Asia India The
Liceu Nacional Afonso de Albuquerque in
Panaji, Goa – established in 1854 in
Portuguese Goa, following the Portuguese model – was the first public secondary school in the then-overseas Portuguese territory. Later, the Goa Lyceum received the official title of (
Afonso de Albuquerque National Lyceum). The Christ University Lyceum in Bengaluru, Karnataka - established in 2021, where scholars sit and do their research work and have discussion.
Philippines The Philippines follows its version of the
K-12 system, where the term
junior high school might be used instead of
lyceum. However, there are schools that appropriate the word
lyceum in their name. The
Lyceum of the Philippines University (LPU) is a university in
Manila established by former wartime president
José P. Laurel. Among its notable alumni are former president
Rodrigo Duterte, popular author
Rene Villanueva, and actor
Cesar Montano. LPU has campuses in Makati, Batangas, Laguna, Cavite, and Davao. The Filipino word for lyceum is from Spanish which can be found in some names of various universities and educational institutions which are unaffiliated with LPU.
Sri Lanka Lyceum International School (abbreviated as LIS), popularly known as Lyceum and its students as Lyceumers, is the largest
International School network in Sri Lanka providing all pre-primary, primary and secondary education. Lyceum also holds the title as the largest school in Sri Lanka with over 25,000 students and 3,300 teachers and staff (as of 2025 February). Lyceum International School was founded by Dr.
Mohan Lal Grero in 1993, to foster all-round development through English-medium learning in Sri Lanka. At its inception, Lyceum International School had only seven students and four teachers. The school's motto is derived from the Ancient Greek aphorism "
Know thyself".
Uzbekistan Lyceums also emerged in the former Soviet Union countries after they became independent. One typical example is Uzbekistan, where all high schools were replaced with lyceums ( is the Russian term, derived from French ), offering a three-year educational program with a certain major in a certain direction. Unlike Turkey, Uzbek lyceums do not hold university entrance examinations, which gives students the right to enter a university, but they hold a kind of mock examination which is designed to test their eligibility for a certain university.
Europe Albania The
Albanian National Lyceum was a high school in the city of
Korçë, Albania, that emphasized French culture and European values. The school fully functioned with a French cultural emphasis from 1917 to 1939. The school was continued post World War II as the
Raqi Qirinxhi High School.
Belarus The
Belarusian Humanities Lyceum is a private secondary school founded shortly after Belarus' independence from the
USSR by intellectuals, such as
Vincuk Viacorka and Uladzimir Kolas, with the stated aims of preserving and promoting native Belarusian culture, and raising a new Belarusian elite. It was shut down in 2003 by the Ministry of Education of Belarus allegedly for promoting enmity within Belarusian society and using the classroom as a political soapbox, indoctrinating students with biased views on history, ideology, politics, morality and values. The lyceum eventually switched to homeschooling with a limited number of underground homeschoolers.
Czech Republic The term
lyceum refers to a type of secondary education consisting of anywhere from four years ended by graduation. It is a type of schooling between grammar school and a technical high school. For example, the famous scientist
Gerty Cori went to a lyceum school.
Finland ,
Finland The concept and name (in Swedish, in Finnish) entered Finland through Sweden. Traditionally, were schools to prepare students to enter universities, as opposed to the typical, more general education. Some old schools continue to use the name
lyceum, though their operations today vary. For example, Helsinki Normal Lyceum educates students in grades 7–12, while Oulu Lyceum enrolls students only in grades 10–12. The more commonly used term for upper secondary school in Finland is in Finnish and in Swedish.
France The French word for an upper secondary school, , derives from Lyceum. (see
Secondary education in France.)
Germany The lyceum in Germany was known as an old term for a
Gymnasium for girls. In Bavaria it was also a
Hochschule to study
theology and
philosophy.
Greece In Greece,
Λύκειο refers to a type of upper secondary education school for students aged 15 to 18 or 20. The lyceum school first grade admitted students can have a maximum age up to 20 years old. Evening lyceum () is both for adult and underage working students, and lasts three years as of the 2020–2021 academic year, per Law 4547/2018. The lyceum awards the
Απολυτήριο, or , which is the upper
secondary education leaving certificate.
Upper secondary school (lyceum) • (; special lyceum) • (; model lyceum; 2015–present) • (; musical lyceum; 3 years, 1998–present) • (; art lyceum; 3 years, 2003–present) • (; experimental lyceum; 3 years, 2015–present) • (; ; general lyceum; 3 years, 1976–1996, 2006–present) • (; i.e. comprehensive lyceum; , general lyceum of cross-cultural education; 3 years, 2018–present) • (; ; vocational lyceum; EPAL; 3 years, 2006–present) • (; evening general lyceum; 3 years, 1976–present) • (; evening vocational lyceum; 3 years) • (integrated special vocational gymnasium-lyceum; ) • (ΓΕΕΛ; ; ecclesiastical general lyceum; 3 years, 2006–present)
Defunct upper secondary school (lyceum) • (; athletic lyceum; 3 years) • (; integrated lyceum; 3 years, 1997–2006) • (; technical lyceum; 3 years, 1977–1985) • (; vocational lyceum; 3 years; Law 576/1977; 1977–1985) • (gymnasium; integrated 3-year lower and 3-year upper secondary school) • (; ; integrated multifarious lyceum; 3 years, 1985–1997) • (; ; technical vocational lyceum; 3 years, 1985–1998) • (; ; technical vocational training centre; 3 years, 1998–2006)
Hungary Before
World War I, secondary education institutes with a primary goal of preparing for higher studies were often referred to by the word . In contemporary Hungarian, the most ubiquitous word for these institutions is , but lives on as an archaizing word referring to schools of high prestige and revered traditions, most notably
Calvinist boarding schools.
Italy The lyceum is considered by most the hardest and most prestigious kind of secondary school in Italy. The term
liceo refers to a number of
upper secondary school, which last five years (from 14 to 19 years of age) and are specialized in teaching
philosophy, ancient Greek (in the sole ) and
Latin, but also maths, physics,
trigonometry, biology and chemistry. It gives preparation for
university. It is divided into six different branches, each one specialized in certain subjects: •
Liceo classico (classical lyceum) is the most various between them but is known for focusing on history, literature, philosophy, ancient Greek and Latin. •
Liceo scientifico (scientific lyceum) focuses on maths, physics, biology and chemistry. •
Liceo linguistico (linguistic lyceum) focuses almost entirely on a certain number of languages and their literatures. Each school can decide which language to teach, but Italian and English are always present. •
Liceo artistico (arts lyceum) focuses on arts history and practical arts (varying from drawing to painting to sculpturing). •
Liceo delle scienze umane (human and social sciences lyceum) focuses on the human sciences such as psychology, anthropology, sociology and pedagogy and on the study of history and philosophy. •
Liceo musicale e coreutico (music and choreutic lyceum) focuses on musical performance.
Latvia The first Lyceum in
Riga was founded in 1675 by the king
Charles XI of Sweden (in Latin, ), and was renamed to the Imperial Lyceum of Riga (in German, ) in 1733. In September 1921, the
Riga French Lycée, an upper secondary school supported by the
Government of France was founded in Riga. In 1989, during the
Latvian National Awakening, the Pushkin Lyceum of Riga () with education programs in Russian was established. In 2002, another Russian lyceum was established in
Daugavpils (), renamed to Daugavpils High School of Technologies () in 2020.
Lithuania Some gymnasiums are called , e.g.
Vilnius Lyceum.
Malta Junior lyceums refer to secondary education state owned schools.
Republic of Moldova Until recently, in the Republic of Moldova the lyceum – called – was an educational institution where students studied from the first to the twelfth grade and would obtain the baccalaureate degree upon completion. In most cases, the lyceums were specialized in a particular domain (fine art, theatre, language) that was relevant to the personality whose name the institution bore. In other respects, it was little different from any regular school, with the exception of slightly higher education standards and supposedly being more prestigious. After 2010, regular schools were all formally reformed into lyceums, although their quality remained of the same level as before and most did not get any particular specialization, thereby being dubbed 'theory lyceums' (). One reason for the 2010 reform was to reduce the influence of the Soviet/Russian educational system and/or mentality in Moldova.
Netherlands In the Netherlands, a lyceum is a
selective secondary school for children aged 12–18 that offers "
voorbereidend wetenschappelijk onderwijs" (vwo) and "
hoger algemeen voortgezet onderwijs" (havo), the top and high levels of secondary education available in that country. Successful completion allows vwo students admission to university and havo students to
hogeschool, comparable to
vocational university. The term
lyceum is also sometimes used for other
vocational schools such as the
Grafisch Lyceum, or
Muzieklyceum Amsterdam, which grew into the
Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
Poland The is the
Polish secondary-education school. Polish liceums are attended by students aged 15 to 19–20 (see list below). Before graduating, pupils are subject to a final examination, the
matura. Polish liceums are of several types: •
general lyceum (15–19) •
specialised lyceum (15–19) • complementary lyceum (17-20)
Portugal From 1836 until 1978, in the
Portuguese educational system, the lyceum (), or national lyceum (), was a
high school that prepared students to enter
universities or more general education. On the other hand, the technical school () was a technical-oriented school. After several
education reforms, all these schools merged into a single system of "3rd cycle basic" and
secondary schools (), offering
grades 7 to 12.
Romania The Romanian word for lyceum is . It represents a post-secondary form of education. In order for a student to graduate the lyceum and obtain a baccalaureate diploma, they must pass the
bac. The lyceum consists of four school years (ages 15–19). Although the lyceum is a pre-university educational institution, it can be enough for the graduates to find a job, mainly in office work.
Russia In Imperial Russia, a lyceum was one of the following higher educational facilities: Demidov Lyceum of Law in
Yaroslavl (1803), Alexander Lyceum in
Tsarskoye Selo (1810), Richelieu Lyceum in
Odessa (1817), and Imperial
Katkov Lyceum in Moscow (1867). The
Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum was opened on October 19, 1811, in the
neoclassical building designed by
Vasily Stasov and situated next to the
Catherine Palace. The first graduates included
Aleksandr Pushkin and
Alexander Gorchakov. The opening date was celebrated each year with carousals and revels, and Pushkin composed new verses for each of those occasions. In January 1844 the Lyceum was moved to
Saint Petersburg. During 33 years of the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum's existence, there were 286 graduates. The most famous of these were
Anton Delwig,
Wilhelm Küchelbecher,
Nicholas de Giers,
Dmitry Tolstoy,
Yakov Karlovich Grot,
Nikolay Yakovlevich Danilevsky,
Alexei Lobanov-Rostovsky and
Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. Since the 1990s there are lyceums (special secondary schools) with in-depth study of humanitarian or natural science disciplines. As a rule, university professors teach in lyceums, and the educational system resembles that of a university. Later, the lyceums were renamed special general secondary schools.
Serbia The
Lyceum of the Principality of Serbia was the first
higher education school in Serbia in which education was taught in Serbian. It was founded in 1838 on the initiative of Prince
Miloš Obrenović in 1838 in
Kragujevac, then the capital of Serbia. When
Belgrade became the Serbian capital in 1841, the Serbian Lyceum opened there. In 1863 it became known as the
Grandes écoles until 1905 when it officially changed its name to the
University of Belgrade.
Turkey The Turkish word for the latest part of pre-university education is which is derived from the French word and corresponds to
high school in English. It lasts four to five years with respect to the type of the high school. At the end of their education, students take the TYT/AYT test, i.e. university entrance examination, to get the right to enroll in a public university or a private university.
Ukraine According to the Law of Ukraine "On Education", the lyceum is a level III secondary institution of education (or a structural unit of another institution of education) that provides field-specific secondary education. As it is planned, since 2017 a three-year senior school will be a lyceum of academic or vocational training. In vocational school, a student will master their first profession, whereas in an academic lyceum they will deepen personal knowledge of specific subjects that will be studied further at a higher education establishment. Graduates of academic lyceums will be able to obtain a bachelor's degree in three years (in most specialties) instead of four. Other types of lyceums in Ukraine include military lyceums and lyceums with intensive military and physical training.
North America United States See
lyceum movement and
comparison of US and UK secondary school years (except Scotland).
South America Chile It is not uncommon in Chile to use the word when referring to a high school. Another term is (secondary education); however, '''' is the most common term due to Chile's extensive European influence.
Uruguay '''' is commonly used to refer to secondary education. It was adopted from the French immigrants of the 19th century. ==See also==