If you are comparing English schools in Cebu, the hardest part is not finding schools. It is finding numbers you can trust. Almost every page that ranks for this search is published by a school or by an agency that earns a commission when you enrol.
naviCebu is an information media company based in Cebu City, operated by Howdy Lemon Japan Inc. and publishing since 2022. We are a media company, not an agency: we do not broker enrolments or handle enrolment contracts. We score 11 schools across 14 campuses on 24 criteria, out of 240 points, and we publish the tuition each campus actually charges. This page is the English summary of that work.
What tuition actually costs, campus by campus
The figures below are tuition plus dormitory, meals included, in US dollars, for the regular course at each campus. Where a campus offers several room types we show the cheapest. A single room costs more; an external dorm usually costs the most.
| Campus | 1 week | 2 weeks | 4 weeks | 12 weeks | 24 weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QQEnglish Beachfront Campus Mactan Island — Mactan Newtown |
$639 | $1,042 | $1,643 | $4,685 | $9,120 |
| QQEnglish IT Park Campus Cebu City — IT Park |
$639 | $1,042 | $1,643 | $4,685 | $9,155 |
| CIA (Cebu International Academy) Mactan Island — Lapu-Lapu |
$500 | $1,000 | $2,000 | $6,000 | $12,000 |
| EV Academy Talamban Campus Cebu City — Talamban |
$828 | $1,346 | $2,070 | $6,210 | $12,420 |
| CPI (Cebu Pelis Institute) Cebu City — Lahug / Nivel Hills |
$604 | $1,047 | $1,610 | $4,830 | $9,660 |
| SMEAG Capital Campus Cebu City — Guadalupe |
$583 | $843 | $1,297 | $3,890 | $7,779 |
| GLC (Global Language Cebu) Cebu City — Mabolo |
$460 | $920 | $1,600 | $4,800 | $9,600 |
| CPILS Cebu City — M.J. Cuenco |
$989 | $1,324 | $1,962 | $5,744 | $11,208 |
| Cebu Blue Ocean Academy Mactan Island — Maribago |
— | $1,183 | $1,820 | $5,460 | $10,920 |
| Philinter Academy Mactan Island — Pusok |
$770 | $1,112 | $1,710 | $5,130 | $10,260 |
| CG Academy Talisay / Banilad |
$540 | $810 | $1,350 | $4,050 | $8,100 |
| B’Cebu Mactan Island — Angasil area |
$653 | $980 | $1,633 | $4,807 | $9,427 |
| EV Academy La Mer Campus Mactan Island — Cordova / Gabi |
$752 | $1,222 | $1,880 | $5,640 | $11,280 |
| SMEAG Encanto Campus Mactan Island — Maribago |
$803 | $1,204 | $1,927 | $5,780 | $11,560 |
Cheapest available room type per campus. Cebu Blue Ocean Academy does not sell one-week courses. Prices are the schools’ published rates as of August 2026 and change with season and promotion — always confirm on a formal quotation before you pay.
The costs that are not in that table
Tuition is roughly 70–80% of what you will actually spend. These are the local fees, paid in Cebu, that every student pays on top:
| Item | Cost | Who pays it |
|---|---|---|
| Registration fee | $100 | Everyone. Some schools charge $100–180 |
| SSP (Special Study Permit) | $120 | Every foreign student, regardless of nationality. Required by the Bureau of Immigration |
| Textbooks & materials | $50 | Everyone |
| Electricity & water | approx. ₱600 / week | Everyone, usually settled on departure |
| Visa extension | $189 (12 wks) $396 (24 wks) |
Only if you stay past your visa-free period. See the note below |
| ACR I-Card | $60 | Only if you stay longer than 59 days |
The visa line is the one that trips people up. Most nationalities enter the Philippines visa-free for 30 days, so a 4-week course usually needs no extension at all. Stay longer and you extend locally — schools handle the paperwork, you pay the fee. Visa-free periods differ by nationality, so check your own before you budget: Philippine Bureau of Immigration.
Local fees by course length
| Course length | Local fees | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 week | $281 | No visa extension needed |
| 2 weeks | $291 | No visa extension needed |
| 4 weeks | $312 | Still inside 30 days for most nationalities |
| 12 weeks | $644 | Visa extension + ACR I-Card |
| 24 weeks | $974 | Multiple extensions + ACR I-Card |
So a realistic 4-week total at the cheapest campus is roughly $460 + $312 before flights, insurance and personal spending. Add your own airfare — that varies far more by where you fly from than by which school you choose.
Run the cost simulator to get a total for a specific campus, room type and length. It uses the same figures as this page.
The 24-criteria ranking
Price tells you what a course costs. It does not tell you whether the school suits you. We score every campus on 24 criteria — safety, teacher quality, teaching materials, test preparation, programmes for families, food, dormitories, cleanliness, location and student feedback among them — for a maximum of 240 points.
| # | Campus | Score /240 | Character | Strongest in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | QQEnglish Beachfront Campus | 228 | Resort campus, family-friendly | families, resort setting, food, dorms & cleanliness |
| 2 | QQEnglish IT Park Campus | 223 | City campus | working professionals, short stays, materials & teachers, business English |
| 3 | CIA (Cebu International Academy) | 205 | Large campus, semi-spartan | large campus, facilities, IELTS, semi-spartan |
| 4 | EV Academy Talamban Campus | 203 | Spartan / semi-spartan | spartan, study management, facilities, dorms |
| 5 | CPI (Cebu Pelis Institute) | 197 | Resort-style campus in the city | facilities, dorms & cleanliness, pool, comfort |
| 6 | SMEAG Capital Campus | 194 | Test preparation specialist | IELTS, TOEIC, TOEFL, study management |
| 7 | GLC (Global Language Cebu) | 191 | Japanese-run, city campus | Japanese-run, beginners, short stays, Japanese-language support |
| 8 | CPILS | 188 | Long-established large school, spartan elements | long-established large school, test preparation, spartan elements, teachers |
| 9 | Cebu Blue Ocean Academy | 185 | Beachside resort campus | close to the sea, resort setting, families, beginners |
| 10 | Philinter Academy | 183 | Long-established, balanced | long-established, teachers, business English, test preparation |
| 11 | CG Academy | 178 | Spartan / semi-spartan | spartan, daily vocabulary tests, supervised self-study, value for money |
| 12 | B’Cebu | 157 | Large resort campus, junior programs | large campus, junior students, B’Sparta programme, families |
| 13 | EV Academy La Mer Campus | 152 | Family & junior, resort-style | families, junior students, resort-style, facilities |
| 14 | SMEAG Encanto Campus | 151 | Family & junior, resort-style | families, junior students, resort-style, facilities |
A lower score does not mean a bad school. It means the campus is built for a narrower purpose — several of the campuses near the bottom of this table are the best choices on the list if you are travelling with a child.
Choosing by what you actually need
- You want the strongest all-round campus — QQEnglish Beachfront Campus. Highest total score on our 24 criteria, and first place for both food and dormitories. Busy with families in peak season, and not a spartan school.
- You are working and can only take a short course — QQEnglish IT Park Campus. In the middle of Cebu’s business district, strong on business English and teaching materials, and the easiest campus to combine with remote work.
- You need a test score — IELTS, TOEIC or TOEFL — SMEAG Capital Campus. Built specifically for test preparation with structured study management. CIA, Philinter, CPILS and EV Talamban are the alternatives worth quoting.
- You want to be pushed hard — EV Academy Talamban Campus. Spartan programme with supervised self-study. CG Academy is the cheaper spartan option and adds daily vocabulary tests.
- You are bringing your children — Cebu Blue Ocean Academy. Beachside campus built around family and junior programmes. QQEnglish Beachfront, EV La Mer and SMEAG Encanto are the direct comparisons.
- You want the facilities to be comfortable — CPI. Resort-style campus inside Cebu City, with a pool and consistently well-rated rooms.
- You are a complete beginner — GLC. Japanese-run city campus built around beginners and speaking practice. Worth knowing that much of the on-site support is in Japanese.
If none of those describe you, the 10-question school finder sorts you into one of eight student types and returns three campuses to compare.
What we would tell a friend
Do not choose on price alone. The gap between the cheapest and the most expensive four-week course on this page is about $650. That is less than most people spend on flights, and far less than the cost of four weeks in a school that does not match how you learn.
Get a formal quotation before you book anything. Published rates move with season and promotion. Confirm the school, the course, the room type and the dates in writing, then buy your flight — not the other way round.
One-to-one lessons are the reason to come to the Philippines. Four to six hours a day of individual instruction is normal here and costs a fraction of what it does in Australia, Canada or the UK. If a school is selling you mostly group classes, you are paying Cebu prices for a Western timetable.
About this comparison
naviCebu publishes primarily in Japanese for readers living in and travelling to Cebu. This page is written in English for international students; the underlying research, the 24-criteria scoring and the per-campus data are the same. Our office is in Cebu City.
We are an information media company, not a study-abroad agency. We do not sell courses and we do not handle enrolment contracts, so nothing on this page depends on where you decide to go. Tuition figures come from the schools’ own published rates and are checked against our cost simulator. The 24-criteria scores are ours. Where we are unsure, we say so.
Cebu Study Abroad Guide · Cost simulator · 24-criteria comparison · FAQ
Work out your own total
Pick a campus, a room type and a course length, and the simulator adds tuition, dormitory and the local fees into one number. No registration, about 30 seconds. Open the cost simulator
Not sure which campuses to shortlist? The 10-question finder returns three to compare. Both tools are free and neither asks you to sign up.
Most of naviCebu is written in Japanese. If you read Japanese, the full cost guide and planning guide go into more detail.