What a degree costs, and how instalments work

Fees are quoted in a way that makes comparison difficult, usually by naming one number that is not the total. Here is the whole structure, so you can ask for it properly.

What makes up the real total

• Tuition, per semester or per year, multiplied by the number of semesters.

• Registration or enrolment charges, usually once at the start.

• Examination fees, per semester, and the charge to re-sit a paper.

• The cost of the degree certificate, consolidated marksheet and provisional certificate.

• Attestation, if the degree will be used abroad.

The figure in an advertisement is nearly always the first line only. Two programmes with identical tuition can differ substantially once examination and certification charges are added, and the cheaper tuition is sometimes the more expensive degree.

Ask for all five lines in writing before you compare anything.

How instalments usually work

Most universities structure payment by semester, which is already a form of instalment: you pay as you progress rather than up front. For many people that is sufficient and no further arrangement is needed.

Where a semester payment is still too large in one piece, it can often be split into monthly amounts. That is arranged at enrolment, and it needs to be agreed in writing at the start rather than negotiated later.

What matters when comparing any instalment arrangement is three things: the total you will have paid at the end, whether that total is higher than paying in full, and what happens if you miss one. Get all three answers before agreeing.

Questions worth asking

• Is the fee fixed for the full duration, or revised each year?

• What happens if I take a break in study for a semester?

• What is refundable, and by when, if I withdraw early?

• Is the fee paid to the university directly?

That last one is not a financial question so much as a safety one. A fee paid to a study centre in its own name, with no receipt from the university, is the arrangement behind most of the losses in this field.

Keeping the paperwork

Keep every receipt with your enrolment number. Fee records are asked for at unexpected moments, including at graduation and sometimes years later during verification.

We set out the complete cost of every programme we place students into, in writing, before anything is paid, including the charges that come at the end. If you have a quote from elsewhere and want to know what it leaves out, send it to us.