Drama School vs Theatre Studies Degree: Which Should You Choose?

Should you go to drama school or study Drama or Theatre Studies at university in the UK? 

Both BA courses involve three years of theatre, performance, rehearsal rooms and people arguing passionately about Stanislavski, but they are usually preparing you for very different things. A conservatoire-style drama school is more vocational: its purpose is to train you for professional performance and related theatre work. A university Drama or Theatre Studies degree is broader, combining practice with theatre history, criticism, theory, research and other ways of understanding performance. So which route makes sense for you?

What is Drama School?

Conservatoire Drama Schools, like RADA, are contact-heavy, practical, taught in small groups and closely aligned with professional employment. Students train in acting technique, screen acting, improvisation, movement, voice, singing, combat, dance, text work, and dramaturgy, before moving into stage, film, and audio productions, alongside professional-development sessions with agents and casting directors. The emphasis is clear. You are learning how to work as an actor.

What is Drama Studies/Theatre Studies?

A university Drama degree can contain plenty of practical work, but the practical work often serves a wider academic purpose. Most combine theoretical and practical study across theatre, performance and screen, while also preparing students for careers ranging from theatre and broadcasting to journalism, education and arts administration. A student might perform, devise or direct while also analysing theatre historically, politically or socially.

Saying “drama school is practical and university is academic” is too basic. Drama Schools include dramaturgy, acting history, text analysis, and reflective practice, and many university Drama courses involve substantial rehearsal and performance. At drama school, theory generally supports the actor's craft. At university, practice itself becomes a way to research and explore theatre.

Some Drama Schools do not require particular A-levels, although applicants must demonstrate the capacity for degree-level training, with selection centred on audition and interview. This route asks whether you show enough acting potential to train professionally, which can be infuriating and stressful. A Drama degree, by contrast, typically asks for examination results; it is more concerned with whether you can succeed in an academic degree.

Should I Go To Drama School or Do Theatre Studies at University?

If you want to become a professional actor, drama school is the more direct route. A conservatoire graduate will normally have spent years repeatedly practising voice, movement, text, screen technique, auditioning and rehearsal discipline, rather than fitting those things around a broader academic timetable. Drama schools also facilitate final-year students to be seen by casting professionals and agents before graduation.

That does not mean drama school guarantees an acting career. Theatre remains freelance, unstable and oversubscribed. Training can make somebody more employable without creating an acting job for them. University Drama graduates also become actors. In fact, around 13% of Drama graduates work as actors, entertainers or presenters 15 months after graduating. A further 5% were working as arts officers, producers or directors. A recent study found that 76.9% of University Drama graduates were employed after 15 months, only marginally higher than the 75% of Drama school graduates. Around 50% of Drama School graduates work in the arts, design and media, down to 27.9% of University Drama graduates (23.4% worked in retail, catering and customer-service jobs).

A Theatre Studies degree can give you room to discover that your place in theatre is somewhere other than centre stage. Drama schools also train directors, stage managers, designers and technicians, so this is not an actor-versus-academic binary, but conservatoire courses tend to remain more closely tied to specific professional roles. Before applying, look at how many practical contact hours you actually receive, how much voice and movement training there is, whether you study screen acting, how students are cast, whether final-year work is shown to industry professionals, how much written assessment exists and where graduates end up. A BA Acting and a BA Drama may both be three-year degrees while offering completely different professional preparation.

If you know you want intensive actor training, drama school is usually the clearer route. If you want to understand theatre broadly, make performance, write critically and keep several possible industry or academic careers open, a Drama or Theatre Studies degree may suit you far better. Neither option is inherently superior. So before choosing where to spend three years studying drama, make sure you've actually worked out which role you want education to play.