Quick Facts
| Tuition Range | SGD 21,400 – SGD 62,076 per year (with MOE Tuition Grant SGD 21,400 – SGD 31,600) |
|---|---|
| Living Cost | About SGD 1,200 – SGD 2,000 per month |
| Intakes | August (main), January |
| Last Verified Date | November 10, 2026 |
Singapore offers two universities ranked among the best in the world, teaching entirely in English, inside one of Asia’s most orderly and connected cities. The National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University lead a small group of six public autonomous universities, and graduates step directly into one of Asia’s strongest job markets for finance, technology, engineering and logistics. The trade-off is cost: Singapore is expensive, and the well-known tuition subsidy comes with a three-year work commitment.
What it costs to study in Singapore
A year of undergraduate study at a public university costs an international student about SGD 33,400–62,076 at the full fee for most programmes, leaving aside medicine and music. The Ministry of Education’s Tuition Grant lowers the same degree to about SGD 21,400–31,600 a year for most programmes for non-ASEAN international students — for example, NUS Computing costs SGD 21,400 a year with the grant and SGD 39,700 without it. Published international fees already include the 9% Goods and Services Tax, and the first-year fee is fixed for the normal length of the degree. For living costs, NUS estimates about SGD 6,000 a year excluding accommodation, plus on-campus housing of about SGD 4,000–10,290 a year; NTU estimates about SGD 1,130–1,960 a month including housing. A realistic monthly budget is about SGD 1,200–2,000, and hostel rooms should be applied for the day an offer is accepted because waitlists fill fast.
Student’s Pass and the Tuition Grant decision
International students need a Student’s Pass from the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority, applied for online through the institution’s registration system, ideally two to three months before the course starts. ICA lists no minimum bank balance for the pass itself, but universities require a financial declaration. The biggest financial decision is the MOE Tuition Grant: it cuts tuition by roughly 40–60%, but recipients sign a deed to work full-time for a Singapore-registered company for three years after graduation, in any sector and any role, and must report their employment within three months. Students who want freedom to leave Singapore after graduating should weigh the full fee against that bond before accepting the grant.
Working while you study
Full-time students with a Student’s Pass at institutions on the Ministry of Manpower list — including all six autonomous universities and the polytechnics — may work up to 16 hours a week during term without a separate work pass, or in an internship that counts towards graduation, and without that limit during vacations. Students at institutions not on the list, and all exchange students, may not work. Sixteen hours a week supports living costs; it does not pay tuition.
Staying on after graduation
Singapore has no automatic open post-study work visa of the kind offered by some other countries. Once studies end and the Student’s Pass expires, a work pass is needed and the employer applies for it, most often an Employment Pass, which requires a qualifying salary of at least SGD 5,600 a month (SGD 6,200 in financial services), higher with age, and must pass the points-based COMPASS framework. Graduates of an Institute of Higher Learning can apply to ICA for a Long-Term Visit Pass to look for work, which the Ministry of Education describes as a one-year pass. For Tuition Grant holders, the three-year work bond usually means staying in Singapore is already the plan.
Applying
The main intake is August, with January starts for some programmes. All degrees are taught in English, and universities require IELTS, TOEFL or an equivalent, with the exact score set by each programme. Admission to NUS and NTU is competitive and based on school results and, for some programmes, interviews or tests. Because the Tuition Grant decision shapes both cost and the years after graduation, make it deliberately rather than by default.
Official source: Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA), Singapore
