Elite UK school unveils Shanghai extension

The UK's Wellington College inaugurated its Shanghai campus, attracting many expatriate parents who are fans of British elite education.

The campus, the boarding school's second outlet on the Chinese mainland after the one in Tianjin, will open its classroom doors to students in August 2014.

Wellington College, Shanghai will cater to expatriate children 2 to 18 years old. The school said it has no plans to accept Chinese students.

According to various grades and ages, the tuition fees range from 78,000 yuan ($12,800) to 260,000 yuan.

But many parents aren't concerned about the cost.

“I've always been a fan of the British education system and look forward to the opportunity to send my son to one of the best schools in the world,” said Matthias Lind of Germany, a Shanghai resident for eight years and the father of a boy.

His view was echoed by another father, Nicolas Allain, who came to Shanghai from Germany last year and who now works for a Chinese automotive company.

In Allain's view, the campus will ensure a complete English learning environment for his kids. “My daughter is 8 years old and my son is 5. I'm planning to have a campus visit for the two kids,” he said.

Wellington College International China is the not-for-profit extension of southeast England's Wellington College, a royal foundation chartered in 1853. Wellington College International China opened its first international school in Tianjin in August 2011.

“The long history of Wellington College in the UK illustrates so much of what is great about the British educational tradition,” said Hugo Swire, the British minister of state for the Foreign Office, at the Shanghai campus's inauguration ceremony on Tuesday.

“It is a great pleasure to see for myself how that tradition is being carried forward here in China, a country with its own tremendous heritage of learning and scholarship.”

David Cook, Wellington College Shanghai's Founding headmaster, echoed Swire's sentiments. “We are very much looking forward to showing parents and friends of the college around the impressive facilities following the Chinese New Year Festival 2014,” he said.

The headmaster said students will be able to experience the original elite British boarding school offerings, including tennis, basketball and squash courts; soccer, rugby and cricket pitches; a 400-meter running track and a 25-meter swimming pool.

Wellington is already enrolling students from pre-nursery to year six in the junior school, and from Year 7 to Year 10 in the Senior School.

The growing number of expats in China has drawn a large number of international schools' growing across the country, such as the Dulwich, a south London day school, which already has a franchise in the city.

The number of expats living in Shanghai exceeded 173,000 by the end of 2012, a 6.7 percent increase compared with 2011, according to the Shanghai Exit & Entry Administration Bureau. The number of expats in Shanghai makes up a quarter of the total on the Chinese mainland.