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University

Namibia

An English-medium degree for about two thousand dollars a year.

5/5
ingredients confirmed
Every ingredient this page asks for has a figure and a source.
Tuition
~$300–3.8k/yr
The University of Namibia works differently: its 2026 prospectus charges non-SADC students a minimum tuition deposit of N$14,300 plus a N$3,500 international levy at registration, and doubles the Namibian rate for postgraduate and practical courses. This figure prices the institution that publishes one rate for everyone.
Living
~$700/mo
Single student, all in. Compared at country level, so capital cities and large metros run higher. The price level behind it prices the basket residents buy, and a foreign renter cannot reach the cheap end of local housing — poorer countries may still sit too low here.
Education
Works across southern Africa
Research impact 10th percentile globally — median of 1 ranked universities (CWTS Leiden Open Edition 2025). Research output, not teaching quality; it informs the band, it does not set the score.
Work after study
Nothing follows the degree, and the permit tests the labour market
Safety
Mid
Sixth in sub-Saharan Africa and sixty-third globally — well above South Africa, its neighbour and the country it is usually compared with

More is being checked.

What we corrected here

Figures we published, and what reading the source did to them. The old ones were ours, not anyone else’s — this is our record of being wrong, kept where the figure it is about lives.

Tuition

We had the same fee at N$16.00 to the dollarNow ~$300–3.8k/yr

The conversion was wrong, not the fee. The World Bank rate this dataset uses for 2024 is N$18.33.

Read from the source in 2026-09.

Where these figures came from

One row per ingredient. Open any of them for the source, how far we trust it, and when we last checked.

Tuition~$300–3.8k/yr

One university, not two, and the reason is worth stating. The Namibia University of Science and Technology's 2026 fee booklet prices every programme year by year: 103 year-totals from N$5,440 to N$70,400, a median of N$33,680, with no separate international rate published. The University of Namibia would be the second, and its 2026 prospectus does state the rule for foreigners — non-SADC students pay double the Namibian rate plus an international student levy of N$3,500 — but the Namibian rate it doubles is not in that document, and the same prospectus says Namibians taking a first undergraduate qualification at NQF levels five to eight now pay no tuition at all, so the base the rule refers to is one Namibian students themselves no longer pay. Doubling an unpublished number would be inventing the answer. What this entry did fix is the conversion: the figure was previously carried at N$16.00 to the dollar, and the World Bank 2024 rate this dataset uses is N$18.33.

The University of Namibia works differently: its 2026 prospectus charges non-SADC students a minimum tuition deposit of N$14,300 plus a N$3,500 international levy at registration, and doubles the Namibian rate for postgraduate and practical courses. This figure prices the institution that publishes one rate for everyone.

Confidence
printed in the source
Last checked
2026-09
Living~$700/mo

Pathoff judgement directed by evidence, not computed from it: the country’s position comes from the World Bank household consumption price level for 2024 (0.399 of the United States, CC BY 4.0 — the ICP benchmark carried forward annually by the World Bank’s own method); the US reference budget is ours. See the Pathoff method, section 12.

Single student, all in. Compared at country level, so capital cities and large metros run higher. The price level behind it prices the basket residents buy, and a foreign renter cannot reach the cheap end of local housing — poorer countries may still sit too low here.

Confidence
made by us from the source
EducationWorks across southern Africa

Pathoff education rubric (the Pathoff method, section 9-1), degree band "Locally solid, externally unknown": The degree is taught in English and accepted across SADC and the Commonwealth with assessment. At the top of the band; no Namibian institution is a name outside the region.

Research impact 10th percentile globally — median of 1 ranked universities (CWTS Leiden Open Edition 2025). Research output, not teaching quality; it informs the band, it does not set the score.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Work after studyNothing follows the degree, and the permit tests the labour market

Pathoff outcome rubric (the Pathoff method, section 10-2), degree outcome band "A route you cannot plan around": Graduation confers no period to stay. An employment permit requires the employer to show the post was advertised and no Namibian was available, which makes the outcome turn on the state of a small labour market rather than on the graduate.

Confidence
made by us from the source
Rule
No change known to us
Last checked
2026-09
SafetyMid

Global Peace Index 2026: rank 63 of 163, score 1.872. Converted by the Pathoff GPI formula (GPI in lib/scoring.ts)

Sixth in sub-Saharan Africa and sixty-third globally — well above South Africa, its neighbour and the country it is usually compared with

Confidence
made by us from the source

What it is like here

Namibia’s two public universities teach entirely in English and publish their fees programme by programme, which puts a full degree well under what most countries charge for one term. From 2026 the state pays those fees for Namibian students; international students still pay them, and they are still low. What follows graduation is the weak part — nothing does, and a work permit requires the employer to prove no Namibian could do the job.

How the process works

1

Apply directly; teaching is in English

No language qualification, and both public universities publish their entry requirements.

⏱ 3–6 months
2

Study permit, with proof of funds

Issued against the offer letter and evidence of maintenance.

⏱ 2–5 months

Where students go

Windhoek
Both public universities and nearly all the graduate employers
Ongwediva / Oshakati
Regional campuses, much cheaper living

Open any ingredient above to see where its figure came from, how far we trust it and when we last checked. Nothing here is a substitute for the official source. Last reviewed 2026-09-04.

Photograph of Namibia by Daniel Kraft, licensed CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.