Hong Kong international school fees: tuition, debentures and levies in 2026-27

The short version

The short version

A Year-7-equivalent place at a profiled Hong Kong school in 2026-27 costs between roughly HK$238,687 (Harrow, Years 6-11↗) and HK$300,300+ (Chinese International School, primary band; senior years reach HK$359,200 — the city’s highest published tuition↗) — before the capital line. Every school then adds either an annual capital levy (HK$24,500-60,000) or a debenture requirement, and most add both a reservation deposit and joining fees on top.

The three facts that organise the market. First, median tuition rose about 4.3% across 75 tracked schools for 2026/27, with no established school raising 10% or more — uncapped but self-disciplined. Second, the capital instruments are now regulated: since EDB Circular 15/2023, debentures, levies and nomination-right fees need Education Bureau approval. Third, the big structural move of the decade is schools swapping refundable debentures for non-refundable annual levies — Kellett did it in September 2025 — which transfers capital risk from the school’s balance sheet to your family’s.

Highest published tuition

HK$359,200

Chinese International School senior years (2026/27, secondary compilation)

Highest annual capital levy

HK$60,000

Harrow, per pupil per year, unless a Capital Certificate is held

Largest capital instrument

HK$20,000,000

Kellett Golden Jubilee Debenture (non-redeemable, up to 3 children); CIS Corporate Nomination Right: HK$15M, depreciating to zero over 5 years

Median 2026/27 tuition rise

~4.3%

Across 75 tracked schools; no established school raised 10%+

The numbers

Every profiled Hong Kong school: tuition and capital charges

Latest published schedule per school, verified on 2 September 2026. “Capital line” is the recurring annual charge payable where no debenture is held; the instruments themselves are dissected in the next section. School names link to their NewSchoolRun profiles.

Footnotes for honesty. GSIS’s band figures come from a reputable school-profile compilation rather than the school’s own PDF; its four-way capital arrangement is consistent across two independent compilations but confirm current terms with admissions.CDNIS’s levy, entry fee and deposit are first-party; the band totals are Sassy Mama’s compilation. CIS’s tuition bands are from hk-schools.com’s 2026 tracker — the school publishes its charges structure first-party but not a retrievable band table — so verify the senior-years figure before budgeting. Where our own dossiers conflicted on HKIS 2026/27 band totals, we quote the school’s per-semester first-party figures (HK$115,800 / 122,250 / 136,300 per semester).

The Hong Kong special case

Debentures vs levies — and the deposits nobody mentions

A capital levy is a recurring or one-off non-refundable charge. A debenture is a large capital payment — sometimes refundable, sometimes resalable, sometimes neither — that usually buys admissions priority. They are structurally different, many schools charge both, and the names (capital certificate, nomination right, capital note) reliably obscure the terms↗. Our debentures explainer maps every instrument; the working summary for the six profiled schools:

• HKIS: debentures of HK$3 million (Family or Standard Corporate) to HK$5 million (Comprehensive Corporate) — not mandatory, no admission guarantee, top-of-wait-pool placement, redeemable at face value only after a minimum 15-year hold, no secondary market, and the HK$24,500 annual capital levy continues regardless↗↗.
• Kellett: replaced its mandatory debenture with a HK$40,000 Annual Capital Levy for new joiners from September 2025 — non-redeemable, non-refundable, non-transferable, conferring no priority. The debenture ladder survives for those who want it, up to a HK$20 million Golden Jubilee instrument↗.
• Harrow: HK$60,000 a year unless you hold a Capital Certificate — fully subscribed at issue, now trading only through school-administered transfers at roughly HK$3.0-3.3 million. The trap, stated first-party: the Individual Capital Certificate’s refund right dies on secondary transfer — buy one on the secondary market and you own an instrument with no refund provision↗.
• GSIS: a forced four-way choice per child — refundable HK$800,000 Standard Debenture, non-refundable HK$350,000 Development, HK$6 million Infrastructure (top priority, level with German/Swiss/Austrian passports), or the HK$40,000 annual levy for new students↗.
• CDNIS: no new debentures issued; existing Capital (indicative HK$2.8 million) and Gold Corporate (HK$10 million) instruments transfer only through the school; everyone else pays HK$43,000 a year from EY1↗.
• CIS: the HK$15 million Corporate Nomination Right is non-refundable and depreciates to zero over five years — the most expensive school capital instrument in the city — while families without nomination rights pay the HK$30,200 annual levy↗.

Then come the reservation deposits, the least discussed cash event in Hong Kong admissions: HKIS holds a full semester’s tuition plus levy (refundable only within ten calendar days of the due date), CDNIS requires HK$80,000 for 2026/27 enrolment, and CIS takes HK$150,000 — non-refundable, offset against tuition only in part↗↗. For two children, accepting two offers can mean HK$300,000-500,000 parked before the first day of school.

The regulator

How the EDB regulates it — Circular 15/2023

Hong Kong does not cap tuition, and the EDB registers but does not grade-inspect international schools. What it now regulates, after a January 2020 Ombudsman finding that debentures had been treated as private arrangements the regulations did not support, is the capital-instrument layer. Under EDB Circular 15/2023, debentures, capital levies and nomination-right fees at private schools (international schools and ESF included) require Education Bureau approval — applied for at least six months before collection (nine if the money flows to a related party), with approvals normally running six school years and annual use-of-proceeds reporting↗. Practical consequence: a school cannot invent a new levy or reprice a debenture mid-year at whim — but approval is about governance and proceeds, not about protecting your refund. Read each instrument’s terms; the EDB does not read them for you.

On tuition itself the market is uncapped but watched: median rises across 75 tracked schools ran about 4.3% for 2026/27, and no established school raised 10% or more↗. The one structural subsidy story is ESF: the government’s recurrent subvention (HK$249.7 million a year at 2012/13) is being phased out over 13 years to 2028/29, with the 2013 terms protecting already-enrolled cohorts from subvention-driven rises — a slow upward pressure on ESF fees (HK$188,300 for all five secondary schools in 2026/27) that keeps the whole market’s floor rising↗. See the Hong Kong city guide for the ESF landscape.

Worked examples

Two children, three years: what to actually budget

Year one uses published 2026/27 schedules; years two and three apply the market’s documented 4.3% median rise as an assumption, not a forecast. Both scenarios assume the family pays the annual levy rather than buying a debenture — the realistic default for a three-year posting.

Scenario A — Kellett, children entering Year 7 (Senior) and Year 3 (Preparatory) in August 2026. Published 2026/27 tuition: Senior HK$271,300, Preparatory HK$218,200; Annual Capital Levy HK$40,000 per child↗.

• Year 1: tuition HK$489,500 + levy HK$80,000 + application fees HK$4,500 + Association fee HK$500 ≈ HK$574,500.
• Year 2 (assumed +4.3%): tuition ≈ HK$510,500 + levy HK$80,000 ≈ HK$590,500.
• Year 3 (assumed +4.3% again): tuition ≈ HK$532,500 + levy HK$80,000 ≈ HK$612,500.
• Three-year total ≈ HK$1,777,500 — of which HK$240,000 is the non-refundable levy. Under the pre-2025 regime a family might instead have posted refundable debentures; the levy switch converted that refundable float into a permanent cost.

Scenario B — HKIS, children entering Grade 7 and Grade 4. Published 2026/27 tuition: Grades 6-8 HK$244,500, Reception 1-Grade 5 HK$231,600; capital levy HK$24,500 per student; entry fee HK$15,000 per child; reservation deposit of one semester’s tuition plus levy per child↗.

• Year 1: tuition HK$476,100 + levy HK$49,000 + entry fees HK$30,000 + application HK$4,000 ≈ HK$559,100 — plus ≈ HK$263,000 in reservation deposits (refundable under tight conditions) parked on acceptance.
• Year 2 (assumed +4.3%): tuition ≈ HK$496,600 + levy HK$49,000 ≈ HK$545,600.
• Year 3 (assumed +4.3%): the elder child steps into the Grades 9-12 band — (272,600 + 244,500) × 1.043² ≈ HK$562,500 + levy ≈ HK$611,500.
• Three-year total ≈ HK$1,716,000 — and had the family bought a HK$3 million Family Debenture for priority, the levy would still be payable every year; the debenture buys queue position, not a discount.

The transferable lesson: in Hong Kong, budget three buckets separately — tuition (rising ~4.3%), the capital line (HK$24,500-60,000 per child per year, gone forever), and the refundable float (deposits and debentures you may see again). A family that lumps them will either overstate its wealth (counting the float as cost) or understate it (forgetting the levy is permanent).

For the offer letter

The HR negotiation checklist

• Separate the three buckets in the contract: tuition, the annual capital levy, and the refundable float (reservation deposits, debentures). Employers routinely cover tuition, exclude levies, and ignore the float — a HK$100,000-a-year gap for two children.
• If the employer funds a debenture, write down who owns it: who is the registered holder, who receives redemption after the holding period (15 years at HKIS), and what happens on early repatriation. A HK$3 million ambiguity is not a perk; it is a future dispute.
• Check whether your employer already holds corporate instruments. Corporate debentures and nomination rights carry the queue priority that closed waitlists respect (CDNIS prioritises debenture holders first; GSIS’s Infrastructure Debenture matches passport priority). Ask HR before you pay retail for the same access.
• Never buy a secondary-market instrument without reading the transfer terms: Harrow’s Individual Capital Certificate refund right dies on transfer; CDNIS trades must be school-administered; CIS’s Corporate Nomination Right depreciates to zero in five years. Transfer deadlines matter too — Harrow required applications by 10 October 2026 for 2027/28 nomination priority.
• Model levy-vs-debenture over your actual posting length. Over three years, GSIS’s levy costs HK$120,000 per child gone forever; its refundable Standard Debenture costs HK$800,000 of locked capital you should get back. The right answer depends on your cost of capital and the school’s solvency — do the maths before, not after.
• Get the exam, bus and device lines priced: HKIS middle/high schoolers need a MacBook under the BYOM programme and PEAK/Interim programmes run to HK$26,000; Kellett excludes bus, lunch and senior devices; Harrow boarding adds HK$135,672 a year.