British private schools open more campuses in India as growth in China slows

At least six British public schools now have campuses in India, the BBC reported on 23 October 2026, with Bedford School the latest after opening a girls' school in Mohali, near Chandigarh, earlier this year.

Their campuses:

School	City	Status
Harrow School	Bengaluru	Open since 2023
Shrewsbury School	Bhopal	Open
Wellington College	Pune	Open
Queen Elizabeth's School	Gurugram	Opened August 2026
Bedford School	Mohali	Opened 2026, girls only
Millfield	Not named	Reported to be planning a campus

Clifton College, the Bristol school, joined the list on 9 October 2026, when Tes reported it was taking over Pathways School Gurgaon, an IB school, under the name PSG Clifton International School. Lighthouse Learning brokered the deal and will manage the school. India had 972 international schools in 2025, second only to China's 1,124, ISC Research figures show.

China and VAT

Two things are pushing British schools east. Half of the 151 overseas campuses of 50 UK schools are in mainland China and Hong Kong, a 2025 Private Education Policy Forum study found. Growth there has slowed under tighter rules, and a 2024 Chinese law requiring patriotic education in every subject led some planned campuses to be cancelled.

At home, Britain added 20 per cent VAT to private school fees from 1 January 2025.

"They are in a desperate situation. Even those that hadn't previously looked for international expansion are now suddenly active in India," said Naomi Atkins, founding principal of Bedford School Mohali.

Thin margins

India pays the brand owner less. Most of these campuses are run with local investors, who pay the British school a fee. Elsewhere that fee could reach 10 per cent of revenue; in India it has fallen as low as 1 per cent in some deals, Atkins said. She also said some schools overestimated the market.

English-medium schooling is long established in India, and local competition is stiffer than in China, Korea or Vietnam. British schools can charge £15,000 (about US$20,000) or more a year for full boarding, a high price in a country with far lower incomes. Bedford Mohali has set its fees at about half what other British schools charge.

"I've worked in Indonesia, Malaysia and China but Indians are much more price-sensitive - they like a bargain," Atkins said.

At Harrow's Bengaluru campus, 60 per cent of staff are international. Wealthy Indian families and returning non-resident Indians are its main market. "Our international curriculum is quite a driver for many of them," said Caroline Pascoe, head of school at Harrow in Bengaluru.

Harrow and Bedford both teach the Cambridge curriculum from primary to A Level. For comparison, the Harrow-branded schools in Bangkok and Hong Kong, both run by Asia International Schools Ltd, charge about US$16,900 to US$31,400 and US$30,900 to US$39,300 a year respectively for 2026/27.

British schools' overseas campuses made £152.4 million in profit between 2011-12 and 2022-23, the Private Education Policy Forum found.