About Buckingham
Buckingham is unique. It is the only independent university in the UK with a Royal Charter, and probably the smallest
with around 2,000 students (approx 1,300 on campus). Honours degrees are achieved in two intensive years of study. We keep class sizes small, with a student:academic staff ratio of 9.6:1 and the Oxbridge style tutorial groups are often personalised and always exhilarating.
The University campus is well known for being one of the most attractive locations in the region. The Great Ouse river, home to much wildlife, winds through the heart of our campus. Much of our teaching takes place in our restored buildings such as the Franciscan Building, formerly a friary, and, Chandos Road Building, a converted turn-of-the-century milk factory, while students can also enjoy the Hunter Street Library, once military barracks.
Each student mixes with 89 other different nationalities and so being at Buckingham is just like being in a mini global village. These contacts, acquaintances and friendships, carry on long after life at Buckingham is over. Our graduates find jobs all over the world, and the friendships they make here go a long way to broadening their experience and to giving them links that, possibly, no other university can do at such an intense level.
Bachelor’s + Master’s in Just Three Years
Buckingham has pioneered the two-year honours degree. Studying for two years at Buckingham allows you to gain an equivalent degree to one achieved in three years elsewhere. This is made possible by our restructuring of the academic year to provide an additional term each summer. So you fit in the same number of teaching weeks as on a conventional three-year programme, but your work-load in any term is no greater. Buckingham is not a ‘crammer’ and we don’t cut corners.
Following your Bachelor’s with a Master’s at Buckingham means that you can gain a postgraduate degree in just three years. This could set you apart in that all important job application – not surprisingly, Buckingham leads the graduate employment tables. If you stay on to study at Master’s with us, you can also benefit from up to 33% discount on your tuition fees.
The two year degree
- An intensive, fast track degree offering as much academic content in two years as other universities offer in three.
- Flexible entry points – many of our degrees start in January, July & September each year.
- Allows you to start working and earning one year earlier.
- One of the best ratio of teaching staff to students of any UK university means we can guarantee small class sizes
- You make full use of the whole year, including the long summer holiday period of other universities, which is better preparation for the world of work.
- Flexible start dates.
- Teaching is generally provided over 2 semesters (2 terms a semester) of 20 weeks.
- Your degree will comprise a full 360 credit units, just like other Bachelors degrees.
Value for money
Our two-year honours degrees offer a value for money alternative to courses at other universities, while our excellent student to staff ratio of 9.6:1 compares favourably to the national average of 14.2:1. The illustration below shows an example of the typical savings that can be made:
| Buckingham 1 | Other UK Universities | |||
| Tuition 3 | Living Costs 2 | Tuition 3 | Living Costs 2 | |
| Year one | £12,444 | £8,000 | £9,000 | £8,000 |
| Year two | *£12,948 | £8,000 | £9,000 | £8,000 |
| Year three | 0 | 0 | £9,000 | £8,000 |
| Sub-total | *£25,392 | £16,000 | £27,000 | £24,000 |
| Total | £41,392 | £51,000 | ||
National Rankings
The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2016
The University of Buckingham is very proud to be The Times and The Sunday Times University of the Year for Teaching Quality. At a time when there is such concern about the quality of teaching at our universities, there is no accolade more important than this. This is what The Sunday Times said about us in their Good University Guide 2016:
“For many years Britain’s only private university, Buckingham is still the only one in our main league table, now well established in the top 50. It has too few students to be classified in some measures for several years, but has seen dramatic growth in a decade, attracting younger and more British students than had been the case.
The opening of the country’s first private not-for-profit medical school saw the first 64 students arriving in January. The course, which was “massively oversubscribed”, is 4½ years long, modelled on Leicester University’s MBChB programme, and costs £35,00 a year – in line with the overseas rate at other medical schools.
Buckingham, which celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2016, has a new vice-chancellor, the political historian and former independent school headmaster Sir Anthony Seldon, who has joined from Wellington College.”
The National Student Survey
Buckingham is proud to have been top or near top of the National Student Survey (NSS) in student satisfaction since 2006.
The NSS provides all final-year undergraduate students in UK higher education institutions and further education colleges with the opportunity to express their opinions on what they liked during their time at university.
Sir Anthony Seldon, the new Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham, said: “We are delighted to be leading the National Student Survey once again for student satisfaction. Our high staff student ratio and open door policy results in students at the University of Buckingham getting all the help they need from tutors and enjoying the many benefits of small Oxbridge-style tutorial groups.”
Other strengths in the league tables
- Staff: student ratioRanked 1st out of 127 universities (Complete University Guide 2017)
- Graduate prospectsRanked 1st for graduate employability with 98.1% by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) 2016
- Satisfied with courseRanked 1st out of 127 universities (The Complete University Guide 2017)
- Safest campusRanked 1st in England and Wales (The Complete University Guide 2016)
- Subject area rankingRanked 7th in Psychology out of 112 universities (The Guardian University League Table 2016)
- Subject area rankingRanked 7th in Politics out of 77 universities (The Guardian University League Table 2016)
- Free speechRanked 1st for upholding Free Speech (Spiked Magazine Poll).
Tuition fees
Undergraduate degree – September 2016 start
| Tuition Fees 8-term Business degree |
Tuition Fees 9-term degree |
|
| Year one | £17,160 | £12,870 |
| Year two | *£17,160 | *£17,160 |
| Year three | – | *£4,290 |
| Total | *£34,320 | *£34,320 |
* Fees are reviewed annually and may increase, usually in line with inflation. For termly payment information, visit our detailed fee breakdown.
Postgraduate International Fees 2016 – 2017
You may find it useful to look at our Accommodation fees to help you to budget for your living expenses during your studies. See our definition of fee status for details of who qualifies as an international student.
Please note that the University of Buckingham has four (4) terms per year. The tuition fees quoted are for the degree (e.g. if you start an MBA at Buckingham in January 2016, you will pay the same termly fee for the duration of your degree – you will not be affected by the price increase in September 2017).
Postgraduate taught degrees |
|||
Course |
Termly fee* |
Total tuition fees* |
Annual fee* |
| LLM (4 terms – Sept ’16 entry & 3 terms – Jan ’17 entry) (course info) | £3,885 | £11,655 | – |
| MA in Law Enforcement, Security and Intelligence (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MA in Security and Intelligence Studies (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MA in Security, Intelligence and Diplomacy (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MA in Archaeology (course info) | £3,060 | £12,240 | – |
| MA in Biography (course info) | £3,435 | £13,740 | – |
| MA in Decorative Arts and Historic Interiors (3-terms) (course info) | £4,500 | £13,500 | – |
| MA in Dickens Studies+♣ (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MA in English Country House+♣ (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MA in Appied Research in Urban Design+♣ (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MA in the Art Market and the History of Collecting (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MA in History of Art: Renaissance to Modernism+♣ (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MA in History of Sport♣ (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MA in Human Rights+♣ (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MA in International Affairs (by research)+♣‡ (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MA in Military History+♣ (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MA in Modern War Studies and Contemporary Military History+♣‡ (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MA in Philosophy+♣ (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MBA (course info) | £3,965 | £15,860 | – |
| MD in General Internal Medicine (Clinical) (2-year, 8-term) (course info) | £55,000 | £27,500 | |
| MSc in Clinical Science (course info) | £6,750 | £27,000 | |
| MEd in Educational Leadership (18-month, 6-term) (course info) | £4,300 | ||
| MSc in Accounting and Finance (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MSc in Applied Computing (18-months, 6-term) (course info) | £2,835 | £17,010 | – |
| MSc in Innovative Computing (course info) | £3,465 | £13,860 | – |
| MSc in Finance and Investment (course info) | £3,965 | £15,860 | – |
| MSc in Financial Service Management (course info) | £3,615 | £14,460 | – |
| MSc in Continuous Improvement in Public Services (2-years, part-time) (course info) | £2,125 | £17,000 | £8,500 |
| MSc Lean Enterprise (2-years, 8-term) (course info) | £2,250 | £18,000 | £9,000 |
| MSc Entrepreneurial Consultancy & Practice (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MSc Management in a Global Service Economy (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MSc Management in a Service Economy (course info) | £3,535 | £14,140 | – |
| MSc Management in a Service Economy (part-time) (2-years, 8-term) (course info) | £1,767.50 | £14,140 | £7,070 |
Postgraduate Certificates and Diplomas |
|||
Course |
Termly fee* |
Total tuition fees* |
|
| Certificate in Computing (2-terms) (course info) | £3,465 | £6,930 | |
| Pre-Masters Course in Business (1-term) | £5,095 | £5,095 | |
| Graduate Diploma in Computing (3-terms) (course info) | £3,465 | £10,395 | |
| Graduate Diploma in Computing (4-terms) (course info) | £2,600 | £10,400 | |
| Postgraduate Certificate in Middle Leadership (course info) | >£2,100 | ||
| Independent PGCE (course info) | >£4,595 | ||
Postgraduate research
|
|||
| Termly fee* |
Total tuition fees* |
Annual fee* |
|
| Full-time – English Literature | £3,255 | Dependent on duration of study | £13,020 |
| Full-time – Humanities, Business, Law | £3,320 | £13,280 | |
| Full-time – Science♦ | £3,320 | £13,280 | |
| Full-time – Computing♦ | £3,255 | £13,020 | |
| Resident outside of the UK | £1,660 | £6,640 | |