English-speaking countries are often narrowly defined as the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Unfortunately, university fees are high in all of these countries. Thankfully, there are plenty of other, more affordable countries whose universities use English as a teaching medium. They are either former British colonies or countries trying to project an international image through their English-medium universities.
The use of English is a norm in the universities of Commonwealth countries
The Commonwealth is the association of 56 countries that used to be colonies of the British Empire. Many of their universities were founded during the colonial era, so they got accustomed to using English as their primary academic language – even when it's not the native language of the local students or even the faculty. Some offer programs in both English and local languages, but it's always guaranteed to find at least part of their undergraduate and postgraduate offer taught in English. The administrative system of these countries also tends to be in English, again because of the colonial heritage.
The tuition fees and cost of living in these countries tend to be significantly lower than in Western countries qualified as “English-speaking.” India, South Africa, Malaysia, and Singapore are all non-Western Commonwealth countries where university programs are taught in English. And with the exception of Singapore, they are all extremely affordable to study and live in.
These countries have long-standing and prestigious universities. Notable are the University of Cape Town in South Africa (ranked 174th best worldwide by the QS World University Rankings 2024), the University of Delhi (ranked 407th) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in India, the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, and Universiti Malaya in Malaysia.
The 23 campuses of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have trained many engineers of the best tech companies worldwide. The current CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, famously studied at IIT Kharagpur. As for the University of Cape Town, it has one of the best astronomy departments in the world, a department that is directly involved in projects at the SALT (Southern African Large Telescope), the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere. Meanwhile, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore conducts some of the most cutting-edge research worldwide in artificial intelligence. These few examples are just to show that English-medium universities in Commonwealth countries can be as excellent as those in English-speaking Western countries.
They are also relatively affordable. International students from other African countries that are part of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) pay domestic tuition fees in South Africa, which tend to be around US$3,000-4,000 per year. For students outside of the SADC, it's about US$8,000 per year. In India, international students are likely to pay around US$5,000 per year in tuition fees. In Malaysia, they pay around US$4,000 annually. However, the Universiti of Malaya, the country's most prestigious institution, has exceptionally low international fees: only about US$1,700 per year.
Many European universities offer courses in English to be more international
Universities in the European Union often try to demonstrate their commitment to multilingualism, especially when they hope to attract students from other countries of the union who participate in various intra-EU exchange programs. They often also want to project an international image and attract students from beyond the EU who pay higher fees, which the universities financially need.
Courses in English are especially common in the Netherlands. Nuffic, an organization that studies the internationalization of education, reports that 77% of all Master's degrees and 28% of Bachelor's degrees in the country are taught in English. The Eindhoven University of Technology teaches all of its courses in English. Unfortunately, the Dutch Ministry of Education is planning to limit the percentage of classes that can be taught in English. Universities are protesting against this proposed law, and it is yet to be seen if it will pass.
Elsewhere in Europe, many prestigious universities offer some of their courses in English, especially if these are courses that international students tend to show great interest in. The prestigious Sorbonne University in Paris offers various master's degrees in engineering and technology entirely taught in English. Unfortunately, it offers no English-medium undergraduate programs. Stockholm University in Sweden also offers multiple postgraduate programs in English. It also offers a handful of English-medium Bachelor's degrees, notably a Bachelor's of International Business and Politics.
The University of Barcelona, in the eponymous cosmopolitan city, offers a few undergraduate programs and a wide range of postgraduate programs in English. At the undergraduate level, they're courses that are, by nature, highly international, such as tourism, international business and bioinformatics. They are more diverse at the postgraduate level, ranging from astrophysics to linguistics to biology. Some Erasmus Master's programs, i.e., are offered jointly by the University of Barcelona and a second university in another EU country.
Germany is a very popular international study destination for its extension of tuition-free education to non-EU students. Many German universities offer at least part of their courses in English. Notably, the prestigious Technical University of Munich, which has educated 13 Nobel Prize winners, offers no less than 76 programs taught entirely in English. Most are at the postgraduate level.
A handful of universities in East Asia have programs taught in English
Quite a few universities in East Asia have followed the same trend as the European universities described above. These East Asian countries were never colonies of the British Empire, but the importance of international business and technological exchange to their strong economies has motivated some of their universities to offer a few programs in English. These universities include Hokkaido University and Sophia University in Japan, Tsinghua University in China, and the National Taiwan University (NTU) and Taipei Medical University in Taiwan.
Tsinghua University, located in Beijing, is the most prestigious university in China and one of the most prestigious in the world. While it has programs in various fields, it's mostly known for its programs in STEM and public policy. As such, it offers 32 English-medium postgraduate programs in these fields. That includes a Global MBA, Master's programs in law and public administration, and various niche Master's degrees in engineering. As of this year, its Master's Program in General Medicine is also being taught in English. Out of the 32 programs are 8 doctoral programs in medicine, mathematics and technology.
In neighboring Taiwan, multiple postgraduate programs at the Taipei Medical University are 90% taught in English. Only the occasional module is taught in Chinese. These encompass postgraduate programs in pharmacy, nursing, neuroscience, public health and other medical subfields. Meanwhile, in Japan, Hokkaido University offers two Bachelor's programs, in Japanese Studies and integrated science, entirely in English. It has a wider offer of English-medium postgraduate science courses.
