- Location
- London
- Founded
- 1976 (accountancy school); university status 2013
- Students
- about 38,000 (2025)
- Type
- Private, for-profit university
- Main intakes
- September, January
- Study levels
- Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Professional qualifications, Apprenticeships
BPP University is a private, for-profit university in the United Kingdom and part of the BPP Education Group. It began in 1976 as an accountancy training school founded by Alan Brierley, Richard Price and Charles Prior, became the first private-sector body to receive UK degree-awarding powers in 2007, gained university-college title in 2010 and full university status in 2013. It now teaches around 38,000 students, most of them postgraduates and professionals studying alongside work. Teaching is organised into four schools covering business, law, technology, and nursing and healthcare. BPP is best known for professional and career-focused study: solicitor and barrister training (including SQE preparation and the Bar Training Course), accountancy and finance qualifications such as ACCA, CIMA and ICAEW, business and management degrees, and nursing, health and data programmes. Study is available full-time, part-time and online, with degree apprenticeships offered in several professions.
Location and student life
BPP is a multi-centre university rather than a single campus. In London it teaches at four centres: Holborn in the legal district (home of the Law School), Shepherd's Bush in the west (home of the Business School and the BPP House head office), Portsoken in the City's Square Mile, and Waterloo on the South Bank. There are further study centres in Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Reading and Southampton. All are city-centre sites with straightforward public transport links, and student life is the life of the host city rather than an enclosed campus.
Courses and subjects
The university has four schools: BPP University Business School, BPP University Law School, the School of Technology, and the School of Nursing and Healthcare. Well-established subject areas include law (conversion courses, SQE preparation, Bar training and commercial law), business and management, accountancy, finance and banking, data and analytics, digital marketing, and nursing, health and care. Alongside bachelor's and master's degrees, BPP delivers widely taken professional qualifications and apprenticeships, including degree apprenticeships, so many students combine study with employment.
Entry requirements for international students
Requirements vary by course, so always check the exact criteria on the relevant course page. Undergraduate applicants typically apply with school-leaving qualifications equivalent to UK A-levels, while postgraduate courses generally ask for a recognised first degree. International applicants whose first language is not English usually need IELTS 6.0 overall or equivalent; some courses ask for at least 6.0 in writing or 5.5 in each skill, and students scoring 6.0 overall may take compulsory in-sessional English support. BPP also publishes country-specific guidance for international applicants.
Accommodation
BPP University does not run its own halls of residence. Its help centre states that it does not currently offer accommodation and instead points students towards partner and private housing providers in its study-centre cities. Most students therefore rent privately, from purpose-built student rooms to shared flats, and those heading to London should budget for higher rents and arrange housing early. The university's help team can advise on where to look.
Scholarships and funding
BPP operates a large scholarship fund each year, centred on postgraduate law: for 2025-26 it advertised over £1.4 million of support for law applicants, with full-fee, half-fee and £3,000 awards (such as the Career Changer, Converting to Law and SQE scholarships) made through a single application route, plus externally awarded funds. An International Postgraduate Bursary is applied automatically for applicants holding a first-class undergraduate degree. Scholarship names, values and deadlines change each year, so check the official scholarships page before applying.