What Can You Study at the Royal Northern College of Music?

The Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester offers study across four broad routes: undergraduate degrees, graduate school programmes, research degrees, and short courses or continuing professional development (CPD). The right route depends on your current level, whether you want a full degree or targeted training, and whether your focus is performance, composition, research, or teaching.

Undergraduate School

The RNCM's undergraduate provision is the entry point for students starting a full conservatoire degree. According to the college's own site navigation, this sits alongside its Graduate School and Research Degree Programme as one of the main study areas.

If you are applying at this level, the site directs you through a defined sequence: Discover RNCM (Open Days) → Entrance Requirements → How to Apply → Your Audition → Your Offer → Fees and Funding. That sequence is worth treating as your checklist, because each stage gates the next.

What to check before applying

• Entrance requirements — confirm the qualifications expected for your instrument, voice, or composition specialism.
• Audition — the RNCM lists "Your Audition" as a distinct step, so prepare for a practical assessment rather than a written application alone.
• Fees and funding — the site groups these together, so budget and support should be reviewed before you accept an offer.

Graduate School

The Graduate School is a separate study area from the undergraduate school. It is the route for students who already hold an undergraduate qualification and want to continue at postgraduate level.

The site does not, in the material available here, break the Graduate School into named individual programmes. What it does confirm is that graduate study is one of the college's core study areas, sitting alongside undergraduate and research provision.

How to decide if this is your route

Choose the Graduate School if you have completed undergraduate study and want to deepen your practice rather than begin a research career. If your goal is a PhD-style project, look at the Research Degree Programme instead.

Research Degree Programme

The RNCM runs a dedicated PhD Research Degree Programme, supported by a research infrastructure that the site lists in detail:

• Research events, including The Sir John Manduell Research Forum
• Conferences and an events archive
• PGR profiles (postgraduate researcher profiles)
• Research activity, research staff, research centres, and research projects
• Knowledge exchange, library, and archives
• The RNCM Collection of Historic Musical Instruments

This is the most research-heavy route the college advertises. It suits candidates who want to produce original research rather than train primarily as performers.

A practical way to test fit

Before applying, look at the PGR profiles and research centres to see whether your intended topic aligns with existing supervision. If no centre or staff profile matches your area, that is a signal to reconsider the route or refine the proposal.

Short Courses, CPD, and the Associate Student Scheme

Not every route leads to a degree. The RNCM also lists:

• Short Courses
• Associate Student Scheme and CPD
• Junior RNCM, with its own "How to Apply and Fees" page

These are the options for learners who want structured musical training without committing to a full undergraduate or postgraduate degree — for example, a school-age musician, a teacher seeking professional development, or an adult returning to study.

Which one fits

Specialisms and Schools of Study

The site organises teaching through Schools of Study and Specialisms, so your subject area — performance, composition, or another discipline — determines which school you sit within. The alumni pages give a sense of the spread: Composition, Conducting, Ensemble, Keyboard, Popular Music, Strings, Vocal, and Wind, Brass and Percussion.

International Students

If you are applying from outside the UK, the RNCM provides a separate international pathway covering:

• Why RNCM?
• English Language Requirements
• Qualifications on Entry
• Application and Audition
• Exchanges
• A Chinese-language version of the site (中文网站)

Check the English language and qualifications pages first — these are the requirements most likely to differ from your home country's system, and they affect whether your application can proceed at all.

The short answer

You can study at undergraduate, postgraduate, research, and short-course/CPD level at the RNCM, across specialisms spanning composition, conducting, keyboard, strings, vocal, popular music, and wind, brass and percussion. Start from the study level that matches your current qualification, then work through the entrance requirements, audition, and fees and funding steps the college sets out.