Research conducted by the International Schools Database has found the United States, China and Switzerland to be the most expensive countries in the world for international education.
The study has also concluded that Asia is the most expensive region for international education with 5 of the 10 cities with the most expensive international school fees in the world located here. Africa was found to be the most affordable continent for international schooling while Europe has the widest range of international school fees in the world, according to the research.
The study analysed the worldwide price data of international schools from 73 cities in 50 countries.
As per the study only four countries are represented among the top 10 most expensive cities for international education – USA, China, Switzerland and South Korea. All of the top 10 are cities with high costs of living, including New York City, San Francisco, Zurich and Shanghai.
African cities on the other hand the study found are much cheaper for international schooling with Casablanca, the most expensive African city for international school fees, ranks only as the 45th most expensive in the world out of a total of 73 cities. The rest of the African cities have cheaper international school fees, ranking below 60.
Asia’s domination as the most expensive region in the world for international school fees is largely due to China, found the study while also concluding that most other Asian cities have an even spread of expensive, cheap and ‘middle of the road’ international school prices. Singapore came in at number 12 on the list of most expensive international schools.
Despite having 5 cities within the top 10 most expensive places for international education, Asia also has some more affordable options like Phnom Penh, Cambodia, which is the 3rd cheapest city for international school fees in ths study’s database.
The study calculates the prices of international schools, using the whole price of a full term for one 6-year old child, excluding once-off costs such as enrollment fees, application fees, etc and not including free schools. Only those cities with 7 or more international schools, and with prices publicly available representing at least 25% of the schools in the city, were used for this study and all prices were converted from the local currency into USD using the exchange rate valid on November 19 2020, the study said.