Applying to East 15

Information about our courses including entry requirements, fees and modules can be found on the individual course pages on the University of Essex website. We suggest you review these before you start your application.

East 15 Undergraduate Application Process: 

All applicants are required to submit a video audition or participate in an interview depending on the course they have applied for.

If you apply to BA Stage Management or BA Creative Producing (Theatre and Short Film), you will be invited to attend an interview. For all other courses, you will be required to audition.

Applicants may only apply and audition once in each admissions cycle.

Step 1

Read our Application & Audition Terms and Conditions (.pdf). Please note our terms and conditions are subject to change.

Step 2

Complete either a UCAS or University of Essex Direct Application form. Please do not complete both.

• Applying through UCAS: If you are applying to other UK universities through UCAS you should add us as one of your course choices. You need only enter your first choice of course on your UCAS form. You will automatically be considered for all our courses and, if successful, will be made one offer.
  
  You can apply via UCAS here. The UCAS course codes section below has all the information you will need to complete your UCAS application.
  
  You cannot apply to our courses through UCAS Conservatoire.

• Applying directly: If you are not entering UCAS, you will need to complete the University of Essex Direct Application form here.
  
  If you already have a current UCAS application, you cannot use the University of Essex Direct Application form and should add us as one of your course choices on UCAS.

If you have already submitted one of the above application forms and are applying for a course that requires an audition, go to Step 3 below for instructions on what to do next.

• Applying for BA Stage Management or BA Creative Producing (Theatre and Short Film): If you are applying only to these courses, you do not need to do anything further once you have submitted either your UCAS or University of Essex Direct Application. Following receipt of your application, you will receive an email from us inviting you to book an interview. There is no fee for attending an interview for these courses.
  
  If you are applying for a course which requires an audition in addition to BA Stage Management and BA Creative Producing, you will need to complete Step 3 below.

Step 3

Prepare your Round 1 video audition:  All our undergraduate courses (except BA Stage Management and BA Creative Producing (Theatre and Short Film)) require a video audition. You will need to prepare this before you can move to the next step as we cannot process your East 15 Application Form  without a URL link to your video audition.

Full details on what to prepare can be found on the Auditions page here.

Step 4

Complete the East 15 Application Form: On this application you will be able to select up to two East 15 courses that are your preferred course choices and enter the link for your video audition. 

Your preferred course should be the one that you are most interested in. If you are very interested in another one of our courses, enter this as your second preference. If you do not have a second course preference, you should leave the second course preference box blank. We automatically consider applicants for all our courses, taking into account the course preferences that you enter on your East 15 Application form.

If you start your East 15 Application Form and wish to complete it later, you can leave and come back to it on the same device as you started the form. When you click on the link to the form your browser should open at the point that you left the form. If you try from another device or have cleared your browser history since starting the form, you will need to start again.

Applicants may only submit one East 15 application form. If you wish to make a change after you have submitted your form, please email the details to e15adms@essex.ac.uk, including your application number in the subject line.

Please note that incomplete applications will automatically be deleted one month after the form was started. 

Step 5

Pay the £15 Round 1 audition fee or complete the Audition Fee Waiver section on your East 15 Application Form:

• Audition Fee: You can pay your £15 video audition fee online here. This link is also available at the beginning and end of the East 15 Application Form and in the confirmation email that you will receive when the form is submitted.
  
  Please do not pay the fee without submitting your East 15 application form.
  This fee is non-refundable. Download the E15 Application and Audition terms and conditions here (.pdf).

• Audition Fee Waiver: Full details on the Audition Fee Waiver scheme, eligibility and how to apply are in the section below.

Please see the How to Apply section above for full information on how to submit your application to East 15.

If you are applying through UCAS, you will need the following information to complete your form. Please only add your first choice of course on your UCAS application form as we will automatically consider you for all our other courses as well as your preferred course:

Institution Name: Essex
Institution Code: E70
Campus Code: L for Loughton; S for Southend

Courses that require an audition:

Certificate in Higher Education (Cert HE) Acting for Stage & Screen - Campus Code: L or S  UCAS Code: W410

BA Acting - Campus Code: L  UCAS Code: W411

BA Acting (International) - Campus Code: L  UCAS Code: W83A

BA Acting and Contemporary Theatre - Campus Code: L  UCAS Code: W441

BA Acting and Community Engagement (previously known as BA Acting and Community Theatre) - Campus Code: S  UCAS Code W496

BA Acting and Fight Performance - Campus Code: S  UCAS Code W412

BA Acting and Physical Theatre - Campus Code: S  UCAS Code: W494

BA World Performance - Campus Code: S  UCAS Code: W495

Courses that require an interview:

BA Stage Management - Campus Code: L  UCAS Code: W451

BA Creative Producing (Theatre and Short Film) - Campus Code: S  UCAS Code: W900

Once you have submitted either a UCAS or University of Essex Direct Application form you will then need to follow the instructions above from Step 3 onwards. You will need your UCAS or Direct Application number and the URL link for your video audition when you complete your East 15 Application Form

We believe in fair access to training and therefore provide free auditions to applicants from low-income households.

Eligibility

To apply for a free audition, you must meet all of the following essential criteria:  

• You are applying for undergraduate study.
• You are considered a home student for fee status purposes.
• You are ordinarily resident in the UK (i.e. not resident in the UK only for the education purposes).  

In addition to the above essential criteria, one of the following criteria must be met:

• The total gross (before tax or deductions) income including any benefit payments, for your household (including yourself and all adults that live with you), e.g. parent, carer, partner) is under £25,000 per year.
• The applicant is receiving full-time carers allowance or proof that they are a young carer
• The applicant will be a care leaver, aged 21 or under, when they begin training.

I meet the criteria, how do I apply?

Please complete the Audition Fee Waiver section on the East 15 application form here. You will also need to upload supporting evidence with your application.

If you have any difficulty completing the form or uploading your supporting evidence, please email us.

What supporting evidence do I need to provide?

Supporting evidence should be saved as a picture (.png, .jpeg, .jpg), PDF or document and may include:  

• Confirmation of income-related benefit payments. This should show the recipient’s name, address and the amount of benefit awarded.
• P60 or yearly tax document showing household income for the previous financial year. If you do not have this, please provide other evidence of income, for example, a copy of your latest payslip.
• Evidence that you are a Care Leaver or Young Carer. For example, a supporting letter from your case worker.

What happens after I have submitted my application for audition fee waiver?

If you are awarded an audition fee waiver, your application and audition will be sent to the tutor for a decision.

If you are unsuccessful or we require further information from you to complete the assessment, we will contact you by email. If your Audition Fee Waiver is refused, you will be told the reason why and asked to pay the audition fee before your application can proceed any further. 

Overseas applicants are likely to require a Student Visa to study in the UK. If you think this applies to you, and you are offered a place following audition or interview, you may be required to provide the following documentation:

• a copy of your passport
• a copy of the certificate and final transcript of your highest level of qualification showing the grades achieved and date that you were granted the award
• proof that you have undertaken an English language test (for example, IELTS with a score of 6.0 overall and a 5.5 minimum in each component) if English is not your first language

Further information about the documents you will need to provide will be sent to you by the Admissions Office at the University of Essex as part of your offer.

Information on immigration and visas can be found on the University of Essex website.

Audition or interview date

Following submission of your application to East 15, you will receive confirmation that it has been received. If we require any further information from you, our Admissions Team will contact you by email.

If you have applied for an auditioning course, our tutors will review your Round 1 video audition and we will notify you of the outcome. If you are successful, we will invite you to a Round 2 audition.

If you have applied for an interviewing course only, we will be in touch as soon as possible following receipt of your application to arrange your interview.

Please read our audition guidance and the Application and Audition Terms and Conditions (.pdf) for more details.

All correspondence from East 15 and admissions will be via email. Please ensure that you check your inbox regularly (we also recommend that you check junk/spam folders just in case your email provider filters our emails).

Outcome

You should expect to hear from us via email within 10 working days of your application - at busy times (usually January to April), this might take longer. The result of your audition or interview will be one of the outcomes below:

If you are offered a place on your preferred course, you will not be considered for any other courses.  East 15 will consider you for all courses, taking note of your course preferences. You could, therefore, be recalled and offered a place on a course that you have not applied for but is one that our tutors feel would best suit your skills. If an alternative course is offered, then you have been unsuccessful in your application for your other course choices.

Receiving an offer

Successful applicants must submit a response to the University (accepting or declining the offer).

UCAS Applicants: Once you have received a decision from all your choices, UCAS will ask you to accept one offer as your firm (first) choice and one offer as your insurance (second) choice. Please note that East 15 Acting School may not be able to keep places open for applicants who make us their insurance choice. We therefore advise you to either make us your firm choice or decline our offer.

Direct Applicants: If you applied through our Direct Application form, you will need to login to your MyEssex applicant account, click on the Applying tab and then on "Reply to offer" in the task list to accept your offer.

Clearing at Est 15 provides you the opportunity to apply for any remaining places on our courses towards then end of the application cycle. Occasionally, some of our courses may enter the Clearing stage. Clearing applications are typically open from July to October, so please check back for updates regarding the 2025 application period. 

If you have any questions about applying to East 15 through Clearing, you can email our admissions team.

Need a question answering about our audition process or preparation? Want to know the difference between some of our courses?

Find an answer on our FAQ page.