Top ten most expensive world cities for an international school education

One of the most important aspects of relocating overseas with your family is the cost of a high quality education for your children.

The ever increasing cost of an international school education for the children of expat professionals on assignment is now a crucial part of negotiating a satisfactory relocation package. Tuition fees at international schools in the most favoured expat professional locations across the world have soared over the past few years, and are now at an eye-watering level, even for those fortunate enough to be on extremely high salaries.

Increasingly, private education costs are not being covered by potential employers, making the choice of a new job dependent on local charges for a quality education as well as the ever increasing costs of living in major world cities. Recent research by the International Schools Database has resulted in ten cities topping the list for the most expensive international schools.

Shanghai came out as number one, with monthly tuition fees totalling around $2,744 per pupil, whilst Singapore dropped to seventh place from sixth at a monthly charge of $1856, slightly more than last year’s $1637. Hong Kong fell out of the top 10 in 2018 to 12th position, even although its monthly fees increased from $1226 to $1282 per month. Kuala Lumpur’s rating fell to 36th, with its international school fees increasing to $583 from $492, a bargain compared with any of the top ten most expensive locations.

Beijing took second place in the top ten with tuition fees of $2,519, with Lausanne following up with $2,227, and Zurich coming in at fourth place with a monthly bill of $2,075. Schooling at an international school in Toronto will cost $1,997, slightly more than Geneva’s charges at $1,910 a month. Singapore came in at seventh place with fees of $1,856, with Seoul at eighth most pricey at $1,799. An international education in Brussels will cost expat parents $ 1,777 per month and Vienna at tenth most expensive came in at $1,597 a month.