Postgraduate enrolment FAQs

Once we have issued your unconditional offer and you have confirmed acceptance, you will first receive an automated email inviting you to set up your student account and password ready for enrolment.  If you don’t receive the email by one week before your chosen intake date, please first check your spam folder in your personal email, or alternatively contact: pgrstudentoffice@derby.ac.uk.

Once you have set your student account and password, you will receive an email invitation to complete online registration. Please follow the on-screen instructions. You don’t need to select any modules. 

After you complete online registration, you can proceed to make a payment or select Logout.

Academic Year 24/25

• June 2025 intake: 2 June – 7 July

Academic Year 25/26

• September 2025 intake: 22 September – 15 October
• January 2026 intake: TBC
• March 2026 intake: TBC
• June 2026 intake: TBC

To pay your fees online, please use the following link to our payment page.

Your annual fees will be stated in your offer letter. Depending on your intake, your annual fees will be pro-rata during your first year. Please see below the 2024/25 pro-rata table:

Full time - Home

• September - £4,786
• January - £2,792
• March - £1,994
• June - £798

Full time - International

• September - £14,500
• January - £8,458
• March - £6,042
• June - £2,417

Part time - Home

• September - £2,393
• January - £1,396
• March - £997
• June - £399

Part time - International

• September - £7,250
• January - £4,229
• March - £3,021
• June - £1,208

Please note that tuition fees are increased annually by the prevailing UK rate of inflation.

Depending on your intake and during the first year, your annual tuition fee payments are split as follows:

• September enrolment – 25% in advance at enrolment, 25% by 1st November, 25% by 1st February and 25% by 1st May.
• January enrolment – 40% in advance at enrolment, 30% by 1st April and 30% by 1st June
• March enrolment – 50% in advance at enrolment and 50% by 1 June
• June enrolment – 100% in advance at enrolment

For any subsequent years, the default payment schedule will be: 25% in advance at enrolment, 25% by 1st November, 25% by 1st February and 25% by 1st May.

Once you have completed Online Registration, please send a copy of your sponsor letter on company headed letter to sponsors@derby.ac.uk For more information about the requirements of the sponsorship letter, please refer to our Tuition Fees leaflet available on our website.

After your loan application has been approved, you will be sent a letter with your payment dates or you can check them in your SFE online account.

As soon as you receive the email invitation to enrol, please confirm to us that you have successfully applied for a doctoral loan by emailing pgrstudentoffice@derby.ac.uk.

Once we have confirmed your enrolment, the University will notify Student Finance England/Wales within a couple of days, so they can release the funds to you, and then you can make your first payment towards your tuition fees.

Your loan will be paid directly to you in instalments over the academic year.

You will be responsible for using the money to contribute towards tuition fees and other expenses as you see fit.

For enquiries regarding payments or payment plans, this includes if you have a Student Finance England / Wales (SFE/W) doctoral loan and wish to amend your payment schedule to align with your SFE/W payments, please contact the Sales Ledger team either by email; salesledger@derby.ac.uk or call on 01332 592742.

You will need to email the Sales Ledger team in each new Academic Year to request/arrange your payment plan for that year. Please attach a copy of your Student Finance payment schedule.

After your enrolment has been confirmed following your identification checks, your registration will be confirmed with Student Finance England. This will allow for your loan to be paid - this is normally five days after your registration is confirmed after the start of term/intake.

The start of term/intake will be stated on any correspondence from Student Finance, and you will not receive any funding prior to the start of term/intake even if your enrolment has been confirmed. If you do not provide a student support number at enrolment this may delay your loan payments. 

For enquiries relating to alumni discounts, please contact the Student Records and Awards team; studentrecordsandawards@derby.ac.uk 

For enquiries relating to funding, please contact the Student Records and Awards team; studentrecordsandawards@derby.ac.uk 

If you require a visa to study in the UK, you will be sent an email asking you to bring your documents to the International Student Hub in Kedleston Road, Derby Campus. If you have any questions, please email them on visa@derby.ac.uk.  

We won’t be able to confirm your enrolment until this is completed.

The programme has specific intakes: September, January, March and June. It might be possible to defer your enrolment. Please send the details to pgrstudentoffice@derby.ac.uk indicating what is the status of your visa application. In some cases, it may be possible to start the programme of studies as an “online distance learner” and transfer to “on campus” once you have received your visa and you are able to travel to the UK. We will discuss your case with the College and confirm to you if this is possible.

The programme has specific intakes: September, January, March and June. It might be possible to defer your enrolment. Please send details of your circumstances to pgrstudentoffice@derby.ac.uk indicating when you are able to arrive in the UK. In some cases, it may be possible to start the programme of studies as an “online distance learner” and transfer to “on campus” once you are able to travel to the UK. We will discuss your case with the College and confirm to you if this is possible.

The programme has specific intakes: September, January, March and June. It might be possible to defer your enrolment. Please send the details to pgrstudentoffice@derby.ac.uk indicating the reasons for the deferral and which intake you wish to defer to. We will discuss your case with the College and confirm this to you if this is possible.

Once we have confirmed that you have completed all the steps for enrolment, you will be confirmed, and you will receive a notification to confirm this, including the details of the next central induction session. We aim to start all new PGR students by the intake deadline, so please ensure you complete all enrolment steps before the deadlines indicated on our website.

If you have been awarded a studentship as part of your offer, once you have completed online registration, we will confirm your enrolment and send you a copy of your contract for you to sign alongside a bank details form. As soon as you have read and signed the contract, please email the signed copy to pgrstudentoffice@derby.ac.uk 

If you already have a bank account in the UK, you can complete the details in the bank details form and email it to sessional@derby.ac.uk – this information will be used to make your stipend payments every month. If you don’t have a bank account in the UK, please email pgrstudentoffice@derby.ac.uk and we can issue an letter that you can present at a bank of your choosing, so you can open a bank account to receive your stipend payments.

Once your enrolment is confirmed, your studentship will be activated. Payments are made in advance, normally in the last week of the month. If you require a detailed stipend payment schedule for the year, please email sessional@derby.ac.uk 

Please make sure that you have sent your bank account details to sessional@derby.ac.uk and a signed copy of your contract to pgrstudentoffice@derby.ac.uk 

Once we have confirmed that you have completed enrolment, you will officially start your programme of studies.

Once we have confirmed that you have successfully completed enrolment, you will be granted access to PhD Manager within 24 hours.

Once we have confirmed that you have successfully completed enrolment, you will officially start your programme of studies. We advise that you arrange to meet with your supervisors once your access to PhD Manager has been granted, so you can discuss your programme deadlines.

Once we have confirmed your enrolment, we will email you the details of the next central induction session. For information about College-level inductions, please contact your supervisors.

Your enrolment will be confirmed when you have completed all the steps for re-enrolment: completion of your Annual Progress Report via the University of Derby Research System, completion of online registration and paid a minimum 25% of your annual tuition fee (if required) or provided a sponsor letter.