of up to £500 available. The university also runs food voucher and laptop loan schemes. Accommodation prices for 2026-27 range from £7,250 to £9,750 for a 50-week let in self-catered accommodation, rising to between £11,250 and £18,250 for catered rooms, also on a 50-week tenancy. Your browser does not support iframes. Your browser does not support iframes. Admissions, teaching and student support The university does not make contextual offers, but it does run a range of integrated foundation degree programmes and an Access to Computing course to help make the university accessible to students who do not have the necessary grades to go directly on to degree courses. Extenuating circumstances and relevant work and life experiences can lead to offers leaning toward the bottom end of the advertised grade requirements, which are typically ABB to BBB at A-level. An extensive teaching apprenticeship programme with around 450 students is the biggest in the country and offers a postgraduate route into teaching without the tuition fees. Targeted financial support through scholarships, bursaries and hardship funds are available for those in need across a range of courses. Further support with paying tuition fees is provided by Future Earnings Agreements, which defer payment of a portion of fees in exchange for a commitment to repay a fixed percentage of post-university earnings for a limited period. (Buckingham's private status means students are not eligible for tuition fee loans from Student Finance England.) The university's counselling team offers professional support, working alongside wellbeing advisers who have mental health training. Mentors are based in each faculty, and students have personal tutors who signpost the mental health and wellbeing support available. Onsite GP services connect to secondary mental health services for further care when needed. Induction week includes sessions on mental health, wellbeing, finances, drugs and alcohol. Student safety is addressed through a talk during Welcome Week, which covers consent and healthy relationships among other topics.