How Much Does It Cost to Study in Cyprus?

The real cost of studying in Cyprus (summary)

Two tracks, two prices. The public universities charge €6,834 per year for a bachelor’s and €5,125 per programme for a whole master’s, but teach most bachelor’s degrees in Greek. The private universities teach in English and charge €8,970–11,520 per year for a bachelor’s and €6,237–14,220 per year for a master’s, with medicine in a market of its own at €22,000–23,000 per year. Some universities add per-semester charges of €30–65 per semester on top of tuition — a university rule, not a national one. Living costs run €700–1,000 per month. Health cover is €120–300 per year, the entry and residence permit €70–140, and first registration in the Aliens’ Register a further €70. Tuition is the line you choose; rent and the bank balance you must show are the lines that decide whether your file works. Start with our study in Cyprus guide for the full picture.

Tuition fees in Cyprus: public and private universities

Cyprus has no national tuition scale. Each university prices its own degrees, and the first fork is language rather than money. The University of Cyprus and the Cyprus University of Technology, both public, charge non-EU students €6,834 per year for a bachelor’s. That is the cheapest accredited bachelor’s on the island, and for most African applicants it is out of reach for a plain reason: UCY runs 1 English-taught bachelor’s programme and CUT 2. The rest are in Greek.

At master’s level the public route reopens. A conventional master’s at either university is €5,125 per programme, and that is the whole degree, paid in three instalments, not a yearly rate. The Open University of Cyprus prices its English-taught master’s at €5,400–5,850 per programme and lists 6 of them.

The private universities teach in English. UCLan Cyprus charges €9,000 per year, Frederick University €8,970–10,200 per year, European University Cyprus €9,240–10,980 per year and the University of Nicosia €10,320–11,820 per year. Private master’s fees are quoted for the whole 90-ECTS programme, not per year — UCLan’s €9,500 per programme, Frederick’s €9,000 per programme and EUC’s €6,237–8,910 per programme are totals, so never annualise them. Medicine and dentistry at Nicosia and EUC are billed separately at €22,000–23,000 per year.

Two smaller lines complete the bill. Cyprus charges no national semester fee, but individual universities do: €30–65 per semester at the University of Nicosia, €110 per semester at Frederick. Application fees are €50 at UCLan, €55 at Frederick, €60 at Nicosia and €80–200 at EUC, and credential evaluation costs KYSATS (EUR 85.43 per application). Fees institution by institution are on our universities in Cyprus page.

Living costs in Cyprus

Budget €700–1,000 per month for rent, food, transport and a phone. City choice moves that total more than anything else you control. Nicosia is the cheapest of the four university cities at €600–650 per month, with a room in a shared flat at €250–500 per month. Paphos runs €700–900 per month, and its rent is higher than Nicosia’s at €450–550 per month because most student rooms there are university-managed flats or hotel units. Larnaca is €800–950 per month with rent of €250–400 per month, and Limassol is the dearest at €800–1,000 per month, rent €400–600 per month. Only the Limassol figures come from a university’s own published page, the Cyprus University of Technology’s; as of September 2026 no institution in Nicosia, Larnaca or Paphos publishes its own, so those are student-housing estimates.

The immigration side works differently. The Civil Registry and Migration Department publishes no monthly living figure at all — the reference sum recorded for Cyprus is 2,050 EUR a month, but your file is judged case by case on a bank statement, not against a published table. That is why the amount your chosen university asks you to show matters more than any national number.

Health insurance

Every non-EU student needs a health policy that meets the Migration Department’s minimums, and in Cyprus it is bought by the year, not the month. A compliant local policy costs €120–300 per year, which works out at €10–25 per month if you spread it, though no insurer bills it that way and international online policies cost several times more. The cover must include inpatient treatment of at least 13,700 EUR a year, outpatient care and repatriation. There is no student exemption: the policy must name you, run for at least a year, and stay valid for the whole of your stay, and an expired one blocks your permit renewal.

Proof of funds for the Cyprus student visa

This is the figure people get wrong. Cyprus asks for €5,000–7,000 per year, and it is a range rather than a number because No single CRMD-wide statutory sum is published; each university sets its own bank-balance threshold when filing the student's entry-permit application. UCY separately requires confirmation of a minimum EUR 800 account balance plus a repatriation bank guarantee. Figures genuinely vary by institution – confirm with the specific university. The mechanism is documentary: Bank statement (student's own, or sponsor's with a signed sponsor letter) covering tuition and living costs; UCY renewal additionally needs a repatriation bank guarantee. Insufficient or unverifiable proof of funds is the first refusal reason on the department’s own list, and files fail on presentation as often as on the amount — a statement that does not match your fee receipt reads as a fabrication. Our Cyprus student visa requirements page lists the full document set, and how to prove funds for a student visa explains what an officer reads for.

Cheapest universities and student cities

Neapolis University Pafos advertises the lowest bachelor’s fee among the English-teaching privates, €6,000–9,000 per year, across 15 English bachelor’s programmes — but that figure is an estimate carried over from earlier checks, because Neapolis publishes no fee table. Ask admissions for a written quote before you budget on it. Frederick University is the cheapest verified private at €8,970–10,200 per year, UCLan Cyprus follows at €9,000 per year with 17 English bachelor’s programmes, and the American University of Cyprus in Larnaca charges €9,100–9,500 per year. If you read Greek, or you are applying for a master’s, the public universities undercut all of them at €6,834 per year and €5,125 per programme. The cheapest combination on the island is a public or Open University master’s taken in Nicosia at €600–650 per month; the dearest is a private bachelor’s in Limassol at €800–1,000 per month. Compare destinations on our cheapest countries in Europe page.

How to cover the costs

Cyprus runs no national scholarship scheme for international students in our dataset. The one scheme open to applicants from all nine of our origin countries is Erasmus Mundus, which funds joint master’s degrees and is competitive. The practical money sits with the universities themselves: merit reductions and bursaries are already priced into some of the published fees above, and an award also lowers the bank balance some universities ask you to show. Work rights are real but conditional. You may work 20 hours/week outside class time, in decreed sectors/occupations, rising to 38 hours/week during interruption of classes, and a permit is needed first, with an employment contract approved by the District Labour Office. Full-time pay starts at the statutory minimum of €1,088 per month. Term-time work covers groceries and a phone bill; it will not cover tuition, and it counts for nothing in your permit file. Our Cyprus scholarships page lists what is actually open to African applicants.