Postgraduate programmes

You can apply for Edinburgh Business School programmes through the Edinburgh Business School website.

Postgraduate Taught applications

Once you create an account, please fill in and submit your application form. The application status will show as ‘submitted' and you can then proceed to upload your supporting documents.

The only document you are required to upload initially for your application to be reviewed is your academic transcript. However, we recommend you upload the following documents (including certified translation if applicable):

• Academic transcript (if you haven't graduated yet, please include your transcript to date) 
• A copy of the picture page of your passport if you are an international student.
• Your degree certificate
• Evidence of English language if English is not your first language. Please find information of the types of English evidence we can accept.

In some cases, after your application is reviewed you may be requested to provide additional documents such as:

• Supporting or personal statement/statement of purpose
• CV
• Academic reference
• Digital Portfolio (for some of our School of Textiles and Design courses)

Once your academic transcript has been uploaded in slot marked with an asterisk *, the application status will show as ‘Completed' and will be reviewed by the Admissions team, we will get in touch with you directly if we require anything else from you.

Postgraduate Research applications

Please note, our postgraduate research applications may require additional documents, such as a research proposal.

Once you create an application account and submit your application form, you will be able to view the essential documents which are required from you. They are all marked with an asterisk *.

Once all required documents have been uploaded in all the slots with an asterisk *, the application status will show as ‘Completed' and will be reviewed by the Admissions team.

Please contact the relevant team for further information. Contact details can be found on the course pages.

Some courses may have a deadline. Please check the course pages for any applicable deadline. Popular courses may close to applications earlier than others, it's therefore recommended to apply as soon as you can.

Unless the course page advises otherwise, international students must apply at least 6 weeks before teaching is due to begin.

If you do not require a visa to study in the UK you can apply up to 2 weeks before the start of teaching.

Please be aware that in order to secure accommodation on campus you must have received and accepted your offer and submitted a separate accommodation application by the accommodation deadline.

All applications will be carefully considered by appropriate staff in the relevant school and you will receive a response as soon as possible.  For some programmes, where the volume of applications is very high, this may be several weeks but for most programmes, you should hear from us within 6 weeks.

The response that you receive from the admissions team will be either:

• an unconditional offer
• a conditional offer (further supporting documentation will be required, such as a copy of your degree certificate if you had not completed your degree when you first submitted your application)
• a request for more information
• regretfully, a decision to reject your application

You will be able to view our decision by logging into your application account. We'll send you an email to notify you when an update has been made. If you receive an offer please accept it as soon as possible to change your offer status to Firm.

For conditional offers: We advise you to meet conditions as soon as possible to ensure there is time to process the paperwork required for student visa applications and prepare for enrolment.

Once you have met all the conditions, your offer will be made unconditional. Once you have accepted your offer, international students will be sent a form to complete so we can process your Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies (CAS) letter which you may use to help you obtain an entry visa to the UK (if you need one).

All firm offer holders will receive an email ahead of the start of term, with instructions on how to enrol onto your programme.

We operate a tuition fee advance instalment payment, which means that you can secure your place at Heriot-Watt University by paying the first instalment of your first year's tuition fees. This payment will mainly apply to overseas or self-financing postgraduate students. Please ensure you meet your academic conditions before you make the non-refundable advanced instalment deposit payment.

If you wish to study for a postgraduate degree and are able to demonstrate that your tuition fees will be paid for by a third party (a sponsoring company or government agency, for example), you can be exempted from paying the advance instalment at the discretion of your School.

If you have already enrolled and would like to delay your start date you will need to apply for a Temporary Suspension of Studies via your student portal. If you have already applied and are now unable to start your studies as planned, you can request to change your start date. Our Deferral Policy provides guidance as to when and how deferrals can be requested and the rationale for accepting or declining this request.