DELF in the UK: Centres, Fees and Recognition

DELF is a French government language diploma. It is not a UK qualification, it carries no UCAS points, and it never expires. This page sets out what it involves, where you can sit it in the UK and what it costs.

Timings and fees both change, so the figures below carry a date. They were checked against the French Ministry of National Education's regulations, France Éducation international and the published pages of UK exam centres in October 2026. Confirm anything that matters with your centre before you enter.

What DELF and DALF are

DELF, the Diplôme d'études en langue française, and DALF, the Diplôme approfondi de langue française, are diplomas awarded by the French Ministry of National Education. Outside France they are administered by France Éducation international, the body formerly called the CIEP.

There are six diplomas, one for each level of the Common European Framework. DELF covers A1, A2, B1 and B2. DALF covers C1 and C2. They are standalone: there is no requirement to work up through them, and a candidate may enter any level directly.

A diploma, not a test

This distinction is what makes DELF worth sitting at school age, and it is easy to miss when the names are used interchangeably.

Type Awarded by Validity
DELF and DALF Diploma French Ministry of National Education For life
TCF Test France Éducation international 2 years
TEF Test CCI Paris Île-de-France 2 years

A DELF B1 obtained at sixteen is still a DELF B1 at thirty. A TCF or TEF result taken at the same age expired two years later. If the purpose is a durable record of level, that difference matters more than any other feature of the exam. If the purpose is to satisfy an authority that wants a recent result, the position reverses, because several of them require a test taken within the last two years and will not take a diploma in its place.

The papers and the timings

Every level from A1 to C1 has four papers, one for each skill. The three comprehension and writing papers are sat together in a single collective session. Speaking is a separate individual appointment, often on a different day.

Level Listening Reading Writing Collective total Speaking Preparation
A1 20 min 30 min 30 min 1 h 20 5 to 7 min 10 min
A2 25 min 30 min 45 min 1 h 40 6 to 8 min 10 min
B1 25 min 45 min 45 min 1 h 55 15 min 10 min
B2 30 min 1 h 1 h 2 h 30 20 min 30 min

Check the B1 figure against a current source. The B1 reading paper was extended from 35 to 45 minutes, which took the collective session from 1 h 45 to 1 h 55. Older figures are still in circulation, so if you are timing practice papers, use 45 minutes.

DALF C1 keeps the four-paper shape: listening 40 minutes, reading 50 minutes, writing 2 hours 30, speaking 30 minutes after an hour of preparation. DALF C2 is built differently, with two integrated papers rather than four separate ones.

How it is marked

At A1 to C1, each of the four papers is marked out of 25, giving a total out of 100. The pass mark is 50 out of 100. There is also a minimum of 5 out of 25 in every single paper, and falling below it is eliminatory.

That second condition is the one to plan around. A candidate who scores 22, 20, 18 and 4 has 64 marks out of 100, comfortably above the pass mark, and has failed. Marks aggregate towards the total, but nothing rescues a paper that falls under 5, so the weakest skill can veto a pass on its own.

DALF C2 works differently again: two papers, each marked out of 50, total out of 100, pass at 50, with a minimum of 10 out of 50 in each.

Prim, Junior, Scolaire, tout public

There are several versions of DELF. They produce an identical diploma: the version is not printed on it, so a DELF B1 Junior is simply a DELF B1. The marking, the structure and the pass rules are the same. What changes is the subject matter of the documents and tasks, which is pitched at the age group.

  • DELF Prim, at A1.1, A1 and A2, for primary-age children. A1.1 sits below the Common European Framework, which starts at A1.
  • DELF Junior, at A1 to B2, for secondary-age candidates, sat at a language centre as an individual candidate.
  • DELF Scolaire, the same examination as Junior, with the same papers and levels. The difference is the delivery channel: Scolaire runs through secondary schools under a bilateral arrangement, Junior through Alliances Françaises and Instituts français.
  • DELF tout public, at A1 to B2, with adult subject matter.

On age limits, ask your centre rather than assuming. The awarding body publishes no age bar on tout public, and UK centres differ. The Institut français d'Écosse restricts tout public to candidates of 18 and over. The Alliance Française de Leeds publishes arrangements for candidates under 16 and under 18. The Alliance Française de Manchester says its exams are open to everyone. Junior is there to give teenagers age-appropriate material, which is not the same as tout public being closed to them.

Where to sit it in the UK

The Institut français du Royaume-Uni in London acts as the national DELF and DALF office for the UK. Examinations are delivered by a network of universities and Alliance Française centres.

These centres were advertising sessions when this page was checked, and take candidates who have not studied with them:

  • Institut français d'Écosse, Edinburgh
  • Cardiff University
  • University of Exeter
  • Alliance Française de Manchester
  • Alliance Française Glasgow
  • Alliance Française de Leeds, which states that no proof of prior study is needed
  • Alliance Française d'Oxford

Three more to check directly rather than rely on:

  • Alliance Française Cambridge has a live DELF page but was not showing a bookable session.
  • Durham and Milton Keynes appear on the Institut français centre map, which does not by itself confirm a current session.
  • The Brasshouse Centre, Birmingham appears on that map as temporarily closed, and its own page said it could not offer DELF.

There is an Alliance Française centre in St Helier, Jersey, which is a Crown Dependency rather than part of the UK. Lists of centres go out of date quickly, so confirm with the centre before making plans.

Fees

Fees are set by each centre, not nationally, so there is no single UK price. Two schedules are given below to show the spread.

Level Exeter, Cardiff and AF Oxford, 2025 to 2026 Institut français d'Écosse, 2027
A1 £100 £105
A2 £105 £110
B1 £145 £155
B2 £160 £170
C1 £205 £215
C2 £235 £245

Those three centres published the same figures for sessions in the 2025 to 2026 academic year and June 2026. Edinburgh's published 2027 fees sit a little above them. Exeter prices DELF Prim separately: A1.1 at £65, A1 at £70 and A2 at £75. Treat any site quoting a single UK-wide DELF fee with caution, and check the fee for your own centre and session.

Sessions and deadlines

Session dates, how many run each year and when registration closes are all set by the centre, and they vary enough that a general rule is not much use. Two observations from checking UK centre pages are worth passing on.

First, closing dates can be late. The Alliance Française d'Oxford closes registration for its December 2026 sitting about two weeks beforehand, which is less notice than many preparation guides suggest.

Second, and more important, popular centres fill before the deadline. Some of Oxford's December 2026 sittings were already showing as sold out when this page was checked, with the closing date still weeks away. If a particular session matters, book when it opens rather than working back from the deadline.

What it is worth in the UK

This part is worth stating plainly.

DELF carries no UCAS Tariff points. It does not appear in the Tariff tables. International qualifications were removed from the Tariff in 2022, with the Irish Leaving Certificate kept as an explicit exception.

It is not an Ofqual-regulated qualification and does not sit on the Regulated Qualifications Framework. Its awarding body is a foreign education ministry, which is not an Ofqual-recognised awarding organisation. You should not count on it being accepted in place of a GCSE or an A Level for sixth form or college entry.

What it does do is give a portable, permanent, internationally understood statement of level. It is the normal language requirement for admission to French universities, where B2 is the usual threshold. And UCAS itself notes that qualifications outside the Tariff may still be accepted, so a university may consider it on its merits. Ask the individual course rather than assuming either way.

If what you need is a UK qualification, GCSE and A Level French do that job. DELF is a different thing, useful for different reasons.

The format change

France Éducation international reformed the comprehension papers. Open-ended questions were removed from the listening and reading papers at A1 to B2 and replaced with multiple choice, true or false items lost their justification requirement, and the papers now use more documents, each of them shorter. At B2 the reading paper gained an exercise that asks candidates to attribute a point of view to a speaker. At DALF, the choice between speciality domains was removed.

Two things did not change, despite what you may read. The writing papers kept their structure at every level, although the assessment grids for production were revised. And the speaking test did not change at any level. Where you see a claim that speaking changed at B1, what actually changed at B1 was the written session gaining ten minutes.

Prepare for both formats. The Institut français d'Écosse tells candidates that the old and new formats coexist, that they should be ready for open questions as well as multiple choice, and that neither format is easier because each level is separately calibrated. That advice sits on a page carrying 2027 session dates, so it is current advice from a UK centre rather than a leftover. Practise on both and ask your centre what to expect.

Sources

If you are not sure the DELF is the right exam at all, the page on which French exam you actually need compares it with the TCF and the TEF. Those two are tests rather than diplomas: they report where you are instead of asking you to enter at a level, they expire after two years, and they are the only tests named on some of the French government's own lists. For where to sit them, see TCF and TEF in the UK.

If you are deciding which level to enter, the companion page on what DELF level a GCSE or A Level student should take goes through that properly. You can also test your French level free on this site, or read about French lessons.

Fees, centres, session dates and deadlines change every year. Last checked October 2026. Always confirm with your chosen centre and with France Éducation international before entering.