44 | INDIA | INTERNATIONAL
The Doon School
The view from Ooty
A PASSAGE TO INDIA “W
ABOVE: Ted
Underwood has over 13 years’ experience in international education as a
teacher, manager and marketer. He is now
schools’ director at Oak Tree International, a student
recruitment and consultancy company for independent schools
BELOW: the view from Hebron School
The subcontinent off ers a huge potential market for UK independent schools, but it requires a diff erent approach to the standard pan-Asian model of opening a new international campus, writes Ted Underwood
hat’s India like?” they ask me. What’s India like? I pause and think for a while, recalling my last visit in early
December: a mish-mash of meetings, traffi c jams and one very, very long night drinking single malt with a couple of American university marketing staff . I want to tell them it’s an absolute kick-to-the- head of a country. A nation so overwhelming, so loud, so colourful, so completely and ut erly busy that it will drive you mad, if you let it. Instead, I tell my extended family gathered round the Christmas dinner table that it was very nice, thank you. I’ve recently taken the plunge and opened up
an offi ce in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. It’s rather glamorously nicknamed “The Manchester of India” due to its textile industry, but that’s not why I’m there. Coimbatore is, by India’s standards, fairly small beer, with a trifl ing population of some three million inhabitants, a steadily growing wealthy elite and no agents representing UK schools there. India is full of such places and I would like to visit them all. So what’s been stopping us all jumping on the bandwagon of the latest Asian gold rush? Surely if China has yielded such promising returns for our independent schools over the years, particularly in the fi rst decade of this century, then India should be a walk in the park. A country famous for its love aff air with education and cricket, where English is nc
the lingua franca, and in possession of a galloping
economy. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a bit as it happens. When I talk to schools
about India there is always enthusiasm tempered with a certain nervousness. There is quite often a tale to tell of agents promising the world and delivering lit le coupled with an expectation to grease the palms of every state offi cial to which they were introduced. The tale often ends with much time and money being spent in India with lit le concrete return. So how do we stop history repeating itself? Well,
under the Modi administration there is hope. The India of the last couple of years is a commercially minded animal with money to spend and the red tape and corruption which has previously hampered so much foreign trade is being ruthlessly cut back. But still don’t expect any favours. While no one is keen for the mistakes of the past to be made again, recent history is still fresh in the minds of one of the world’s oldest nations and it was not so long ago that the Britishers were politely asked to leave. In short, they’ll hear you out but you’d bet er have
something good to off er. Student recruitment is a perfectly feasible option but the domestic competition is fi erce. Schools such as The Doon and Hebron are, in eff ect, English independent schools which marry the values of our independent school system with those of a modern India and charge fees for a domestic market. So why would they go anywhere else? A quick glance down the destinations list of old boys and girls shows a steady stream leaving for not only the top universities in India but also the Ivy Leagues of the USA and red bricks over here. They’re not doing too badly at all. How do we as a nation and network of independent schools consolidate our presence in this vast economy beyond the simple model of recruiting a relative handful of sons and daughters of the wealthy? As with doing business anywhere, it’s always
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