Nov 28, 2022
The World’s Most Expensive and Exclusive Schools
John Milne, Group Head of Education Services at Henley & Partners
Imagine exceptional facilities such as a 900-seat, state-of-the-art concert hall that hosts orchestras from around the world, or a school with both a summer and winter campus high in the Swiss Alps, where students can enjoy skiing, climbing, and ice hockey as well as tennis, swimming, and curling.
These are just some of the extra-curricular activities and facilities that the most expensive and exclusive boarding schools in the world offer — the kind of schools where centi-millionaires send their children. Of the top ten, nine of these schools are in Switzerland.
There are few better investments than a premium global education. That perhaps explains why the very best schools in the world are so expensive. With annual fees ranging from GBP 80,000 to over GBP 116,000 and attracting students and highly qualified teachers from all over the world, a culturally rich, multilingual education is guaranteed.
These schools focus on producing well-rounded individuals, and these children’s days are full and varied. At these schools, the arts and music are considered as important as academic subjects. Students at The American School in Switzerland (TASIS) can showcase their artwork alongside famous established artists at the school’s Spring Arts Festival. Aiglon College, nestled in an Alpine village, focuses on the development of not only the mind but the body and spirit too. THINK Global School, on the other hand, is a traveling high school where students live and learn in four countries each year.
Each school has its own character, accepting children who (along with their families) share its codes and values. Known as the ‘school of kings’, Institut Le Rosey is one of the most expensive and certainly the most exclusive in the world, serving as a magnet for royalty and the fabulously rich. Successful applicants are sporty, interested in the arts, ambitious, and curious. Heavily oversubscribed, it is essential for a candidate to demonstrate that they will fit in at the school, and for an application to be made as early as possible from the start of September.
However, the position of most exclusive and expensive school goes to Institut auf dem Rosenberg, with fees of GBP 123,240 a year. The Artisans of Education® Institut auf dem Rosenberg is innovative and forward-looking, offering each of its students an ‘individual development plan’. Rosenberg’s students are groomed to become the next generation of responsible leaders.
These unique schools are places where children learn to uphold the weight of family expectation and responsibility. In addition to academics, they subtly teach their students how to be super-wealthy, as well as self-aware. Enrolling your child in any one of these exclusive schools is an investment in their future that will give them exceptional skills, opportunities, and a network that opens doors to some of the most successful and wealthy people in the world.
This essay was first published in the Henley & Partners Centi-Millionaire Report. You can download the full report here.
