Student funding for dance

Voyager2002 wrote: »

A course that accepts students at 16 is certainly not a degree course (unless the OP's daughter is of such fantastic ability that all the usual rules are waived, in which case getting a full scholarship would not be an issue).

I think all of the 'big three' London ballet schools (the Royal Ballet School, English National Ballet School and Central School of Ballet- edited this to say London as I realised I forgot Elmhurst) offer some kind of 'dance degree' course that students can start on at the age of 16. It seems to be that students get some kind of diploma or foundation degree at the end of two years, which they can then top up to a full degree either through a third year or a distance learning programme. I'm not sure how this works in terms of funding if under 16s can't get degree funding, but I'd guess some of these students can probably can access DaDa funding for the first two years and then get student loan funding for the third year. I think for dance (or at least for UK students doing dance) 'scholarships' as such are pretty rare, my understanding is that since the old Music and Dance scheme ended funding for dance schools has become much more complicated and harder to access. I think that was part of the reason why a lot of dance schools now offer 'degrees', as funding for those is somewhat easier to access.