How can international schools and education groups succeed in an increasingly challenging market and growing regulatory pressures?

The private school sector has seen a boom in demand for good quality education, but markets in some countries are already mature and oversupply has become a problem, while other regions pose complex issues around regulation and land ownership. Marianne Curphey reports from the IPSEF Global London conference 2026 on how successful players are responding to these pressures.

IPSEF Global 2026 India panel

Marianne Curphey

23 July 2026

The stakes are becoming higher for international schools and education groups as the private school sector faces more competition and the market for new schools in some regions of the world is becoming more mature and overcrowded. In addition, parents are more discerning, technology is reshaping the way education is being delivered, and investors are scrutinising how schools can provide long-term value.IPSEF Global London 2026 looked at how considerations around financing, legal matters, government regulations, architectural design and investor relations can have an impact on the financial health and success of a new venture or expansion into these exciting but challenging new markets. Delegates heard how schools looking to enter, scale up or invest in the international education market need to understand what parents and partners are looking for in each particularly country and region in order to be successful.Ali Aliev, Director of Business Development at North London Collegiate School International, warned that simply having a strong school brand was no longer enough to convince parents, and that Asian markets were highly competitive. Of the 14,800 international schools worldwide, Asia accounts for 58 per cent of the total. Aliev described how saturated urban centres such as Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Singapore are creating new pressures for school groups seeking differentiation, brand strength and long-term viability.

Asia panel: Opportunities and cautionary tales

IPSEF’s Asia panel, chaired by Mark Steed, Founder of Steed Education, covered developments in Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Tokyo, and looked at where new opportunities might lie. The panel comprised of Ian Bogle, Founder and Creative Director of Bogle Architects; Sara Brazendale, Managing Director of St Paul’s Girls’ School International; Mark Coggins, Co-Founder and Board Director of Cranleigh China; Alex McGrath, Founder of Castlegate Education; Paul Ratcliffe, Chief Operating Officer of Epsom College; and Kathy Sawtell, Business Development Director of The Perse School. The panel looked at lessons learned from expanding into these areas, and what makes a good partnership between the UK school and the partner operating the school on their behalf in Asia.

Singapore

Katy Sawtell of the Perse School said Singapore was a “long term play” and that the school had started on a small site in January 2020, using that base to scale up and attract investors.“It would not be probably your optimal site, but by starting we proved the case that there was a demand, and then it meant we could act quickly in the tender process for a number of sites, and we entered that process and won against ten other players.” She said there had been great demand for new enrolments into the school and a good group of teaching staff who wanted to work there.“Singapore is a great place for teachers to work, so it is a much easier market to recruit to,” she explained. “That is important when we are thinking about the staffing, as you need local people and in Asia that is very possible.” Her advice to schools considering Singapore was to focus on demand and supply and what schools with higher price points are offering.“Where is the sweet spots of the price and where can you really differentiate? You need to be really clear about what you can offer and be true to your proposition.”

Thailand

The panel discussed Thailand, which was described as having complicated three tier market - Bangkok itself, the market in the south and then a wider market.Mark Coggins said that he was seeing a “significant interest” families on the Chinese mainland who were looking for options that were closer to home and which offered an alternative to the schools and universities in the traditional locations of the US, Australia and the UK.“We are seeing this at both the school and the university level,” he explained. “Our biggest destination for students from all of our schools in China for this year is Hong Kong University. So from one school we have 45 students going to Hong Kong university, whereas traditionally they might go to the University of Manchester, for example. We are also seeing this at the school level as well.”His comments concur with a recent report on falling numbers of Chinese student applications to both the UK and US in recent years, driven partly by political reasons and partly by financial pressure.He said more Chinese families were sending their children to school in Bangkok, and that there was a growing number of Chinese manufacturing companies that were headquartered in Thailand and Malaysia as a result of the US trade war with China.“What has happened is you have got an enormous increase in diaspora,” he explained. “From an opportunity perspective, what you see is an increasing Chinese influence, as well as the Chinese government being incredibly supportive for us in this regard around creating an international school that is part of a western traditional schools group but also has Chinese influence as well. We are going to see dramatic change on the back of this dynamic, particularly because in many southeast Asian countries a lot of money resides in the hands of ethnic Chinese.”

Malaysia

Paul Ratcliffe of Epsom College emphasised the importance of having a good relationship with your partner in Malaysia, commenting that the market was not yet reaching saturation point. Other speakers stressed the importance of choosing location carefully, and working with a seasoned regulator who is open to discussion with schools groups and who was supportive. There are strong brands in the market, and Chinese parents are also looking for schooling in the region, whereas previously the international schools market was popular with expats. Alex McGrath of Castlegate Education noted that there were strong home grown Malaysian brands.

Vietnam

On Vietnam, Alex McGrath laid out the challenges of setting up a school in the country, noting that he had been working on a project with a UK school which had taken much longer than expected due to corruption and potential partners needing to be well connected.“There is a lots of opportunity. There are schools opening, but I do think there are particular issues and difficulties. Have the right partners on board is important, and the partners on board need to be well connected.”Ian Bogle said there were also difficulties around people not owning the land they claimed they had a right to, for example in Ho Chi Minh City, and that ownership was not as clear cut as Singapore.

India and the opportunities in the new major cities

India was the next focus of a dedicated panel chaired by Vipul Bhargava, Partner at Novistra Capital. The session brought together senior representatives from UK independent schools with active international growth strategies, including John Chisholm Director of International Education of Whitgift School, Iwan Lloyd International Development Director of Bedford School, Dr Alastair Morrison, Managing Director, of RGS Guildford International and Dr Maghin Tamilarasan, Director of Domestic and International Partnerships of Haileybury. Among the themes discussed were the different markets and price points in India, the demand from local parents, the challenges of infrastructure in major India cities, complications around land ownership and legal negotiations, and the esteem with which schooling was held in India.Dr Maghin Tamilarasan of Haileybury said demand was currently outstripping supply and that there was an increasing Indian middle class who were looking for private education. He explained that the person appointed as head teacher of a new school needed to have a deep cultural understanding of India, and needed to appreciate that its cities could sometimes be “energetic and frenetic” and it was important to embrace that reality.“Demand is certainly there,” he said. “Education is highly valued in India. There is also excellent talent. It is the services hub of the world and education is where you do find talent. It is about getting the right people in the right roles. India is strong in technology but it is not at the forefront of the AI revolution and so there is still room for collaboration.”Iwan Lloyd of Bedford School said India was a huge country where demand varies dramatically between cities and that it needed to be regarded as a “long term game” for any school group or investor looking to enter the market. Parents did a lot of thorough research before committing to a school and might want to visit five or six times before they made a final decision, and wait two years to see if the school delivered the results that it was claiming to do, he said. Land and ownership negotiations could be arduous and it was important to have lawyers in the UK as well as local representatives who understood local state regulations.“Construction can happen fast and then stop for three months,” he said, noting that meant it could be challenging to get a handle on project timelines.Vipul Bhargava, Partner at Novistra Capital and panel chair said parents’ expectations were changing while John Chisholm of Whitgift School agreed parental expectations were very high. “It is about validating through experience. Parents want children to come into school and have taster sessions,” he explained.Dr Alastair Morrison, Managing Director, of RGS Guildford International, said it was important to choose the right partner and that every state and city in India was different, with different markets and demands. It takes a long time to negotiate the details, due to complex land ownership arrangements, and it was important not to underestimate time scales, he said.One issue that regularly came up was the issue around teacher recruitment. Vipul Bhargava noted that it was hard to recruit international staff and the expat market, especially if the school was not in the super premium segment.Iwan Lloyd said around 80 to 90 per cent of staff were local, and had been trained up specially, while finding the right person to be the founding principal was also very important.John Chisholm explained that the senior leadership team tended to be expatriates, while teachers were recruited locally or from the wider India region, and that training and quality assurance were important considerations.“You want to make sure as a school that you have oversight of that,” he explained, adding that negotiations could be complex and take a long time. “Land ownership is complicated, and there are often construction delays because of the monsoon.”

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United States panel: A ‘State’ To Be In? Opportunity, Optics and Opinions

The United States panel explored perspectives on how schools should position themselves for the ‘brave new world’ of U.S. markets. The panel brought together a dynamic group of specialists, each viewing the U.S market from widely differing angles and sharing innovative ideas. The panel was chaired by Pam Mundy, Executive Director, Pam Mundy Associates. The panellists were Fiona Carter, Group Director of Education, Forfar Education; Darin Jellison, Principal and President at Blackney Hayes; Dr. Kenan Sener, CEO, ServePremier Education and Founder and Executive Director for Global Affairs at Fulton Science Academy; Nikita Rajgopal, Principal at L.E.K. Consulting; and Karen Davies, Senior Director, Charterhouse International. The panel explained that simply importing a legacy brand or imitating a UK school was not enough to convince American parents. Schools and education groups needed to focus clearly on what made their offering different and provide evidence of tangible results, outcomes, and destinations that students had achieved.Darin Jellison explained that contrary to perhaps external perception, the United States was far from being a monolithic entity. “On the international stage I feel we are perceived more monolithically than not and I would like to try to dispel that,” he said. “There are things that probably will work in one region of the United States that would never work in another region of the United States, either financially or federally.”He said that schools in the US tended to be very traditional, and that what a school offered might be more important than having a prestige brand name and reputation.“We have schools that are very progressive and we have schools that claim to be very progressive,” he said. “Therefore, we have parents who may react positively to a description of the benefit that you can provide without necessarily having the brand name on it.”Pam Mundy pointed out that the US has traditionally been a difficult market for overseas education groups to enter and that different states have very different characteristics, with parents in San Francisco having very different priorities from those in New York.Dr Kenan Sener of Fulton Science Academy agreed that America was a huge country with many different states with huge opportunities. “How things look from outside and how real life works is very different,” he said. “I think America is a wonderful market for international schools.” He explained that US parents are not really looking at the prestige of the British school, but on what it can actually offer. “People are more pragmatic,” he said. “They are looking for outcomes, for actual results.”Pam Mundy suggested that partnerships might be another route into the US market, and asked the panel whether they thought it mattered whether the British school that wanted to launch in America was a recognised brand there.“With 50 States and so many different regions, what works in one doesn't necessarily work in the other,” said Nikita Rajgopal. “There are pockets of states where you have demand, but if you look at US as a whole, it is a very large market. The demand actually lies in those small sections of states where private schools and British brands work.” She said it was very difficult to operate in the US without having a base there.“So what we have seen most of the large groups do and what has been successful is to try and buy first, so that you have some presence in the market.” However, she warned that this had its own difficulties, and that buying schools in the US can be difficult because many are not for profit, or are charitable enterprises run by the church. For this reason, trying to buy an asset for profit can be problematic.“Try to buy first and then using that base we try to then build and expand further. Then it is about trying to get the right partner,” she said.She added that British schools needed to think carefully about what they were offering to the US market, rather than just transferring their brand across.“What people in the US are looking for versus what the British brand stands for is probably slightly different,” she explained. “You need to demonstrate the outcomes that you can provide in the US market, the kind of universities or colleges that you send your students to. That probably makes much more of a difference than just the brand itself.”Pam Mundy asked about where new and interesting markets might be, and Nikita Rajgopal suggested that the state of Florida was a location where public schooling was not of high quality and parents were looking for alternatives.“Most of the unmet need is in Florida where the public schools system is not as great as back in New York,” she said. “We have a lot of families migrating from New York to these states now and so there is a lot of demand for private schools in these areas. However, there is nothing to acquire anymore because most of these schools are either bought out.” She said Dallas in Texas was probably the next opportunity, where there is unmet demand from parents who want a private education.Pam Mundy added that Greenville in North Carolina was another region where corporate partners might be looking to offer new private education and would be interested in partnering with British schools.

Looking to the future

The clear message from IPSEF Global London 2026 was that the market for international schooling is continuing to grow and there is demand from parents who are looking for a premium private education for their children, as well as others who are looking for quality education at a lower price point.However, having a well established school brand and reputation in the UK is not enough to convince parents that they should move their children to a school. Instead, tangible results and evidence of successful outcomes for students are a priority. Schools need to be able to differentiate themselves in order to attract funding and partners, and recruit students and staff. Being clear about which locations have opportunities and researching what parents really want will help schools and education groups make a success of their overseas expansion.

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