Studying in the USA comes with the highest costs

Studying at American universities can be incredibly expensive. If you can't cover these costs with scholarships or personal savings, you often have to turn to student loans. Data from the US Department of Education reveals that roughly one out of every five Americans carries student loan debt.

This shouldn't come as a surprise because, as analyzed by the digital bank N26, the USA consistently has the highest average tuition fees in the world. In their 2022 Study Price Index, they looked at the costs of studying various subjects in 50 countries, including fields like medicine, nursing, law, civil engineering, software development, and education. Additionally, the analysts delved into the typical incomes that graduates in these fields can expect.

According to the results depicted in the Statista graphic, the average cost of one year of study at a US university is approximately €27,100. This amount is by far the highest among all the countries examined. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) comes in second place, with an average of about €12,500 per year, followed by England, where tuition costs average around €11,400 per year.

Germany, on the other hand, fares relatively well in the cost ranking. Studying in Germany is relatively affordable, with tuition fees of about €500 per year. Only a few countries offer even cheaper higher education, such as Austria, with an average of €41 per year or €20 per semester.

As a result, the cost of education in Austria can be paid off relatively quickly. According to the analysis, in Germany, the expenses incurred during your studies should generally be recoverable within just one year of entering the job market. The situation is different in countries where tuition fees are very high or where the average income for graduates is comparatively low. Here, the USA leads the ranking again, with an average repayment period of around 19 years for student loans. Russia is only slightly better, with two years less, despite relatively low tuition fees on a global scale.

Background: The ranking considered tuition fees for six specific fields of study: Medicine, Nursing, Law, Civil Engineering, Software Development, and Teaching. The fees for students from the respective country were used as the basis for calculations. In the case of the USA, tuition fees for residents of the state where each university is located were researched. Only tuition and administrative fees were taken into account, while costs for housing or other living expenses were not included. Additional educational expenses, such as hospital internships or law firm placements, were also excluded from the analysis.