Chinese investors have acquired more than 30 private schools in the UK in the past decade.
Private schools in the United Kingdom are increasingly being taken over by Chinese investors. In the past decade alone, more than 30 independent schools have been acquired. Many more purchases are already in the pipeline.
This surge has alarmed officials, yet it remains outside the current list of direct security threats. While the demand for British education explains much of the buying, the scale and speed raise new concerns.
Officials inside the Department for Education and the UK’s security services are worried. However, China is not on the official list of countries considered a direct national security risk. A senior government source compared China’s strategy to the actions of Britain during its empire-building years.
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“China is playing the long game and doing all the things we used to do as an empire. They targeted universities before, but have realised it’s easier to start younger. It’s ideological warfare,” said the source. The suggestion is clear: Chinese ownership of schools may be about more than just money.
Phil Brickell, a Labour MP and member of the foreign affairs committee, has also sounded the alarm. He said Britain’s “world-leading education system has made it an obvious target for influence.”
He argued that successive British governments have failed to recognise the “strategic threat posed by China.” For him, action is needed urgently to protect education from external influence.
Still, not all experts view the acquisitions as strategic infiltration. A report by Beijing-based Venture Education shows that many schools bought between 2017 and 2020 were “distressed schools.” Chinese investors acquired them cheaply and then filled them with Chinese students or used the brand name in China. Since 2022, the pace has only increased, with 30 schools bought by the end of last year.
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Julian Fisher, co-founder of Venture Education, said the purchases are mostly commercial. “In most cases, these are distressed assets, which are seemingly cheap to Chinese investors: a couple of million pounds is a drop in the ocean to a billion-dollar real estate company,” he explained. He also pointed to the prestige factor, comparing it to Gulf royals buying historic British houses in the 1980s
Behind the money is also a powerful demand. British education remains highly valued among Chinese families. According to the Independent Schools Council census, China is the single largest source of overseas pupils in the UK. This year’s census showed that 6,258 out of 25,526 non-British pupils with overseas-based parents came from China.
Two facts are demonstrated simultaneously by the growth of Chinese-owned schools in the UK. On the one hand, it reflects how well respected British education is globally and how desirable it is to families from other countries. It casts doubt on long-term influence and soft power.
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Finding a balance between economic opportunity, cultural independence, and national security is a challenge for Britain. Foreign investors saving failing schools is no longer the sole topic of discussion. It also addresses how young brains might develop and what principles might serve as a guide for them in the future.
