Faculty of Music

How to apply

All applicants for 2012/13 graduate courses must apply on-line via the Board of Graduate Studies.

If you are applying to continue on from the M.Phil. to the Ph.D., or are applying for re-admission, you must still send your application directly to the Board of Graduate studies. Details on the continuation/re-admission procedure are available here.

For admission in October 2012, all applications for the M.Phil. in Music Studies and the M.Mus. in Choral Studies, and PhD applications to be considered for funding competitions, must be received by 20 January 2012. (Please note that, if you are applying for funding from Gates Cambridge Scholarships or Cambridge International Scholarships, application dates will be much earlier than this).

Agreed deadlines for receipt of applications are as follows:

  • 14 October 2011 Deadline for US Applications for GATES funding
  • 1 December 2011 Deadline for all non-US applications for GATES, and all applications for CISS and CCT/COT funding
  • 20 January 2012 Deadline for MPhil, MMus and and PhD applications which are to be considered for funding competitions
  • 30 June 2012 Deadline for PhD applications not seeking funding through competitions

Please also check the website concerned for current details (links available on our funding page.

We receive a large number of applications each year and early submission is advisable.

You will find detailed instructions for submitting your application on the Board of Graduate Studies website.
The instructions include a list of the supporting documents you will need to include with your application, such as transcripts and references. In addition to these, be sure to include the materials specified on the page for the programme for which you are applying (M.Phil., M.Mus., or Ph.D.). You do not need to include a CV with your application.

The three main criteria for acceptance are:

  1. whether appropriate supervision for the topic can be found in the Faculty;
  2. whether the quality of the submitted materials justifies interview by the prospective supervisor and another senior Faculty member;
  3. whether the interview justifies that the applicant be accepted.

If a prospective supervisor is available, she or he is asked to produce an assessment of the application for the Degree Committee. If this is negative the application will usually be declined; if positive, the applicant (if resident in this country) is invited for interview by the prospective supervisor and another senior Faculty member, who will report back to the Degree Committee recommending acceptance or rejection. You will be informed of the outcome of the application by the Board of Graduate Studies. Feedback will be provided to those unsuccessful applicants who request it.

You can follow the progress of your application online using the self-service facility on the Board of Graduate Studies website.

Academic qualification requirements

We will not normally admit anyone to graduate work unless they have a high upper second, or first class, honours degree from a university in the UK, or a degree of an equivalent standard from an overseas university. If you have not yet completed your degree, you may be made an offer conditional on obtaining a particular class in that degree.

Applicants will normally hold a degree in Music, though suitably qualified applicants with a background in arts, humanities, and social and natural sciences are all welcome. Applicants from the European Union and from overseas are also encouraged.

Fees and funding

To be admitted to Cambridge, you must give evidence that you can meet the fees and maintenance costs as a graduate student for the entire period of your studies. The way that the University charges fees for graduate courses is currently under review. Please check the Board of Graduate Studies website for the latest information.

See the Board of Graduate Studies website for details of the costs you will incur.

Prospective PhD students should note that all expenses, including fees, can be expected to rise substantially over a three-year period of research. Students from overseas should also allow for fluctuations in currency exchange rates and take steps to fix the amount available to them in sterling.

Please note that it is not possible to take paid work while you are studying full-time at Cambridge, and you must not expect to provide additional income in this way. The only exception to this is that PhD students can earn some money by giving supervisions to undergraduate students, but you should not rely upon this as a significant source of income as no more than six hours a week may be spent in teaching activities.

The PhD is also available in part-time mode over five years. Applicants from outside the EU should however note that it is not possible to obtain a student visa for part-time study.

Competence in the English language

Applicants who are not native English speakers must have a fluent command of the English language and must prove they have passed one of the required language proficiency examinations no more than two years before the start of the course.

In IELTS examinations the minimum requirement is an overall band score of 7.0 with not less than 7.0 in speaking, listening and writing, and 6.5 in reading. In the American TOEFL system the minimum requirement is 600 in the paper-based test with 5.0 in the Test of Written English, or 250 in the computer-based test with 5.0 in the Essay Writing Test.

Test results can be enclosed with the application or they can be sent on later to meet one of the terms of a conditional offer. Do not delay sending your application package to the Faculty in order to include test results.

Colleges

Graduate admission to Cambridge is a two-stage process. First, you must be accepted by the Faculty, then by a college. All the colleges are open to both men and women, except for three – Murray Edwards (formerly New Hall), Newnham and Lucy Cavendish – which are for women only. Students do not have to be, and often are not, in the same college as their supervisor, nor need your college choice be determined by your field of study.

There are five graduate colleges – Clare Hall, Darwin, Hughes Hall, St Edmund’s and Wolfson – which admit only graduate students and mature undergraduates. Because of the increasing number of graduate students, we strongly urge you to include at least one graduate college among your college options, since these colleges are more likely to accept you.

If the colleges you have chosen are not able to offer you membership, the Board of Graduate Studies will make your papers available to other selected colleges. It is University policy that no student who has met all the other conditions of their offer will be prevented from taking up their place purely through want of a college place, so long as the student has not refused an offer of college membership.

For detailed information about each college, see the Graduate Studies Prospectus.

If you have any other queries regarding graduate study in the Faculty of Music, please email dcmusic@mus.cam.ac.uk