Welcome Pack - Musical Theatre 2019

INSURANCE
We strongly advise you to have insurance cover for your personal belongings at
your student accommodation. The major student insurance company is Endsleigh
Insurance, but they are by no means the only insurance firm available. We
suggest that you visit a site like www.moneysupermarket.com and search for the
best deal.
Whether we like it or not, Manchester is a big city, and like any city it attracts
a high level of crime. While we do not want to frighten anybody, we do advise
you to acquire good cover for your belongings, not just in your accommodation,
but also for when you carry them about with you. It is also cheaper with mobile
phones to have them covered by your insurance, rather than pay separately to
your mobile phone company. Finally, your parents can usually extend their own
home contents insurance to cover yours while you are at The Arden, this is often
more cost effective.
STUDENT FINANCE
If you haven’t already done so you should visit the Student Finance Direct website
in order to begin your application: www.studentfinance.direct.gov.uk.
Should you require any further information you can contact your Local Authority
for a student support pack (PN1 Form). You will need to use the Student Finance
Direct website to apply for loans for tuition fees and living costs; grants; and other
specific help such as childcare costs.
Before you can enroll at The Arden, you must have, at the very least, a letter from
the Student Loan Company confirming that they are providing you with a loan.
Without such a letter we cannot enroll you and you may need to pay 33% of the
fees upfront in order to join the sessions.
TUITION FEES
The tuition fee for your course this year is £8900
Please note that this is correct at the time of writing.
ACCOMMODATION
TV LICENSE
You will no doubt be aware that as a student your parents’ television license does
not cover your television whilst you are at The Arden. We must remind you that
it is your duty to buy a license if you have a television in your student accommodation.
MONEY MANAGEMENT
You need to consider how you will manage your finances. You will need money
for accommodation, bills, clothes, food, travel, theatre visits, books, equipment,
and for socialising. Your mentor will be a good person to ask for advice about
managing your money and avoiding some of the pitfalls of student life.
Many of you will find that the money you have does not meet your needs, you
may need to supplement your income with paid work, but be aware that you will
need to keep enough time, space and energy for your studies. Any activity that
prevents you from giving your full commitment to your work will affect your
performance on the programme. Some students supplement their income with
casual work in the local theatres and we encourage this as a way of gaining experience,
preparing you for the world of work, and getting a bit of extra cash. However,
all the above statements still apply. There are several theatres that we would
recommend you looking at for employment:
If you are relocating to Manchester, and will be requiring accommodation, you
can find all the relevant information at www.manchesterstudenthomes.com
Once on the site, please follow the link marked ‘private halls’ and this will give you
information relating to all of the student accommodation available in Manchester.
The Arden recommends students to gravitate towards the following accommodation:
Sanctuary: from £112 per week.
Q3 Apartments: from £109 per week.
Six Victoria Point (Hello Student) from £123 per week.
Piccadilly Point: from £174 per week.
Contact, Oxford Road, HOME, First Street, The Palace Theatre, The Opera House
Casual work is a valuable experience but it should not interfere with your studies.
It is a condition of the programme that you must not undertake any other work
between the hours of 9am and 6pm Monday to Friday without making a written
application to your year tutor. It is quite common for applications to be refused,
although never without good reason; there are a number of weeks throughout the
year where you are required to be available full time for rehearsals.
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