INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS
International operators also differentiate themselves from
other schools with a focus on a strong extra-curricular offering and outstanding facilities:
• Beyond academic excellence, operators provide a unique offering by developing a world rounded student with ‘21st century skills’ such as, entrepreneurship, leadership, sports, community, creativity, arts etc.
• Global exchanges and joint expeditions involving students from across the world are also offered by some international K-12 brands
• Nord Anglia Int’l has a global tie up with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• This includes summer teacher training courses at MIT for STEAM subjects, an opportunity for students to attend science festivals at MIT, in addition to being able to interact with experts in MIT’s Makerspace
• It also has in-school programs with partner organizations like Imperial College London and Oxfam
BEYOND SCHOOL AND ON TO UNIVERSITY Companies should be mindful that parents want their children to be admitted to top universities which are back at home, he says. This means that families tend to return to their home country, or send their families back home, when their children are older. “The USA and UK lead the way for the maximum number
of best universities in the world,” he says. “Parents desire their children to enroll in top class universities, and 45 per cent of the top 200 world-ranked universities are in the UK and US. The other 45 per cent are in Australia and Canada. Therefore, there are key challenges in retaining older children within international schools, particularly post-IGCSE.”
HOW GLOBAL MOBILITY PROFESSIONALS AND EMPLOYERS CAN ADD VALUE There is an opportunity for companies to create value and think about how they can help their assignees abroad, he said. This included:
• Relocation support including help with school admissions • Corporate tie-ups with schools – working with them for admission support and potential discounts for your staff or clients
• Providing university application assistance and counselling – many parents had concerns about how best to apply to prestigious universities
“There are lots of opportunity for employers to assist their relocating staff,” he said. “There is also the potential for relationships with international schools – many of the schools that rely on expats have a higher churn rate, as expats might be there for a four- to six-year assignment.” Schools faced challenges when children reached A-level
age, as parents began to think about relocating to the UK, US, Australia or Canada in order to take advantage of the top-quality universities in those countries. For global mobility departments and HR professionals this was something to bear in mind.
HOW THE MARKETS DIFFER
It is not one single picture across all the geographies. Growth in international schools differs by country and by continent.
MIDDLE EAST: Dubai and Abu Dhabi are among the largest and fastest- growing private K-12 education markets in terms of tuition
revenue globally. The private international K-12 market in the Middle East has a revenue scale of $6.8 billion, of which
Dubai accounts for $2.3 billion. According to L.E.K. Consulting’s recent report - ‘The Private
K-12 Opportunity in The Middle East’, growth has been driven by a favourable regulatory environment, a larger pool of parents who are able and willing to pay for international education and a thriving local and expat population.
ASIA (OVERALL):
There is strong growth in Asia, driven in part by China’s increasing wealth. The private International K-12 market is growing across major cities in China and South East Asia. Overall, the market is worth AUD ten billion, and is growing at a compound annual growth rate of between ten and 15 per cent. In this market, fees have increased by between three and five per cent, which is a two to three per cent premium over inflation.
CHINA: In the Chinese market brand is very important. LEK’s research has found that about three-quarters of parents
choose education for their children based on brand-related factors. According to L.E.K. Consulting’s report- The Ultimate Consumer
Good- Education Trends in China, these factors can include selection based on pure brand recognition and reputation, as well as factors for which brand can be a proxy (particularly in the absence of a long track record), such as academic outcomes and teacher quality (see graph below). The study found that in the premium K-12 segment, foreign brands are growing at double the rate of local brands, demonstrating the importance of brand value and recognition in this market.
SOUTH EAST ASIA: The Singapore international schools market is worth around SGD 1.6 billion (GBP 0.9 billion) and enrols around 53,000 students annually. In Malaysia, growth has been driven by favourable K-12 regulations which have supported new school openings and operations.
MALAYSIA Malaysia’s Klang Valley, an area that covers Kuala Lumpur and its adjoining cities and towns, accounts for almost half (45 per cent) of the private K-12 market and is expected to
grow marginally faster than the rest of Malaysia over the next five years. There are more than 50,000 students enrolled in international curriculum schools in the region. The international curriculum has been fuelling this growth and has increased by around eight per cent.
32 | RELOCATE | SUMMER 2019
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