University Tuition and Cost of Study in Somalia

Tuition varies sharply by university

Somalia's higher education sector is dominated by private universities, and each sets its own tuition, so there is no single "cost of a degree" figure for the country. Aggregator listings put SIMAD University 's international tuition in Mogadishu at around $1,000 a year for both bachelor's and master's programs, and Benadir University 's international minimum at around $2,500 a year. Neither university publishes these figures on its own fee pages, and the same aggregator also reports an implausible $2-a-year citizen rate for SIMAD, so treat both numbers as rough indicators and request a written fee schedule from each admission office.

Citizen tuition at these private universities runs on a separate, lower scale than the international rate, but published aggregator figures for the exact citizen rate are inconsistent and unreliable. Confirm the current local-student rate directly with the university's admission or finance office before you build a budget around it.

What public university costs

Somali National University, the country's flagship public institution, states that all undergraduate programmes are tuition-free. What students pay instead are registration and administrative charges set by faculty: about $50 a year for Education and Sharia & Islamic Studies, about $80 for Agriculture & Environmental Science, Economics & Management, Languages, Law, Social Science, and Veterinary Medicine, and about $100-$125 for Health Sciences & Tropical Medicine, Engineering, Medicine & Surgery, and Science, plus $350 for the required English for Academic Purposes programme. source Public tuition at SNU has historically stayed low or free for large cohorts through government-funded scholarship drives, including a 2017 program that funded 1,000 new places to nearly double enrollment. source

All-in packages at some private universities

A few private universities bundle tuition with accommodation and meals into one price. Barwaaqo University's combined package, tuition, room, and board together, runs about $3,500 a year, with students housed in shared dorm rooms of up to four people. source A bundled price like this is worth comparing against paying tuition and rent separately at another university, since it removes the guesswork around housing costs.

Budgeting for living costs

Beyond tuition, plan for daily living. Crowd-sourced cost of living trackers put a single person's monthly budget in Somalia at roughly $700, but sample sizes for Somalia are small and Mogadishu runs well above the national figure, so treat it as a rough order of magnitude rather than a fixed budget line. source Costs run higher in Mogadishu than in smaller towns, especially for rent and imported goods, so treat the national average as a floor rather than a fixed number for the capital.

Add these together when you build a yearly budget: tuition (from around $1,000 at the low end for international rates, more at other universities), registration or administrative charges where they apply, and 12 months of living costs. Ask each university's finance office for a written fee schedule before you commit, since prices change and online aggregators do not always match official rates.

Sample costs