MARKETING & ADMISSIONS
THE VIRTUAL STUDENT A NEW PROPOSITION FOR ADMISSIONS TEAMS?
MARKETING & ADMISSIONS
What is the potential for UK independent schools to attract more students by offering online GCSE and A-level study programmes for international students to pursue in their home countries? James Leggett gives his assessment.
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n more than 35 years of conducting market research for education organisations around the world, rarely have we at MTM Consulting seen such a demonstrable demand for a specific education offer as we did in 2020 when investigating the receptiveness of wealthy families resident in Asia to a British online study programme for 14- to 18-year-olds.
Global demand
Last year, we conducted a study of a thousand families in 10 Asian countries where comfortably-off parents were considered most likely to be receptive to an online learning platform offered by a UK independent school to their teenage children. The results showed that two-thirds would consider using a remote online learning platform for their children aged 14 to 18 in place of attending a local school; tellingly, the entire remaining third did not say they would not use it, but that they would educate their children online in addition to attending a local school. Therefore, 100 per cent of the families in our study would be willing to use such an online platform – a very rare occurrence in our long experience of feasibility studies of this kind. The fact that not one family in our survey said they would not use an online programme of education provided by a UK independent school if it were offered to them would point to a huge potential requirement for programmes leading to A-levels – or equivalent Level 3 British qualifications – in the Asian countries in which our survey was conducted. It seems reasonable to assume the same demand exists elsewhere around the globe. It is important to remember that paying for education is the norm for affluent families in many parts of the world. The respondents in our survey were from the equivalent to an ABC1 category, so families with a high level of disposable income. The results showed that wealthy families, particularly in Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and India, were the most likely to pay for
There is a strong demand for online education provided by UK schools. 22 | schoolmanagementplus.com | Summer 2021
schooling, with more than 90% of families telling us that at least one of their children was currently attending a fee-charging school. Many families too are keen on the idea of an international education for their children – over a third of the families in India and Vietnam who took part in this survey, for example, told us that their children were already attending schools with international curricula. Evidence from our research work with British boarding schools and satellite schools around the world also tells us that there is a high level of interest in a British or other international education in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and South America.
Why British independent schools?
The appeal of a British qualification is easy to understand. A-levels and the English-language International Baccalaureate open the door to some of the world’s top-ranking universities, which happen to be located in the UK. Currently, 458,000 students in UK higher education institutions (nearly 20 per cent of the country’s student population) are not UK-based and, for many, a key driver for the decision to study in the UK is that a degree from a well-regarded British university represents the key to many of the world’s top careers. So, if by studying for British qualifications at home – either in their bedrooms or in a classroom in a local school – unlocks a potentially glittering future career for the offspring of wealthier families in the countries of Asia, including Singapore, Japan, Indonesia, India and Summer 2021 | schoolmanagementplus.com | 23