Admissions Frequently Asked Questions

The Referee Notice and Form can be downloaded from the link below.

This will depend on which stage your application is at: 

• Prior to audition/interview, references are shared with the assessing tutor to make informed decisions on applications. 

• During an interview, a tutor may wish to pick up on something your referee has mentioned, particularly if you have not mentioned it. 

• Following an interview, references are consulted by both Admissions and the course team prior to making an offer. 

If further information is required from the referee, Admissions will make contact using the details that have been shared with us. Please make sure these details are full and correct, as any mistakes or omissions can result in a delay. 

As long as you make your application via UCAS before 26th January UCAS Equal Consideration Date then we will be in touch with details about next steps. If you don’t hear from us after 3 weeks, and are concerned about the length of time that has elapsed, please contact Admissions on admissions@cssd.ac.uk.

We may be waiting for an interview/audition date from the Course Leader, or it may simply be that all available spots have been booked up. At Central we try to interview every applicant, and so while there are still applications outstanding, we will continue to add interview dates. Please keep checking back on the booking page for new dates (an easy way to do this is to bookmark the page) – though Admissions will also email remaining applicants when a new date is uploaded. Please be aware that slots may fill up quickly.

In order to apply for a Student visa, overseas students require a CAS, which is generated by Central. As a licensed sponsor, we are required to evidence that we have assessed our overseas students’ English proficiency prior to applying for a CAS. For this reason, we would suggest that you look to gather evidence to demonstrate your English level, which may involve an IELTS exam, as soon as possible. The final deadline to meet all conditions is 1 September. 

Please note, however, an English Language Qualification is not necessarily required under certain circumstances – if you’re from a majority English-speaking country, or have previously completed a degree where the medium of instruction was first-language English, or have already proved this in a previous visa application, for example (evidence will still be required).  

For further information, please follow this link: https://www.gov.uk/student-visa/knowledge-of-english

We understand that you may be applying to non-drama subjects within the same UCAS application and therefore your personal statement may be geared towards this area. We use the audition and interview process as our main way of better exploring your suitability for our courses and to get to know more about you as a creative. There is absolutely no requirement for you to send in an additional statement, however if you do wish to do so, we are able to accept this and pass it on to academic staff ahead of the audition or interview to supplement other information on the UCAS form. You can send this to admissions@cssd.ac.uk at any point after making your application but please include your UCAS ID in this email.  

We advise that you book a date to submit your audition self-tape at a time that is most convenient for you and we do not encourage that you change this after booking. If there are no suitable dates when you receive the booking link, please wait and keep checking the link for new dates that may be more suitable. However, we do understand that unexpected circumstances can occur, so if you believe that you have extenuating circumstances and need to rebook a date then please contact invitations@cssd.ac.uk making sure you clearly reference your UCAS ID. 

If you are looking to rebook less than a week before your submission date, then we would recommend following the booking link and booking a new date, and separately email invitations@cssd.ac.uk to arrange a refund of your original date. If you are in receipt of a free audition and find yourself in this scenario, please call us between 9:00-17:00 so we can help with booking a new date. 

Upon booking your audition or interview date through Eventbrite, you should receive an email with instructions on how to submit your tape, portfolio or additional materials. Please ensure you check junk/spam folders on your email as it is common that emails can go there. 

If it has been a few days and you have not received any further instructions, then please contact invitations@cssd.ac.uk and reference your UCAS ID number so we can investigate this further. 

For BA (Hons) Acting, when you submit your audition links within the form, you will receive an automatic confirmation of submission. If there are issues with your audition links or we do not receive your links, you will be contacted by a member of the team. 

For BA (Hons) Contemporary Performance Practice, you will not receive confirmation of receipt, however we will be in touch 2 days before interview and on the day of interview if we have not received academic work from you. If you do not receive an email from us, it means that we have received your work and passed it onto the course team. 

For BA (Hons) Theatre Practice, once we have received your portfolio, we will send you an email containing an Eventbrite link to book your interview. If you do not receive this within 1 week of submitting your portfolio, please email invitations@cssd.ac.uk 

The amount of time between an interview/audition and receiving an outcome can vary depending on a number of factors including the time of the year, how many other applicants have been assessed and more. We try to communicate outcomes as quickly as we can and these will be communicated via UCAS so it is worth checking there on a regular basis. The amount of time it usually takes is a few weeks, but it can take longer. If you are concerned about the amount of time it has taken then do contact us at admissions@cssd.ac.uk and reference your UCAS ID. 

Admissions should send you an email acknowledgement of your acceptance (this is not immediate). If your offer is conditional, please ensure that you can provide original evidence at registration of having met your conditions, including any English-language, qualification translations or visa requirements for non-UK applicants. 

Colleagues from the Registration Team will be in touch with all offer-holders closer to the beginning of your course to let you know any actions you need to take to complete your registration prior to starting with us at Central. 

If you have any questions regarding admissions before then, please do not hesitate to contact us. Should you have any queries regarding your course itself or life at Central, please contact our Student Advice Service on sas@cssd.ac.uk 

Please pay your deposit by bank transfer. Bank details are available on page 7 of the ‘School information’ document linked to from your offer email. It is also possible to pay by card over the phone if bank transfer is not an option for you.

Please note that unfortunately the Admissions Team is unable to provide receipts for deposit payments. You may wish to contact the Finance team at credit.controller@cssd.ac.uk for this, quoting your 6-digit student ID number.

We will email those who are holding offers by 25th April at the end of April inviting you to apply for a scholarship or bursary.

In the meantime, you can check out our range of scholarships and bursaries on our website.

Please note that we will have a second call for bursary and scholarship applications in late August for those who received offers after 25 April 2022.