Good to know
Good to Know
- Cluj-Napoca has only a small number of named international/bilingual schools compared to Bucharest, so options are more limited and interviews/waitlists are common, especially at Transylvania College and Royal School.
- Royal School in Transylvania's tuition rises steeply by age group, from kindergarten up to Year 12-13, plus a separate registration fee — budget for the specific year-group your child will enter, not a single flat 'international school' price.
- Transylvania College does not publish detailed per-grade fees online; its cost differs between the Romanian-curriculum and English-curriculum lines, so you'll need to request a current quote directly from the school.
- KEY International School is generally positioned as the most affordable international option in Cluj, but it currently only covers nursery through primary (as an IB PYP candidate school), so families needing secondary education will eventually need to transfer elsewhere.
- Romanian public schools remain free but operate mainly in Romanian (with some Hungarian-language streams), so most non-Romanian-speaking nomad families opt for one of these fee-paying international/bilingual schools instead.
- Transylvania College is the only school in Cluj-Napoca with a full nursery-through-high-school international track, and it runs a genuine waiting list for oversubscribed classes — earliest inquiry gets priority, so applying 'when you arrive' can mean missing a spot for that school year even though the school technically accepts enquiries year-round.
- Bring a complete academic transcript and most recent school reports when applying for an international/bilingual school in Cluj — this is explicitly required for international applicants, on top of standard ID/birth certificate paperwork most Romanian schools expect.
- Homeschooling in Romania sits in a genuine legal grey zone — it isn't explicitly illegal, but it also isn't a recognized schooling category, and there's at least one documented case of parents facing legal consequences over how they withdrew a child from school. The safest documented workaround used by resident families is enrolling with an accredited foreign 'umbrella' school rather than homeschooling entirely outside any system.
- Don't expect an established local homeschool co-op in Cluj-Napoca itself — support is mostly national-level (a national homeschooling association) and online, not a Cluj-specific in-person community.
Schools And Curricula
Named Schools
Transylvania College
- Type
- International / bilingual, nursery through high school
- Age Range
- Nursery through High School (approx. 2–18/19)
- Curriculum Notes
- Transylvania College is an international school in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, offering a Cambridge-based curriculum from Kindergarten through High School, and it follows a bilingual approach with a Bilingual Lyceum programme aligned with the Romanian national curriculum. The school offers the parents a choice between an enhanced Romanian Curriculum and the National Curriculum of England, and in high school students study according to the curriculum offered by Cambridge International Examinations, in preparation for IGCSE and A-Level exams. It has been accredited as a Cambridge International Examinations Centre since 2010 and is the only institution in Cluj-Napoca offering a complete educational track, from nursery through high school, with 35 nationalities represented in the school community.
Tuition
- Status
- not publicly itemized
- Note
- The fees are communicated to the parents on a yearly basis, once the school contracts for the next academic year are released, and differ between the Romanian-curriculum and English-curriculum lines. Exact current per-grade figures were not published on the school's public fee page found in research; families need to contact the school directly for a current quote.
Curricula Offered
- Cambridge International (IGCSE and A-Level) — English National Curriculum track
- Enhanced Romanian National Curriculum track (Bilingual Lyceum programme)
Royal School in Transylvania (RST)
- Type
- International, English-medium
- Age Range
- 3 to 18/19 years
- Tuition Academic Year
- 2023-2024 (school-published rates; may have risen since)
- Curriculum Notes
- Royal School in Transylvania (RST) teaches the National Curriculum of England and Wales from Reception through to Year 13, and is described as the only school in Cluj-Napoca that solely teaches the Cambridge Curriculum in English for students aged 5–18, plus a British-style EYFS curriculum for 3–4 year olds. Instruction is English-medium with German and other modern languages also offered.
Tuition
Kindergarten (per year)
- Kindergarten (Per Year)
- €4,650
Reception (per year)
- Reception (Per Year)
- €7,350
Year 1-2 (per year)
- Year 1 2 (Per Year)
- €9,650
Year 3-6 (per year)
- Year 3 6 (Per Year)
- €9,800
Year 7-9 (per year)
- Year 7 9 (Per Year)
- €10,300
Year 10-11 (per year)
- Year 10 11 (Per Year)
- €11,800
Year 12-13 (per year)
- Year 12 13 (Per Year)
- €13,500
Registration fee (one-time)
- Registration Fee (One Time)
- €300
Curricula Offered
- Cambridge International Curriculum (EYFS through A-Levels)
- National Curriculum of England and Wales
KEY International School
- Type
- International, non-profit, nursery through primary
- Age Range
- Nursery through Primary (roughly ages 2–11)
- Curriculum Notes
- KEY International School is an IB candidate school for the PYP (Primary Years Programme), the only IB candidate school in Transylvania, and is pursuing authorization as an IB World School and a Romanian primary school. It is run as a non-profit and describes itself as offering the lowest fees of any international school in Cluj, with nursery and kindergarten services also provided through its Educational Center.
Tuition
- Status
- not independently confirmed
- Note
- The school markets itself as the lowest-cost international school option in Cluj, but specific current per-grade tuition figures were not found on an official fee schedule during research; one third-party expat guide appears to have mistakenly repeated Royal School's fee table under KEY's listing, so no numeric KEY-specific tuition is reported here.
Curricula Offered
- IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) — candidate school
- Romanian national curriculum (primary)
Enrollment And Homeschooling
Homeschooling Legality Romania
- Legal Basis
- Homeschooling was referenced in Romanian education law in 2002 at the request of the Romanian Home-Schooling Association, but only for children medically or otherwise unable to attend school. A broader 2010 bill that would have legalized homeschooling for all children passed both parliamentary education committees but was blocked before becoming law. The newer pre-university education law (Law 198/2023) redefines the education system around accredited institutions and does not mention homeschooling as a category, leaving continued ambiguity.
- Overall Status
- Legal grey area — not explicitly banned, but not formally recognized as an educational pathway either. This is a national (not Cluj-specific) legal situation.
- Enforcement Risk
- There have been real legal consequences for families who withdrew children from school without a proper accredited-school alternative: a widely reported case saw parents in Bihor county convicted (a suspended sentence) for how they withdrew their children from school and registered them for homeschooling. This is cited by multiple homeschooling-advocacy and expat sources as a cautionary example, not proof that all homeschooling is prosecuted — the reported issue was around how the family exited the state system rather than home education itself.
- Advocacy Landscape
- The Romanian Home-Schooling Association (homeschooling.ro, founded 2002) continues to lobby for full legal recognition of homeschooling for all children, and a separate advocacy group has been pushing back publicly against what it characterizes as authorities refusing to recognize foreign-accredited diplomas and standardized test results for homeschooled children.
- Compulsory Schooling Age
- Education is compulsory in Romania for children up to roughly age 16 (through the point of completing lower secondary schooling), so simply withdrawing a child from any schooling structure without an alternative can create legal exposure.
- How Families Actually Do It
- The practical, lawful workaround used by resident families (including foreigners) is enrolling the child in an accredited school based outside Romania (commonly UK, US, or South African "umbrella schools") and teaching/testing the child against that curriculum. Romanian authorities generally accept documentation of enrollment and academic progress from such a school as evidence the child is receiving an education; if the umbrella school is accredited, its results are recognized more easily, otherwise a national/international standardized exam (including GED) may be needed for later recognition.
Homeschooling Community Cluj Napoca
- Finding
- No documented, Cluj-Napoca-specific homeschooling co-op or in-person support group was found in available sources. What exists is national-level: the Romanian Home-Schooling Association (homeschooling.ro) and general online communities (Facebook groups, forums) open to families anywhere in Romania, described by multiple sources as small but active nationally.
- Honest Caveat
- Nomad families wanting an in-person Cluj homeschool co-op should not assume one exists on the ground; the realistic resources are online/national rather than a local physical group specific to Cluj-Napoca.
- Documented Local Cluj Specific Group
- No
International Bilingual School Enrollment
- Process Steps
- The documented process at Transylvania College starts with contacting the admissions department directly, after which a 1:1 meeting (online or in person) is scheduled to discuss the programme and assess family fit before any formal application steps proceed.
- Practical Advice
- Because Transylvania College is the only school in Cluj-Napoca offering a full nursery-through-high-school international track and draws families from many nationalities, nomad families should treat any specific target start date (especially September) as needing outreach 6-12 months ahead for the most in-demand grades, even though the school itself frames admissions as open year-round.
- Waitlist Reality
- Transylvania College operates a formal waiting list system: if the number of candidates exceeds a class's capacity, priority is given to whoever expressed interest earliest, and later applicants are placed on a waiting list and notified if a spot opens up. This means timing of first contact with the admissions office matters more than a specific calendar deadline.
- Transfer Students
- Students transferring from another Romanian school need a transfer form submitted for approval to their previous school; Transylvania College then obtains the official school records directly once that transfer is approved.
- Application Timing
- Transylvania College explicitly runs rolling admissions rather than a single hard annual deadline: it states it welcomes enquiries for enrollment throughout the school year, and applicants can be admitted mid-year if a place is still available in the specific class. However, because class sizes are capped, popular grade levels and the entry years (nursery/reception) fill up well before the September start, so families should not assume a spot will be open just because admissions stay technically open year-round.
- Required Documents
- For international applicants, Transylvania College requires a complete academic transcript covering all prior years of study plus the most recent school reports. If the child is currently enrolled in another school in Romania, an official transfer form must be obtained from that school and approved before Transylvania College requests the official records.
- Other Documents Typically Needed But Not School Specific
- Standard supporting paperwork commonly requested by Romanian schools for foreign children (birth certificate with certified translation, passport/ID copy, proof of legal residence) should be expected, though the school's own published admissions page does not itemize a full checklist beyond transcripts and reports.
Schools Referenced
- Transylvania College (Cambridge International curriculum + Bilingual Lyceum, Cluj-Napoca)
- KEY International School, Cluj-Napoca
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026
This section has no cited sources.
More About Cluj-Napoca
Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.