Call it the Harry Potter effect if you must, or just chalk it up to the romantic appeal of the British Empire and its charming heritage, but there is no doubt that demand for a UK education is surging by unprecedented leaps and bounds.
The last 10 years in particular have seen a spike in some of the most prominent schools in Britain establishing satellite campuses across Asia, as they seek to tap into the region's multi-billion-dollar international school market. Highly regarded and sought after, UK curriculum qualifications are recognized by leading universities throughout the world, including those in the United States and Canada.
Nicholas Brummitt, Chairman of the International School Consultancy (ISC), has been tracking trends for over 30 years. He says that while international schools still cater to globetrotters, the blossoming numbers of attendees stem from wealthy Asian families who want a high-quality, Western-style education for their children, seeing it as gateway to a place at a respected college while still keeping them close to home. “In total, there are currently 7,545 English-medium international schools around the world teaching over 3.9 million students, and almost half of these schools say they are UK-oriented in their teaching and learning. Three-thousand-one-hundred-and-six international schools globally are delivering (all or in part) the National Curriculum of England. Growth remains positively strong, especially in Malaysia, where 65 percent of all international schools are UK-oriented.”
As supply and growth increases steadily in Asia, this has led to a recent plateauing, if not a decrease, of parents choosing to send their children to boarding schools in Great Britain. A recent 2015 report from the UK-based Independent Schools Council estimates that families sending children to boarding schools in the UK spend a staggering average of about RMB90,000 a term at the senior level. The cost of tuition, combined with the added expense of flights and loss of time with family, have seen parents preferring choice destinations within Asia, as more and more British boarding schools seize the opportunity to move eastward.
The recent opening of the prestigious Epsom College in Malaysia is a prime example, marking the 159-year-old British institution’s first overseas campus in Asia. An official ceremony to celebrate Epsom’s entrance into the region was filled with pomp and circumstance, graced by Malaysian royalty and the mayor of London himself, Boris Johnson, along with one of the project’s major investors, Tony Fernandes, the founder of AirAsia, who will also sit as chairman on the school’s board of governors.
Located on vast, 50-acre grounds about an hour south of Kuala Lumpur, Epsom College in Malaysia (ECiM) aims to provide students with the spirit of British tradition and academic excellence right in the backyard of Asia’s established and emerging elite. Over the months since it first started accepting students, the school has seen enrolment skyrocket. Many of the mother and fathers sending their children are enticed by Epsom’s lofty reputation in England, their initial admiration bolstered by the state-of-the-art facilities. Though these may not have the musty, time-honored whiff of learning like the original, ECiM’s smart, spotless classrooms, auditoriums, dormitories and sports pitches are impressive. Clearly, very little expense has been spared.
Fernandes, an Old Epsomian himself, remarked that the opening represents a win not just for Epsom College and education in Malaysia, but also for families across Asia, who now have access to a first-class British education right on their doorstep. It’s a sentiment that parents across the continent share and applaud, not with their hands, but with their feet, as they march their way in increasing numbers to the doors of ever-so-English academic institutions.
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