United Nations International School of Hanoi

The short version

The short version

The United Nations International School of Hanoi (UNIS Hanoi) is an independent, not-for-profit day school founded in 1988 as a partnership between the Vietnamese government and the United Nations, to educate the children of UN personnel, diplomats, expatriates and local Vietnamese families.

It is one of only two UN schools in the world — the other is UNIS New York — and it was the first school in Asia authorised to offer all three International Baccalaureate programmes.

Today it teaches roughly 1,100–1,200 students from more than 60 countries on a purpose-built campus in the Ciputra development in Tay Ho, Hanoi’s diplomatic and expatriate enclave.↗↗

For a relocating family, the practical summary is this: UNIS is Hanoi’s most established and most expensive international school, with 2026-27 tuition billed in US dollars running to roughly VND 1.04 billion (about USD 38,000) at the top grades.

Its defining policy is diversity by design — no single nationality may exceed about 20% of enrolment — and its defining generosity is a scholarship programme that gives high-achieving, low-income Vietnamese students a 100% fee waiver from entry through graduation.↗↗

What the school is

A UN school that is not the UN

UNIS Hanoi’s governance is unusual.

It is a private non-profit governed by a Board of Directors, guided by UN values — the Sustainable Development Goals are embedded in the curriculum and a Service Learning programme runs from Early Years through High School — yet the school itself stresses that it is not an agency of the United Nations.

The UN connection is real but constitutional rather than operational: the school was created to serve the UN community in Vietnam and still counts about a quarter of its students as children of diplomatic families.↗↗

The diversity policy is the school’s signature. Reported school policy caps any single nationality at 20% of enrolment, which keeps the community genuinely mixed — more than 60 nationalities, with Vietnamese, American, Korean, Japanese and European families all present but none dominant.

For families coming from schools where one passport group sets the culture, this is the single biggest difference to weigh; for Vietnamese families, it is also the reason UNIS reads as the most international environment in the city.↗↗

The school is divided into Elementary (Discovery to Grade 5), Middle School (Grades 6–8) and High School (Grades 9–12), with reported class sizes of 16–22 and around 560, 260 and 310 students in the three divisions respectively. The head of school is Jane McGee.

Accreditation is by WASC and the Council of International Schools, and the school competes in the APAC and MRISA activities conferences — useful signals of a settled, externally reviewed institution.↗↗

Academics in practice

The full IB continuum, and results that publish

UNIS is a through-IB school: Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma Programme, with the school’s own US-style high school diploma alongside. It is non-selective into the Diploma Programme — over 85% of students attempt the full diploma — and it publishes results with candidate numbers, which many Hanoi schools do not.

The Class of 2025 averaged 34 points against a global 30.6, with a 97% pass rate, 80% of candidates above the world average, one perfect 45 and 39% earning bilingual diplomas; the Class of 2024 averaged 32 with an 89% pass rate and 17% at 40+.

A secondary roundup reports the Class of 2026 at 35.3 — treat that figure as reported until the school posts its own summary.↗↗

Two policies reveal the academic culture. The school caps each student at 12 university applications — a deliberate anti-arms-race stance — and it does not rank students, compute GPA or run an honour roll.

Graduation requires 22.5 credits including a personal project and extended essay or senior project. The Class of 2025 drew offers from more than 147 universities in 16 countries, including Oxford, NYU, Toronto and Seoul National.↗↗

The scholarship programme deserves emphasis because it is structural, not decorative. High-achieving Vietnamese students from low-income public-school backgrounds enter in Grades 7–10 with a full 100% fee waiver through graduation, plus support for transport, supplies, co-curriculars and university applications.

Scholars have gone on to Williams, Vanderbilt, NYU Abu Dhabi and Fulbright University Vietnam on full funding. Eligibility requires Vietnamese nationality, residence within an hour of the school, and top grades at a public district school.↗↗

Admissions and cost

USD-billed fees, deposits and the refund fine print

UNIS bills in US dollars, with a VND equivalent fixed on each debit note.

For 2026-27, directory tables put annual tuition at roughly VND 455 million (Kindergarten 1–2), VND 869 million (Grades 1–5), VND 918 million (Grades 6–8), VND 979 million (Grades 9–10) and VND 1.04 billion (Grades 11–12); VnExpress reports the top band at about USD 38,000.

Because the VND figure is an FX restatement of a USD schedule, treat the debit note — not any aggregator — as authoritative.↗↗

On top of tuition: a USD 600 application fee (raised from USD 400 for the 2026-27 cycle, valid three consecutive years), a USD 1,750 one-time enrolment fee, and a USD 1,500 tuition deposit credited against fees but non-refundable if the child does not take up the place.

Paying annually is 4% cheaper than the semester plan, with a further 1% early-bird discount for full payment by 1 March. The contracted school bus costs USD 1,100 a year, and third and fourth children earn 10% and 15% tuition discounts.↗

Read the refund schedule before paying anything. Notify withdrawal by 1 June 2026 and 90% of annual tuition is refundable; by 16 November 2026, 50%; after that, nothing — and application, enrolment and deposit monies are never refunded.

Late payment accrues 2% per month. For internationally mobile families whose postings can be cancelled, these dates are the real risk terms of the contract.↗

On demand: the school publishes no waitlist data, and Hanoi’s international-school market is small enough that queues move with diplomatic and corporate posting cycles. Secondary guidance suggests applying well ahead for popular year groups, but treat anecdotes about “impossible” waitlists with caution — the honest position is that no current public data exists either way.↗

The family experience

Ciputra life, the West Lake enclave and the SDG culture

The campus sits inside Ciputra, the gated international development at Phu Thuong in Tay Ho, north of West Lake — a reported 23-acre purpose-built site with a 25-metre pool and a 350-seat theatre.

For expat families the location is the point: West Lake is where the embassies, UN agencies and international housing cluster, so the school run is short for the families the school was built to serve.

Families living in Ba Dinh, Hoan Kiem or across the river should test the bus route at rush hour before committing.↗↗

Day to day, the school’s UN identity shows up in programme rather than ceremony: Service Learning is required, SDG projects run through the curriculum, and community events like the Spring Fair operate at genuine scale — 46 performance teams and shuttle buses from Tay Ho’s Lion Mall in 2025.

Reviews describe a warm, mission-driven culture with strong parent engagement; the school has even invested in live AI translation at parent events so non-English-speaking family members can participate.↗↗

Who thrives here: families who want the IB done as a continuum rather than a bolt-on, internationally mixed peer groups by policy rather than accident, and a values-forward school culture.

Who should look elsewhere: families set on A-Levels or a US/AP pathway (Concordia covers that), families wanting a British structure (BIS Hanoi), and households for whom a USD-billed top-band fee near VND 1.05 billion is uncomfortable without employer support.↗

Take these to the school

Questions that move beyond the tour script