What studying in Singapore costs

The costs to plan for in Singapore: official figures for government-school monthly fees, university tuition, pass and test fees, the costs that have no official single figure, and the status of this site’s cost calculator data.

Verified 2026-10-31 Changes often

Beyond tuition you need to plan for passes, tests, housing, living and one-off costs. This article only gives figures published on official pages, with their years, and says plainly where there is no single official figure. Figures are as of 31 October 2026.

Yearly costs: tuition

Government and Government-Aided schools (international students, per month)

MOE’s 18 October 2023 announcement lists monthly school fees for 2024 to 2026. These are the 2026 figures (S$):

Level	ASEAN international students	Other international students
Primary	595	1,035
Secondary	1,090	2,190
Pre-University	1,290	2,540

The announcement also says that from 1 January 2024 the same miscellaneous fee applies to all nationalities: S$13 a month at Primary, S$20 at Secondary and S$27 at Pre-University. MOE’s school fees page says the monthly fee covers school fees and miscellaneous fees, so confirm the amount you actually pay in the fees checker on that page.
MOE’s page states that fees for international students are inclusive of GST.
We did not read 2027 figures.
Independent schools, specialised independent schools, polytechnics, ITE and similar institutions charge their own fees; MOE’s page tells you to check their websites.

University undergraduate (NUS as an example)

Public university fees are fixed by intake year. These are NUS’s per-year fees for new students in AY2026/2027, published in March 2026 (S$, international students, inclusive of GST), with and without the MOE Tuition Grant:

Faculty / programme	International, with grant: ASEAN	International, with grant: other	Without the grant
Business	21,150	22,200	33,400
Computing	18,050	21,400	39,700
Design and Engineering	18,050	21,400	39,700
Humanities and Sciences	18,050	21,400	36,650
Law	27,750	30,450	44,450
Nursing	19,800	22,500	38,750
Pharmacy	20,100	23,650	43,050
Music	40,100	56,850	147,850
Medicine (excluding Nursing)	74,750	87,800	190,150
Dentistry	74,100	84,550	190,150

A student not in receipt of the grant pays the non-subsidised amounts in the right-hand column.
The yearly amount is paid in two equal instalments, one at the start of each semester.
NTU’s AY2026/2027 fees for international students on the grant (inclusive of GST): S$18,050 (ASEAN) or S$21,400 (others) for most programmes, S$20,700 or S$21,800 for Accountancy and Business, S$31,000 or S$32,000 for the Renaissance Engineering Programme, and S$80,850 or S$91,250 for Medicine. Without the grant: S$36,350 (non-lab) or S$40,600 (lab-based), and S$45,600 for Accountancy and Business. Source: NTU’s tuition fees page.
SUTD, AY2026 intake, per year with the grant (GST included): S$30,200 (ASEAN) or S$31,600 (others); S$62,076 without the grant. SUTD says places for the grant are limited and competitive for international students.
SIT charges per credit. For the AY2026 cohort the non-ASEAN subsidised rate is S$371.69 to S$408.75 a credit and the non-subsidised rate S$575.52 to S$653.46, which by our arithmetic is roughly S$22,300 to S$24,500 a year for non-ASEAN students on the grant.
SMU: a search summary of its admissions page reports S$25,150 (ASEAN) or S$26,200 (others) for most programmes with the grant and S$47,700 without, but we could not read the page itself, so check it. SUSS fees depend on course units taken and were not checked.

Master’s (NUS coursework as an example)

NUS’s graduate schedule (updated June 2026) gives several figures for AY2026/2027 new students; international students pay (S$, GST included): Public Health 27,950 with subsidy; Arts and Social Sciences and Law 40,250 without MOE subsidy; Music 85,650 without subsidy. Some programmes publish their own fees: for example MSc Statistics and MSc AI for Science S$52,320 and MSc Data Science and Machine Learning S$58,860 for non-alumni international students. Master’s fees vary widely by programme, so read the programme’s own page.

Private institutions' degrees (whole programme, international students)

Private institutions get no government subsidy and fees are set by each one and their overseas partner. From their own pages (GST included): SIM Global Education S$46,008.90 to S$82,404 for a 3-year BSc Business Administration, the low end for students with credit transfers; Curtin Singapore S$68,016 for the 2-year Bachelor of Information Technology; PSB Academy S$29,996.80 for a 16-module Bachelor of Business (La Trobe), with a 12-module route at S$22,497.60. That is roughly S$15,000 to S$34,000 a year. Fees are described as indicative and revised each year, and application, registration and fee-protection charges are extra. Check the institution’s registration on the CPE site first.

International schools (tuition only, 2026/27)

Each school sets its own fees and publishes a schedule. Tuition only, GST included where stated: Tanglin Trust S$36,300 (Nursery) to S$58,080 (Years 12–13); UWCSEA S$39,069 (K1–G1) to S$49,926 (G11–12), plus a Development Levy of S$5,166 a year (S$9,537 in the first year); Stamford American S$49,040 (Grades 1–5) to S$56,110 (Grades 9–12), including the technology fee. Lower-cost schools exist, for example GIIS shows S$6,584.78 per term for its IB Primary Years Programme, and Overseas Family School lists S$17,550 a semester for Grades 1–5. One-off joining fees (application, enrolment, capital or facility) are extra, for example S$13,410 at Stamford’s Woodleigh campus and S$4,992 enrolment at UWCSEA.

Costs of the paperwork

Item	Amount	Source and note
AEIS Primary application	S$340	MOE 2026 page; non-refundable, plus GST
AEIS Secondary application	S$630	Same
Student’s Pass processing fee	S$45	ICA; non-refundable
Student’s Pass issuance fee	S$60	Paid after ICA marks the application “Completed”
Multiple Journey Visa (if applicable)	S$30	Same

Costs with no single official figure

Housing: campus halls, shared flats and homestay differ by school and location. For NUS, the AY2026/2027 room rate is S$114 to S$294 a week for 35 weeks (S$3,990 to S$10,290 a year, GST included), and halls and colleges also require a meal plan (S$1,292 a year in halls, S$2,211 in residential colleges). For shared flats and homestay we found no official figure; ask the housing office or the agency.
Food, transport, insurance, textbooks, uniforms, school bus and activities: these depend on the person and the school.
Private and international school tuition: each school sets its own. Ask for a written fee list.
One-off costs: registration fees, deposits, medical examination, flights, moving and settling in. Check each with the school and official sources.

How to estimate

The site’s cost calculator lists tuition, housing, food, transport and insurance separately and lets you change the living level. Tuition for public universities and international schools, and halls of residence, follow the official figures in this article; private-institution tuition and the other living costs are estimates. Use it to judge the order of magnitude and compare with the official figures above.

Reducing budget risk

Ask every candidate institution for a current written fee list, including one-off costs.
Budget to the top of each range first and see whether the lower end is realistic.
Ask about refund rules, especially for prepaid tuition and housing deposits.
Understand the conditions and obligations that come with the Tuition Grant and scholarships and do not treat them as certain. Without the grant, tuition can be much higher (see the table).

Next steps

For the test and the pass, read AEIS and Student’s Pass overview.
Try the cost calculator with your own case.
Put budget and routes together in the planner.

FAQ

Is the site’s cost calculator accurate?

It gives a rough estimate. On 31 October 2026 its tuition ranges for government schools, public-university bachelor’s degrees, NUS taught master’s and international schools were checked against official fee schedules; its private-institution range is an average of four institutions’ published programme fees; its shared-flat, homestay, food, transport and insurance ranges are estimates with no official source, and the page says so. Ask each institution for a written fee list before deciding.

What do government schools charge international students each month?

MOE’s 2023 announcement lists the monthly fees for 2024 to 2026. For 2026 Primary is S$595 (ASEAN international students) or S$1,035 (other international students), Secondary S$1,090 or S$2,190, and Pre-University S$1,290 or S$2,540, plus the monthly miscellaneous fee. We did not read figures for 2027 onwards, so use the fees checker on MOE’s page.

Do international students’ fees include GST?

MOE’s school fees page states that fees for international students are inclusive of GST. NUS’s schedule likewise says the subsidised fees for international students and the non-subsidised fees are inclusive of GST (currently 9%).

Do university tuition fees go up every year?

NUS fixes fees by intake cohort, so a cohort pays that cohort’s amount throughout its candidature. A new intake may pay a different amount.

Are there official single figures for housing and living costs?

We did not read any. Housing, food and transport vary by person, so ask the institution’s housing office or an official page, and estimate from your own lifestyle.

Sources

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