According to the UK’s Independent Schools Council (ISC) latest census released this week, international students made up 34 per cent of the total number of boarders enrolled in member schools this year, up 1.4% on 2012.  Almost 10,000 of the 25,912 non-British pupils with parents living overseas came from either China or Hong Kong, and a further 4,324 from Germany and Russia.

Matthew Burgess, General Secretary of the ISC, said, “Around 80% of our overseas pupils go on to study at UK universities. Our schools educate almost 26,000 international pupils bringing in £750 million in school fees annually.”

China Daily USA cites research from Beijing’s Center for China and Globalization, a non-profit think tank, which suggests that almost one-quarter of those Chinese students abroad are studying at this more junior level; research indicated that 22.6% of Chinese overseas students held an academic certificate below high school level in 2011.

Fan Meng, Director of New Oriental Education & Technology Group’s exams division, also testified that demand for the TOEFL test among under-18 year olds was up 30% in 2012.

The huge demand for boarding school places among Chinese students has been attributed to parents’ desire to strengthen their children’s candidacy for US or other overseas universities and to enable them to bypass the intense pressure of the domestic college admissions system. In China, entrance to university is based upon a national exam, the ‘gaoko’.

Research suggests that almost one-quarter of those Chinese students abroad are studying at this more junior level

The opportunity to avoid this pressure will be a major selling point for Shanghai’s first Sino-foreign high school, recently announced and set to open in autumn 2014. Shanghai Qibao Dwight High School will offer bilingual teaching to Chinese and international students, introducing the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program alongside the core curriculum.

The mother of a pupil studying at Shanghai Qibao High School, which is partnering with the United States’ Dwight School for the venture, said that, “The new education model for high school is really attractive. Students don’t have to live under huge academic pressure. Besides, the certificate from a US high school may be useful for students to apply for higher education in the US.”