← Back to homeThe Independent College of Tirana
Tirana, Albania · est. 1999 · Private
Illustration · Tirana
A private full-day school from preschool to grade XII. It opened in September 1999 in Fier as the city's first private school, and in September 2001 opened a second campus in Tirana, in a purpose-built building; it joined the Cambridge network in 2011. Students follow the Albanian curriculum, ending with the State Matura, and the Cambridge programme in parallel: Primary Checkpoint in grade V, Lower Secondary Checkpoint in IX, IGCSE in grade X in 8-10 subjects, AS Level in XI in 3-4 subjects and A Level in XII in 3 subjects. Teaching is in two languages: the Albanian curriculum is taught in Albanian, and the school calls English a working second language rather than just a subject, with all Cambridge exams taken in English. A second foreign language is taught at lower secondary, but the school does not name it. Classes have no more than 18 students, preschool groups no more than 12.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $3 615–5 084 a year
3 200–4 500 EUR
Programmes
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary, IGCSE, A-Level
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
Albanian, English
Class size
no more than 18, no more than 12 in preschool groups
About the fees Annual fees: preschool 3200 euros, including a full day, meals and afternoon activities; primary 3800 euros, including meals and learning materials; lower and upper secondary 4500 euros, including IGCSE and A Level preparation, international exams and university counselling.
Admissions Admission has three steps: an online application, a campus visit and a short test in English and mathematics, which does not screen students out but helps place them in the right grade; if there are gaps, the school draws up a support plan. Good English is not required for the lower stages; upper secondary requires B1+. For 2026-2027 applications open on 15 March, visits run from 1 to 30 April, tests are on 15 May, final enrolment is by 30 June, and classes start on 15 September. The school does not say whether it admits foreign citizens.
Stages and year groups Grades Pre-School, I-XII. Preschool - ages 3-5; primary - grades I-V; lower secondary - grades VI-IX; upper secondary - grades X-XII. Cambridge: Primary Checkpoint in grade V, Lower Secondary Checkpoint in IX, IGCSE in X, AS Level in XI, A Level in XII.
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
Cambridge · Primary, Lower Secondary, IGCSE, A-Level · authorised programmeschool is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
CambridgeCambridge International Education
Part of the University of Cambridge. It allows a school to teach the Cambridge programmes and to enter pupils for the exams. There are four stages and they are authorised separately: primary, lower secondary, IGCSE and A Level. If the stages are known they are named in the line below; if that line is missing, the school does not publish them, and the Cambridge registry does not show stages either - it gives only the name of the centre, the country and whether private candidates are accepted. Cambridge calls what it does registration rather than accreditation, and the network holds about ten thousand schools.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: Primary (ages 5-11), Lower Secondary (ages 11-14), IGCSE (ages 14-16), A-Level (ages 16-18). Primary is the primary stage, ages 5 to 11: English, mathematics and science to Cambridge syllabuses. At the end of the stage a school may run the optional Checkpoint test, which is marked in Cambridge. Lower Secondary is the middle stage, ages 11 to 14, with the same optional Checkpoint test at the end. IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate. A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →Exams and destinations from the school's official website
Exam results At IGCSE, according to the school's December 2025 announcement, 87 percent of students earned A* or A, the best result in its history. In spring 2026 three students from grades XI and XII won gold and silver medals at the national stage of the mathematics olympiad.
Where leavers go: University of North Carolina · University of Tirana · Imperial College London · KU Leuven · Università Bocconi
The school says all its graduates are admitted to universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
·Sports hallnot stated on the website
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
·Cateringnot stated on the website
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio
Campus: Tirana campus since 2001: 24 classrooms, 4 laboratories, a sports field, a library of more than 8000 titles in Albanian and English, art and music rooms, a conference hall. Visits on Thursdays from 10:00 to 12:00.
Clubs and activities: Basketball
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
The school's founder Mina Hasanaj leads the academic side; principal Fatmir Vejsiu has worked in education for more than 20 years.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
The school says nothing on its website about security, medical care or pupil support.
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)95 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data80 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)85 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data75 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data61 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 8 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country