Australian International School Saigon (AIS)

The short version

The short version

AIS Saigon teaches more than 1,100 students from around 40 nationalities across three campuses in Thu Duc City (the former District 2): the Xi Kindergarten, the Thao Dien primary campus and the Thu Thiem all-through campus, which has been the main site since 2007.

Its pathway is the IB Primary Years Programme with Cambridge English and maths, then Cambridge Lower Secondary and IGCSE, then the IB Diploma in Years 12–13. The school merged with ACG Vietnam in 2013 and joined the Inspired Education group in 2019.↗↗

For a relocating family, the practical summary is this: AIS is a strong mid-to-premium IB/Cambridge option in the Thao Dien cluster, with two distinctive features — boarding (unique among the city’s international schools) and a new NEASC-accredited American High School Diploma pathway alongside the IB.

What it is not, despite the name, is an Australian-curriculum school on an Australian calendar — more on both below.

What the school is

Two assumptions to unlearn first

First: there is no Australian national curriculum. AIS was founded in 2006 with an Australian orientation and New Zealand-linked ownership (ACG), but the current published pathway is Inspired’s early-years approach, the IB PYP, Cambridge Lower Secondary and IGCSE, and the IB Diploma.

Families expecting the NSW or Australian national curriculum — or direct continuity with schools in Australia — should recalibrate before visiting.↗

Second: the calendar is not Australian either. Australian schools run January to December; AIS Saigon runs a northern-hemisphere year — Term 1 of 2025/26 ran 10 August to 9 October 2025, and Term 4 ends 18 June 2026.

That aligns AIS with every other international school in HCMC, but families transferring from Australia mid-year face the same half-year offset as anywhere else in Vietnam.↗

The ownership trail explains the drift: founded 2006 in District 3, expanded to Thao Dien and Thu Thiem in 2007, merged with ACG Vietnam in 2013, and absorbed into the Inspired Education global group in 2019.

In 2020 AIS became the first international school in Vietnam to offer premium on-site boarding — a genuine differentiator for regional Vietnamese and expat families outside HCMC.↗↗

Academics in practice

IB and Cambridge, plus a new American diploma option

AIS is accredited by the Council of International Schools, is a Cambridge International centre, and is an IB World School for the PYP and DP.

Following NEASC accreditation in December 2025, Year 13 graduates can now earn the IB Diploma, a NEASC-accredited American High School Diploma, or both — a flexibility worth probing if your child may apply to US universities without the full Diploma.↗↗

The school publishes headline IB results: for 2026, a 35.5 average score, a 100% pass rate, 30% of students at 38+ and a top score of 45; an earlier press release celebrated the school’s first two perfect 45 scorers.

These are school-published figures — ask for cohort sizes and the multi-year trend — but a mid-30s average against a global 30 puts AIS in the city’s upper academic tier.↗↗

Teaching staff are largely expatriate — mainly Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, US and UK trained — and the curriculum keeps a Cambridge spine through the middle years, which eases transfer to or from British-system schools. Like all foreign-programme schools in Vietnam, AIS operates under Decree 86’s cap of just-under-50% Vietnamese-citizen enrolment.↗↗

Admissions and cost

2026/27 fees — premium, but below the top two

For 2026/27, Nord Anglia’s published cross-school comparison puts AIS tuition at VND 311–322 million a year in kindergarten, VND 597–689 million in primary and VND 749–908 million in secondary — a premium band, but meaningfully below BIS and ISHCMC at the top end.

Vietnamese media reported the 2024/25 range at VND 271–774 million, consistent with that positioning.↗↗

One-time charges (application and acceptance fees) were not confirmable from a current first-party document at research time — one set of third-party 2025/26 figures conflicts sharply with the 2026/27 table and looks stale, so treat anything you read on aggregators with suspicion and request the school’s own schedule.

Reported sibling discounts are unusually generous: 50% off the acceptance fee for a second child, and 100% off the acceptance fee plus 20% off tuition for third and subsequent children.↗

Older guides describe AIS admissions as academically selective with an English-language support centre; current third-party directories describe age-appropriate assessment. Either way, the school day runs 8:00–14:40 and the school accepts enquiries year-round.

If boarding is on your radar, ask specifically about current availability by year group — it is the school’s most distinctive offer and the one least documented online.↗↗

The family experience

Three campuses, one cluster

All three campuses sit in the Thao Dien/Thu Thiem orbit of Thu Duc City — HCMC’s expat school heartland, minutes from BIS, ISHCMC and EIS.

That means the same locational logic as the rest of the cluster: live in Thu Duc and the school run is short; live across the river in Districts 1, 3 or 7 and the commute defines your day.

Families with children at Xi, Thao Dien and Thu Thiem should map all three drop-offs before choosing housing.↗

Community texture: a mid-sized school (smaller than BIS or ISHCMC) with a family feel per reviewers, a strong Australasian thread in staffing and culture despite the curriculum drift, and the resources of the Inspired group behind performing arts and sport.

The boarding option changes the catchment entirely — families based in the Mekong Delta, the Central Coast or neighbouring countries can treat AIS as a boarding school with day-school siblings.

Take these to the school

Questions that move beyond the tour script