Central Scholarship Programme

For over 100 years, the Central School of Speech & Drama has nurtured and enriched the talents of extraordinary actors, practitioners and researchers. At the heart of Central’s mission is a commitment to place students at the centre of its work and to develop individuals who will go on to shape the future of theatre and performance across the UK and beyond.

Why Support Us explains in detail how Central's excellence training model is designed to foster such talent.

Our Goal

We aim to accumulate £3 million in support of Central's Scholarships Programme over the next 10 years. This funding will be crucial to help us attract and retain the best students from a diverse range of backgrounds, regardless of their financial means.

Why we need a Scholarship Programme

Without financial assistance in the form of scholarships and bursaries, students are likely to need to borrow to pay for the tuition and living costs whilst at Central.  Central’s training is intensive and a typical student day runs from 9am to 6pm and frequently lasts into the evening (with rehearsals and performances).  This means that traditional ways of earning extra income available to many students studying at mainstream universities are thus impractical for our students.

For many of our graduates, their first jobs in performing arts are often low paid or pro bono.  Without scholarships the risk is that carrying long-term debt will act as a barrier to many aiming to train and work in the performing arts.  As a result, we fear that the performing arts industries risks losing the very talented people it needs to flourish.

How you can support the Scholarship Programme

Our Scholarship Programme is designed for those supporters who wish to make a significant contribution to safeguard the training of some of our most talented students.

Donors making a gift over £5,000 will confer naming rights of a scholarship, receive regular updates from their individual scholars and automatically become members of the Pivot Club. Donors wishing to give at a lower level are encouraged to join the Pivot Club as Friends, Circle or Stall level members. Money raised from the Pivot Club will support the areas of greatest need within Central, including student scholarships.

To make a contribution to our Scholarship programme and to discuss how your gift will be used, please contact Meg Ryan, Head of Major Gifts, on meg.ryan@cssd.ac.uk or call +44(0) 20 7449 1636.