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Overview

Once you’ve received an offer for a postgraduate taught or research Master's course and decide you want to attend Imperial, your next step is to reserve your place by paying a deposit.

Who needs to pay a deposit

Offer holders for the following type of courses need to pay a deposit to reserve their place: 

  • postgraduate taught course (e.g. MSc, MBA)
  • research Master's (MRes) course

You do not need to pay a deposit if you are holding an Imperial offer for:

  • an undergraduate course
  • a postgraduate doctoral course e.g. PhD

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What you pay

Deposits vary depending on the course you are applying for:

  • For Master's courses with the Faculties of Engineering, Medicine, and Natural Sciences, you will need to pay a 10% deposit of the first year course fee.
  • For on-campus MSc courses with Imperial Business School, you will need to pay a flat deposit of £7,000 for 2027-28 entry.
  • For other Master's courses with Imperial Business School, you will need to pay a 10% deposit of the full course fee.

You can find the fees for all of our courses on our course pages – search our courses.

If the fee for your course is controlled by a third party and has not been finalised at the time we receive your application, the deposit will be 10% of the provisional first-year fee advertised for the year of entry, unless specified otherwise.

We will deduct any deposit payment from the tuition fees balance.

The main fee invoice will show the full sessional fee, but you will only need to pay the balance as shown within the 'amount due' field in the accompanying email.

We will email you an invoice for the remaining fee once you have completed all conditions of your offer and your place is fully confirmed.

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When payment is due

If you accept an offer of a place to study at Imperial College London, you will either receive a payment link included in the offer letter or automatically be invoiced for the application deposit, usually within ten working days of accepting your offer.

The deposit must be paid within the timeframe specified in the offer letter or invoice. This can range from 14 to 30 days from the date of the offer letter or payment notification, depending on the course. Where a course is due to start within 14 days, a shorter payment deadline may apply.

If you need to request an extension to the payment deadline stated in your offer letter or payment notification, please contact our Admissions Team using our Admissions enquiry form.

Please note that if there is no payment link in the offer letter, this means that the deposit invoice process is automated; you do not need to contact us to request an invoice. If you have not received a deposit invoice within 10 working days of accepting your offer, and there is no payment link on the offer letter, please contact a member of the Tuition Fees team by email at tuition.fees@imperial.ac.uk.

Once you have paid your deposit, your admissions record will automatically be updated, and this will be reflected in your My Imperial account. Please allow 5 working days for your payment to clear the banking system and be applied to your account. Any payments received from students requiring a Student Visa will be shown on their CAS once all fee invoices have been raised.

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Sponsored students

Until your sponsorship has been confirmed and a formal letter of sponsorship accepted by Imperial, you will be required to pay a deposit. If this applies to you, you may wish to contact your department for further advice on your individual circumstances.

If you receive confirmation of full fees sponsorship after paying your deposit, a full refund of any deposit payment received will be made on acceptance of a formal letter of sponsorship by Imperial. If your sponsorship does not cover your tuition fees in full, a refund will be made of any element of your deposit in excess of your final fee liability once all other conditions have been satisfied and your final fee liability assessed.

To request a refund, please use this internal form to submit a case via ASK Imperial. If you do not currently have an Imperial College Account, please register as an external user first, and then use this external form to submit your case."

If you fail to secure sponsorship or other funding and as a result of this are required to withdraw your application to Imperial, your deposit will, unfortunately, not be refundable.

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Upload of deposit payment to your CAS

If you are applying for a student visa to study in the UK, we will upload your deposit payment to your CAS.

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Deferrals

If you defer your application, we will hold any deposit payment received against next year's deposit.

Please note that the deposit you will need to pay next year will be based on the new year's fees rather than previous year's fees. If the course's fee has increased between years, there may be an outstanding balance to pay for the full deposit amount required for a deferred application. When the applications cycle for next year opens, you will be informed of this.

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Late payment of deposits

The deposit is a condition of your offer. If you fail to pay the deposit, you will have failed to meet the conditions of your offer, and will not be able to join Imperial. If the deposit is not paid by the due date, your offer may be withdrawn by the department.

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Deposit refunds

The application deposit is generally non-refundable.

However, there are certain circumstances under which you can apply for a refund of your deposit.

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Tuition Fee Policy

Find information about our postgraduate deposit rules and regulations in our overall Tuition Fee Policy.

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