Our Supported Admissions Scheme provides extra support and guidance to eligible candidates, ensuring that talented performers are not held back by barriers when applying to our undergraduate Musical Theatre courses or pursuing a career in the Performing Arts.

Applications for the Supported Admissions Scheme are open for entry in 2027. Laine Theatre Arts encourages applications from students whose backgrounds are underrepresented in further and higher education.

Our Supported Admissions Scheme is designed to offer additional support and guidance to eligible candidates, ensuring that talented performers are not hindered by barriers when applying to our musical theatre undergraduate courses or pursuing a career in theatre and performance.

We understand that navigating audition processes and higher education applications can be complex. This scheme also provides support for families, parents, or guardians who may have limited experience with applying to vocational schools or higher education and require extra assistance throughout the process.

• Application fee waiver
• An invitation to attend at no cost, in person or online, informal conversations with members of Laine faculty who will offer guidance, support and advice relating to our application and audition process.
• Complimentary ticket to a Laine performance/ event
• Opportunity to receive feedback following your audition.
• Potential travel bursaries to support travel costs to auditions. Please note, this is dependent on your individual circumstances and will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
• If offered a place onto our undergraduate/ diploma course, you can select a payment plan for the course deposit.
• A payment plan can be made available for tuition fees, should you be offered a place.
• Individualised support and guidance not only during, but following the application and audition process, regardless of the final outcome of your audition.

To be eligible for the 2027 Supported Admissions Scheme, you must:

• Have no previous experience of university.
• Be applying for an eligible undergraduate / Diploma programme.
• Be UK-Domiciled.
• Be living in a household with a gross annual income of below £33,000 or which receives means tested state benefits and/or in receipt of Free School Meals, or 16-19 bursary. You must also meet at least one of the below criteria:
  • Have a home postcode which is classified as Quintile 1 or Quintile 2 in the POLAR4 dataset. POLAR4 is a dataset which groups areas of the UK based on the proportion of young people progressing to higher education (Visit the Office for Students website to use the postcode checker.
  • Have a home postcode which is classified as Decile 1-4 in the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) Government dataset. IMD is the official measure of relative deprivation areas of England (visit the IMD website to check, the result is in a downloadable spreadsheet, found in column F
  • Be Black, Asian or Ethnically Diverse.
  • Be in care, a recent care leaver, or estranged from your family. Recent Care Leaver is defined as someone who has been in local authority care for at least 13 weeks in the last 5 years. Estrangement is defined as having no contact with parents in the last 12 months, and being unlikely to have a relationship with them again.
  • Have a declared disability.
  • Have attended a state school or college for the entirety of your education. This means that you attended a school or college that did not charge any fees to any pupils, and was instead funded by the local authority.

There are two ways to apply for the Supported Admissions Scheme:

1.Apply directly.

• If you choose this option, you will be required to provide evidence for some criteria.

2. Referral from a school, college, theatre group or youth organisation.

• Please speak with your teacher or youth worker about the possibility of referring you to the scheme. If they are not aware of the scheme and have any questions, ask them to get in contact directly with our Access and Participation team (joblack@laine-theatre-arts.co.uk).
• Applications and referrals should be submitted via the application form found on the webpages, or HERE.

The deadline for applying to the Supported Admissions Scheme is dependent on the course you are applying to:

If you apply directly to the Scheme, further evidence will be requested to confirm your eligibility. The following outlines evidence that may be required:

Evidence must be uploaded at the point of application, or you can email this directly to joblack@laine-theatre-arts.co.uk. Your application cannot be processed until evidence is provided.

Once your application for the Supported Admissions Scheme has been received and processed, you will receive an email from the Access and Participation Team to let you know if you have been offered a place, and your free application link. Please add joblack@laine-theatre-arts.co.uk and sarahcarroll@laine-theatre-arts.co.uk to your email contact list, to prevent this email going into any junk folders.

If you are being referred to the Scheme, your referee will require your full name, date of birth, email address, home address, course you are applying to and knowledge of which criteria you meet. Please note that you must provide the name and email address which you intend to use on your course application.

• If you are accepted on the Supported Application Scheme, you will be sent a unique code for the online application form for the undergraduate / diploma programme.
• Please do not share this code with anyone else as it may make your application invalid. Additionally, anyone who uses a free application code who has not been accepted onto the Supported Admissions Scheme will have their application cancelled.
• Do not use any code to the online course application other than the unique code you have been sent.
• If you use the link on the ‘How to Apply’ page on the website, you will be creating a new application that requires payment in order to be submitted. Please do not submit an application to an undergraduate /diploma programme until you have received your unique code – we cannot reimburse application fees once they have been paid.
• If you do pay for your application, you can still be part of the Supported Admissions Scheme if eligible, you will just miss out on the free application.

• Enter the code you have been sent into the payment section of your application. You should save this email as you will need to always use this unique link to access your application again.
• In order to assist you with the completion of your application form, we will send Scheme participants a detailed application guide, which will be attached to the confirmation email.
• If you do not have easy access to a computer or the internet, or if you would like more advice on completing the form, please get in touch with the Access and Participation team.
• Please remember that acceptance onto the Supported Admissions Scheme is not an application to the undergraduate / diploma programme – you must complete your application by the published deadlines.
• Any Supported Admissions Scheme participant who has not completed their application by the relevant deadline will be removed from the Scheme, and the free application will no longer be valid.

If you have any questions, please contact: Access and Participation team:

JoBlack@laine-theatre-arts.co.uk

You can also contact Admissions:

Sarahcarroll@laine-theatre-arts.co.uk