Page 14 - ELG1707 Jul Issue 449

DATA & ANALYSIS .

The new BRYAN LEDGARD

British

empire

Irena Barker investigates a growing trend

for Britain’s leading private schools to set up
branches abroad

etting up a branch abroad used to be an Country Total non-British % with parents
activity for only the bravest, boldest and pupils overseas
best resourced independent schools in
Sthe UK. Mainland China 7,990 83.4%
Harrow School, alma mater of Sherlock actor
Benedict Cumberbatch and prime minister Europe EEA* 7,219 30.9%
Winston Churchill, was the first to plant its flag Hong Kong 4,938 95.8%
in foreign lands – opening a campus in Bangkok,
Thailand in 1998. It now has a ‘chain’ of four USA 3,514 8%
international schools in East Asia.
In the years that followed, a handful of other Russia 3,044 63.7%
schools also successfully exported the famous
British private school experience to expats and
wealthy locals. Germany 2,860 63.9%
But figures recently released by the
Independent Schools Council, which represents
around half of UK private schools, show Fig.1: Number of overseas students from top 6 key markets at ISC private
this steady drip has turned into a stream: its schools located in the UK *Excluding: Ireland, Spain, France and Germany
members now have a total of 59 branches
abroad. Bangalore, dubbed ‘India’s Silicon Valley’. students a fully bilingual education. Day-to-day
This represents an increase of thirteen schools The Independent Schools Council says that management is delegated to a Chinese partner,
compared to last year, and nearly three times the there are now 31,773 pupils being educated Elite K12.
number that were open in 2012. And analysts at its schools’ overseas branches. For the first And the drive to create outposts – which
say these figures are certain to rise much higher year ever, this is more than the number of can potentially carry a high degree of financial
as smaller, less-well-known schools follow in foreign students with parents overseas who are and reputational risk – does not look like it will
the footsteps of prestigious trailblazers such as educated at its schools in the UK, currently abate any time soon.
Harrow and Dulwich College, which has nine 27,281. Even state schools and colleges are getting
overseas branches. The overseas campuses include everything involved. The Bohunt Education Trust, which
International schools market analysts ISC from international schools aimed at expats to runs the state-funded Bohunt School in
Research, which has data on 41 overseas bilingual schools following the local curriculum, Hampshire, is due to open Wenzhou Bohunt
campuses run by UK independent schools, depending on demand and regulations in International School in China in 2018. It is
estimates the turnover from fee income alone individual countries. hoped the boarding school aimed at Chinese
to be around $700 million. It says it knows of Increasingly, schools aim to educate local pupils will help fund the work of the trust back
‘more than a dozen’ UK schools planning to children. Some, such as Wellington College in in the UK and offer opportunities for cultural
open abroad in the next three years, and expects Berkshire, have sought to replicate themselves exchanges. But why has opening up an outpost
around ten more to make announcements in physically, commissioning architecture that abroad become so appealing – and apparently
the next few months. reflects the historic ‘mother’ school in the UK. so feasible?
New branches are planned in fast-growing Others have gone less far, and lent their Ian McIntyre, director of schools at Brighton
cities in boom areas such as China and the branding and educational expertise to schools College International Schools, which runs
Middle East, and in emerging markets such as that have already been set up, such as Wycombe schools in the UAE and Thailand, said that
Myanmar, where Dulwich College will open two Abbey International in Changzhou. as schools in the UK sought to keep fees at an
campuses in the capital Yangon this August. Hurtwood House, a boarding school in south- acceptable level for local parents, the extra
And Repton School in Derbyshire is set to east England, has lent its name and ethos to a money raised was vital.
open a school for 3–18 year-olds next year in chain of five ‘sister schools’ in China offering He said, ‘The additional income stream
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