How United kingdom non-public schools’ overseas satellites can deliver in significant sums

Haileybury and Imperial Support Faculty, to give the faculty its comprehensive title, grew out of the East India Organization with a mission to teach the soldiers and functionaries of Britain’s empire. But in a contemporary twist, Haileybury’s most up-to-date mission is to “provide a rigorous and really regarded British training in Bangladesh” when it opens a satellite boarding college there later on this calendar year, to go with two satellite universities in Kazakhstan.

Haileybury describes its associations with its satellites as “partnerships”. When Haileybury is a registered charity, the earnings from its abroad operations goes to Haileybury Enterprises Limited (HEL), a subsidiary described as supplying services to the school on “international educational guidance and consultancy”.

HEL’s accounts for 2020-21 exhibit it produced £1.4m from “overseas instructional activities”. HEL employs no workers, “as all products and services had been supplied by [Haileybury], for which a charge was charged”. Its big outgoing very last 12 months was a reward-aided donation of practically £1m to Haileybury.

Haileybury did not respond to inquiries from the Guardian about its overseas satellites. The college is also a sponsor of a point out academy, Haileybury Turnford secondary school in Hertfordshire.

Haileybury’s arrangement is popular at several other charitable private educational institutions in England. Dulwich Faculty, which has hyperlinks to a dozen abroad satellites, uses a for-earnings subsidiary named DCOE to license the college’s name and mental home to a 3rd enterprise, Dulwich College or university Management Worldwide (DCMI), with DCOE donating its taxable earnings on to Dulwich School.

Dulwich’s charitable accounts point out: “DCMI and the international schools it operates are owned and run independently of the College or university and DCEO.”

How substantially each satellite earns is almost never released, but the Financial Periods not too long ago reported that a subsidiary “typically will take 2-6% of yearly revenues from the certified nearby operator then donates this to the Uk school”.

In some instances, the sums created are impressive: Cranleigh school acquired £5.85m in 2020-21 from providing the upcoming cash flow from its campus in Abu Dhabi. In Cambodia, The King’s Faculty, Canterbury, is partnering with the developer Vattanac Properties for a 1,500-pupil university in a new “visionary eco-city” named Vattanacville.

But not all are a achievements. Dulwich’s accounts observed: “As a consequence of the army coup in Myanmar, it was no lengthier feasible to keep the intercontinental faculties in Myanmar and all their functions were being suspended for the foreseeable foreseeable future, with a loss to Dulwich University revenues of £90,000.”

A report by the Personal Education and learning Policy Discussion board found that of the 5 wealthiest charitable non-public educational facilities measured by endowments and investments, which include Eton and Winchester, only Rugby has a satellite.

Aline Courtois, a senior lecturer at the College of Bath’s office of education who has interviewed staff members at satellite universities, explained some claimed they experienced minimal make contact with with the mother or father college and shared number of assets. “Some staff felt that their college was just there to increase money for the United kingdom school,” Courtois reported.

Defenders of satellite faculties in establishing nations argue the charges are mostly paid out by wealthy expatriates and multinational businesses. But Courtois said there was most usually a mix of youngsters from expatriate and nearby families, depending on the location. “In any case it is even now dollars that could be invested in area educational institutions rather than getting sent again to the British isles,” Courtois mentioned.

School inspection reports recommend large variants in student origins. Although Cranleigh’s Abu Dhabi satellite promises pupils from 79 distinctive nationalities, with a big proportion from the United kingdom and US, a 2022 report on Rugby University Thailand said: “The school serves regional, affluent family members as effectively as some from additional away in Thailand and a few international pupils.”