Most expensive school (annual fees)

The most expensive school is the Institut le Rosey, a co-educational boarding school located in Rolle, Switzerland (with a winter campus in the ski resort of Gstaad). Annual fees for a single student are CHF 115,500 ($118,299 / £87,669), payable in two instalments (of CHF 77,000 and CHF 38,500).

The Institut le Rosey has held this record since the first edition of Guinness World Records (in 1955), when its fees were apparently £1,000 per student per year. That works out to a mere £32,575 (CHF 40,936 / $40,185) in today's money. The CHF 115,500 fees cover tuition, room and board, but private music lessons, travel, and international baccalaureate exams cost extra.

The school typically has no more than 400 students, overseen by around 200 staff. Notable alumni of the school include several kings and heads of state – including Juan Carlos I of Spain and Albert II of Belgium, representative of business dynasties such as the Rockefellers and Rothschilds, and the children of the rich of famous.