This section gives you more information about how much it costs to study at Cambridge University and Newnham College. It also tells you about the funding available through student loans.
The costs at Cambridge University are the same types as at almost any other University in England: your tuition fees, your accommodation costs and your living costs.
Our Bursaries & Grants page tells you about the many ways that Cambridge University and Newnham College will help with those costs, especially for people with lower incomes.
- Tuition Fees
Information regarding tuition fees for students studying for an undergraduate degree at Cambridge can be found on the fees and finance pages of the Undergraduate Study website.
Home Fees students studying for their first undergraduate degree can take out a government Tuition Fee Loan for their tuition fees. If you do this you can defer payment of the loan until after you’ve left university and are earning a minimum salary, at which point you’ll start to repay the loan in instalments.
For Home Fees students undertaking a full year abroad, the tuition fee payable to the University of Cambridge can be found on the tuition fee page of the Undergraduate Study website.
See the Funding for UK students section below for details of the financial support we can offer.
Tuition fees for overseas students (including the EU) vary depending on the course you are studying. See the Funding for Overseas students section below for details of possible financial support.
Overseas students pay an additional College Fee, which will be £11,525 in 2024-25. Further information on fees and living costs can be found on the overseas fees page of the Undergraduate Study website.
- Accommodation costs
All our undergraduates live together in College, in single study-bedrooms. Rooms are very varied, with en-suite rooms in the new Dorothy Garrod Building, and historic rooms in the original buildings. However, all rooms at Newnham cost the same amount. This fixed fee structure is different to that of many other Colleges, where different rooms cost different amounts. We feel that it’s important that everyone has the same opportunities to live in the most beautiful rooms.
Students from families on lower incomes receive a rent bursary: about a third of undergraduates currently receive rent bursaries.
There are two options: a termly contract, where your room needs to be vacated in the Christmas and Easter vacations, and a continuous contract where it doesn’t.
For 2024-25 , the rent is £187.50 per week. If you are eligible for a rent bursary, it will be subtracted from this total. Rents at Newnham increase by inflation each academic year, based on the CPIH inflation measure for the previous calendar year, rounded to the nearest £1. Please see our accommodation pages for more details.
The rent includes, or includes a contribution towards, the costs of: all utilities (electricity, gas, water); wired and wireless network access; laundry facilities; cleaning of communal areas; personal content insurance. Students must provide their own bed linen (sheets, duvet cover, pillow covers) and towels.
In addition, a Catering Pre-Payment of £200 will be added at the start of each term to the College Bill of all those undergraduates in College accommodation (making a total of £600 per year). While a student is in credit, they will receive a 25% discount on full prices at the Buttery and the Iris Café. Students can top up their CPP online whenever they like and need never pay full price.
For new students there is a one-off cost of membership of the Newnham Roll, which is £60. This payment enrols you as a life member of the alumnae association, which currently has 7,500 members.
Some students may need adaptations to their rooms (for example, to accommodate a disability or religious requirements): you will not be charged an additional fee for this. Please do make early contact with the Admissions Office regarding any specific requirements you have.
- Living costs
You can find an approximate guide to living costs on the Undergraduate Study website – some students can exist on much less than this guide indicates, and others would find that not enough – it really does depend on your lifestyle.
There are no real transport costs (after the initial purchase of a bike if you choose, and perhaps the odd taxi home after a night out), food in the College Buttery is heavily subsidised, and student-run social and sports activities are generally low-cost.
Students who have additional mobility needs, either temporary or ongoing, can apply for a grant towards appropriate costs (e.g. taxis to lectures with a broken leg).
Newnham offers bursaries and grants towards a range of expenses, including book grants, research expenses, optional language classes and equipment costs, as well as non-academic activities such as sport, music and travel.
- Funding for UK Students
All UK students are entitled to government financial support, but this can vary, depending on which part of the UK you are from.
All UK-funded students are able to borrow the entire amount of their tuition fees, and are currently then entitled to a mixture of loans and grants, depending on country and household income.
Full-time students can also apply for a maintenance loan (maintenance grants are still available to students from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). The amount you will receive is dependent on your family’s income, as assessed by the Student Finance award agency for the region where you live (England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland). Information about maintenance loans is available from the government’s Student Finance website and there is also a calculator which shows how much your loan might be, which will also give you an idea of how much your household might be expected to contribute. This loan will be paid back in the same way as a tuition fee loan, once you’ve graduated or finished your studies, and are earning over a specific income threshold. For more information, check the information on repaying student loans on the Student Finance website.
The relevant details for Scottish students can be found here, for Welsh students here, and for students from Northern Ireland here.
A few students in special circumstances (student parents, disabled students, those who have heavy costs for travel to clinical placements) are entitled to extra support, and should consult Student Finance in the first instance. Special rules also apply to clinical students in their fifth or sixth years, who may be eligible for NHS Bursaries, and to care leavers, who may receive assistance from their Local Authority.
In 2024-25, UK students studying for their first undergraduate degree from households with incomes below £62,215 are eligible for a Cambridge Bursary, worth up to £3,500 in the first year. Students are automatically assessed for a Cambridge Bursary through their application for Student Finance.
Year Abroad students who are paying a tuition fee are also eligible for Cambridge Bursaries.
Check the Bursaries and Grants webpage for further details of funding available at Newnham.
- Funding for Overseas Students
Unfortunately, there is no UK government support for those applying from outside the UK, unless they are entitled to Home fees status. Overseas students (including those from the EU) are required to provide a financial guarantee for the three or four years of their course (six for those studying Medicine and Veterinary Medicine).
Cambridge offers a small number of full scholarships for students from particular countries, and a larger number of part-scholarships funded by the Cambridge Trust. These are applied for after an offer has been received and details will be sent to offer holders in January. For those with small financial gaps remaining after receiving a Cambridge Trust award, Newnham is able to offer a small number of additional scholarships of up to £5,000.
All these awards are made on the basis of academic merit, with the Cambridge awards announced in March/April and the Newnham awards in May/June. Once awarded, these are held for the three or four years of the undergraduate course.